The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - The Telegraph Magazine
Beauty brains/the manual
Battling ‘tech neck’, and male-grooming classics
Even before smartphones, I had a tendency to what was quaintly called chicken neck. Short-sightedness, incorrect desk ergonomics and sloppy posture have conspired to make me Not Audrey Hepburn. So what are the solutions?
I asked Mary Helen Bowers, founder of Ballet Beautiful (balletbeautiful.com). She recommends pulling in the core, keeping your shoulders back, lifting your chest – standing like a ballerina, in other words – and holding your phone at eye level. I’ve tried it all week and it does make a difference. You can also buy posture correctors, which pull your shoulders back while you’re at your computer, for around £10 on Amazon.
As for the lines – I’m not that bothered. There are specialist neck serums, but most get fairly meh reviews, though the BBC’S Horizon found Boots’ No7 Restore & Renew Face & Neck Multiaction Serum effective. If you’re really concerned, Profhilo is a treatment that delivers hyaluronic acid deep into the dermis and gets great results on necks (try Dr Sophie Shotter at cosmeticskinclinic.com).
An infrared light mask will increase circulation, relieve inflammation and ease muscle pain, which can improve appearance. Try The Light Salon’s at-home Boost LED face mask. Otherwise, use your usual collagenrich moisturiser (Balance Me Collagen Boost Moisturiser is vegan and free from sulphates, mineral oils, etc), and use a good SPF such as is Clinical’s Eclipse SPF 50+ sunscreen.
And do facial exercises to tighten things up. Search on Youtube, or sign up for facial yoga on luminous-london.com.