FACIAL TWEAKMENTS
After almost two decades writing about beauty, Alice Hart-davies has tried over 50 procedures in the name of research. But which ones would she actually pay for?
Beauty journalist Alice Hart-davies rates the best
Yes, I know, I can guess what you’re thinking: ‘Fifty procedures? She must be mad! Not to mention insecure. And what on earth does she look like after all that?’
Honestly, it’s not as bad as it sounds. I look fairly normal. A bit younger than my 54 years, maybe, but I don’t have the chipmunk-stuffed cheeks or the permanently-surprised eyebrows you find on women who overdo the cosmetic work. But I have had a lot done to my face. What can I say? I’m an inquisitive journalist – and vain, to boot.
I started writing about beauty at the turn of the century, just when things like Botox and fillers were becoming known outside the secretive circles of elite surgeons and dermatologists. I was in my late 30s with three small children, a busy job and a face that seemed to be ageing by the day, so when the chance came to learn more about all this stuff that lasted longer than a facial, I wanted in.
At first, I just wrote about the non-surgical procedures but, before long, I was trying everything from lasers that ‘resurface’ the skin by (carefully!) burning away the old skin, to the more challenging options, like microneedling and mesotherapy, which involve being repeatedly stabbed with short delicate needles (in order to stimulate a wound healing response in the poor skin, which responds by making new collagen and elastin to reinforce itself) to the downright bizarre, like PRP – the Dracula-style treatment that takes a vial of your blood, extracts the platelet-rich plasma (that’s the PRP bit) then injects it back into your face.
Most of the things I’ve tried work, up to a point. They tend to make a subtle change, rather than a sudden transformation, so you should automatically distrust any doctor or treatment who seems to be promising too much. But which are the three that I’d have if I was paying for them (which I don’t when I’m trying treatments out for work)?
Ifeel you shudder when I say Botox. I know it’s not for everyone. I know some think it’s a deadly poison that will freeze your face and make you look like an expressionless geisha but, honestly, in the right hands, it’s terrific. Because it’s a toxin and has been around for decades, it has been put through more extensive and detailed clinical trials – to assess its safety and how well it works – than all the other cosmetic procedures put together. I have this every three months (I only have a little bit, so it doesn’t last long) to soften the pleat of a frown between my eyebrows and the crow’s feet wrinkling around my eyes. I’m less bothered by the horizontal lines on my forehead – I want to be able to move my eyebrows up and down – but I do like a spot of Botox in my chin to stop the cobblestone effect, where the muscles pull the centre of the chin into a lump. I’ve also tried Botox in my jaw to stop me grinding my teeth so much (yes, it helps), in my neck to
reduce the stringy look that comes from over-tight neck muscles, and my favourite body-botox treatment is in my armpits, where it stops sweating for a good six months by interrupting the nerve impulses that tell the sweat glands to sweat.
Next, I’m fond of facial fillers, to pad out the bits of the face that start looking a bit gaunt or deflated with age – the cheeks, the lips, the temples, the hollows under the eyes. Again, I know that most people find the idea of these appalling – cosmetic doctors say that new patients are more scared of fillers than Botox, just because we’ve all seen so many awful, overstuffed celeb faces, from Lesley Ash’s unfortunate trout pout to Madonna and Meg Ryan. But, again, if these are done by a practitioner with a good aesthetic eye, the results are great, and they’re fairly low-risk as they’re made from hyaluronic acid gel. This gradually breaks down over 6-9 months, and if you really hate the results, you can have it dissolved (it means more injections, but no harm done).
I’ve learnt that a touch of filler in the outer edges of my cheeks not only adds a nice shape, but the lift it gives to the cheek gets rid of my nose-to-mouth lines. ‘Tear trough’ filler, under the eyes, can help soften the sunken-eye look, and I like to have my lips done every few years, but only just enough to stop them looking like dessicated earthworms. I don’t want a protuding pout. My latest favourite filler is a bit different – it’s a super-runny gel called Profhilo, which is injected in five lumpy spots around each side of the face, where it eases its way around underneath the skin to act as a layer of moisture within the skin. I’ve hardly needed moisturiser since – and it will last for six months.
For my third choice, I’d go for Ultherapy, which firms up and lifts the skin using focused ultrasound energy. It’s expensive, at £2,000 plus, and there’s no getting away from the fact that it’s uncomfortable, because the ultrasound works on tightening the muscular layer of tissue below the skin, but here’s the thing – it works, and it’s a one-off, so once it’s done you’re set for 18 months. If you look up Ultherapy on the internet, you’ll find horror stories about the way it ‘melts’ faces (see realself.com), which might put you off; it certainly gave me pause for thought but after quizzing the manufacturer and the top Ultherapy practitioners, it seems that you don’t get these problems when practitioners follow the treatment guidelines to the letter, and when they’re using a genuine machine (in aesthetics, as elsewhere, there are a lot of cheap copies of machinery in less scrupulous clinics). I’ve tried Ultherapy three times over the past four years and find it’s particularly helpful for tightening up loose skin around the jawline. I also like the way that the results come through gradually over six months as the new, tighter, collagen is formed.
Would these three treatments work for you? It’s a question I get asked so often that I’ve resorted to writing a short book about non-surgical procedures, to explain fully what they’re all like and what they can do, and I put videos of treatments I try on Youtube to show people what these things are like. But for sure these procedures work, though you may be more interested in, say, softening age spots than plumping up your cheeks.
I know you may think, reading this, that I’d try anything – but, by my own standards, I’m reasonably cautious. There are several treatments that I won’t be trying again, like Iovera, billed as a Botox alternative, which freezes a patch of the nerve that enables the forehead muscles to lift. On me, it only worked on one side – and brought my brow crashing down low on my eyes – so I looked lopsided for months until the nerve, thank goodness, regrew. Nor Miradry, a procedure that microwaves the sweat glands in your armpits so they don’t sweat. Again, while others may swear by it, for me, it entailed a day off work (because of the large amount of anaesthetic), two weeks of swollen red armpits and then, six weeks later, my sweat glands sprang back into action. Botox does the job with far less fuss.
What else can I advise? Fat freezing sounds unlikely but works a treat, and Intense Pulsed Light, one of the oldest and least sexy of treatments, is brilliant for breaking up the pigment that makes age spots in the skin. But one thing you can be sure of, whatever your concerns, is that there will be a non-surgical treatment to help with it. So if you ARE interested, do your research, find a good practitioner (see left) and discuss your options with them. It might not be as alarming as you think.