Can you really freeze your face younger?
A wrinkle-zapping facial at minus 30 degrees is the latest celebrity fad. ANNA MAXTED grits her teeth and tries it
AS My husband fondly says, I’m as cold-blooded as the undead. My fingers are icy to the touch, and only wearing Uggs all summer prevents frostbite in my toes.
Like a kitten, I yearn for warmth. So the idea of a beauty treatment that entails being blasted in the face with subfreezing air doesn’t thrill me.
But the prospect of plump, glowing skin, tiny pores and reduced fine lines is enough to overcome my resistance to the Cryotherapy Energising Facial, in which air is lowered to minus 30c and blown through a nozzle onto your skin. This is said to boost circulation and oxygenates the skin for a peachy glow.
I lie back in a squashy chair while Sib Sibanda, manager and aesthetician at the 111Cryo rooms, at Harvey nichols in Knightsbridge, London, cleanses my face before pointing the nozzle at my cheek.
She will focus on one area of my face for five minutes, she says.
at first the stream of air is refreshing, but it soon turns bitingly cold (though probably no worse than in a windswept park on a frosty morning).
The air is ‘atmospheric’ — i.e., similar to what we normally breathe, only super-cooled.
This is the first time nitrogenfree cryotherapy has been available in the UK. The process relies on electricity as its power source and is claimed to be safer and healthier than any alternative.
It is also ‘warmer’ than nitrogen-based cryotherapy, though I’m still gritting my teeth. So how does it work? apparently it tricks the brain, which interprets extreme cold as a threat, assumes it needs to heal and repair, and so hurries oxygen to the affected areas. This, in turn, promotes collagen production, helping to reduce lines and firm the skin.
as Sib moves the hose to depuff the bags under my eyes, the skin is thinner and the cold feels sharper. She focuses on my laughter lines (we don’t say ‘wrinkles’ in our house) and it borders on painful, though the photographer insists he can see a difference already. ‘What?’ I say. ‘Smoother?’ ‘yes,’ he replies, encouragingly. ‘It’s like ironing.’
My forehead has acquired a few lines over the years and this part is not fun — the cold air on bone gives me a headache but I bite my tongue and bear it. When Sib finally moves the nozzle away, the ache quickly recedes.
She then offers to focus on my neck, noting that many clients inadvisedly don’t bother with that bit. I am happy to let her continue.
Once all parts of my face have been frozen, a bio-cellulose mask (which feels a bit like jelly) is laid over it, giving me a resemblance to Hannibal Lecter (though his mask wasn’t impregnated with vitamin C, as mine is, to aid collagen production).
FInaLLy, Sib massages my face with Cryo Energising Facial Serum (£140 for 50mg — eek!), which is said to ‘tighten, tone and resurface the skin’.
When I finally get up from the chair, my skin is tingling and I feel as buzzy and high as if I’ve just been zig-zagging down a mountain in St Moritz.
My cheeks look beefy-red at first, but their colour soon fades to delicate pink. In the long term, the treatment is said to reduce redness and can benefit skin conditions such as psoriasis, acne and rosacea.
When we are exposed to cold temperatures our blood vessels constrict; when we warm up, they dilate and blood rushes to the surface of the skin, making it glow, explains Dr yannis alexandrides, the facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon who invented the technique.
Dr alexandrides, founder and medical director of the 111 Harley Street clinic in London, used to work in Miami, and his pedigree includes operating on patients with severe facial injuries.
More recently, he founded 111Cryo and developed the freeze-your-face treatment.
He says: ‘The basic principle is that the body responds to stressful situations.
‘When we exercise, the muscles respond and become stronger. Cryotherapy is a similar stimulus for the skin. Very cold temperatures create an environment where the skin has to protect the body, and it reacts by improving blood circulation.’
as blood carries oxygen and this is what helps the body remove toxins from the skin, he says, the end result is reduced inflammation. Why does this smooth away wrinkles? ‘Because the skin needs oxygen to build new collagen,’ says Dr alexandrides. ‘Toxins can halt the process but increasing the blood supply can reverse that, if it’s done routinely.
‘It can gradually improve the quality of your skin — and the muscles respond as well.’
He says there can be a ‘lifting effect’ as ‘the muscles of the face start to work more’ and the face becomes tauter.
Back home, I gaze in the mirror, hoping for Snow White’s blushing countenance rather than the usual pale Wicked Queen. We’re not quite there, but the creases around my eyes appear to have been flattened.
SIB recommends a course of five-weekly treatments for best results. My skin does look rejuvenated and plumper, at any rate.
Over the next hour, I become aware of a low-key smarting sensation. It’s a feeling of tightness combined with subcutaneous heat, as if my blood vessels are keeping busy, and it lasts for the rest of the day.
as Dr alexandrides promised, it does feel as if the muscles have been drawn up and in — and my skin, usually bone dry, feels softer and moisturised.
The youthful glow and smooth appearance remain for several days. Maybe this was why my parents kept going on about ‘fresh air’ when I was a child.
at £75 for a 40-minute session, the Cryo Facial will remain an occasional treat. Meanwhile, I’ll be supplementing my new radiance with walks around the local windswept, freezing park.