How to Help Your Skin Blossom in the Spring

Has someone leaked unretouched photos of you…say, on Facebook or Instagram? Celebrities aren’t the only ones wishing they could be permanently airbrushed. But life happens…we age, have hormonal changes, have children, have stress, eat poorly, don’t exercise enough, don’t drink enough, and don’t use SPF. Most of us just wish we could look the way we used to, not necessarily like someone else.

What makes us look older? Survey says, Wrinkles! Other more subtle changes, like uneven pigmentation, enlarged pores, lax skin tone, decreased elasticity, thinning skin, and migrating fat pads contribute to the more mature look. So, what can be done about these changes, and how do you plan your rejuvenation, especially if you have a budget and limited down time?  Let’s strategize…

First, beauty starts from within.  The skin is a reflection of your inner health, so that dull winter skin may not just be from heaters, hot showers, or dehydration. If you have corrected for it with proper nutrition, hydration, sleep, exercise, exfoliation, and sunblock, perhaps it could be something organic, such as hormonal changes, microscopic inflammation, nutritional deficiencies, or food intolerances.  Modify a few items in your life, such as eating a balanced diet regularly throughout the day. Supplements, such as fish oil (or algae) help reduce microscopic inflammation that shows in your skin and your cells as Alzheimer’s and cardiovascular disease.  Add chia seeds, flax seeds, walnuts for additional beneficial fatty acids. Supplementing with Vitamin D3 is particularly important in the winter, as we have less sun exposure and therefore less conversion of Vitamin D into D3, which shows in conditions like eczema. Get this level checked before going overboard, since Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that can accumulate in your body and have toxic effects. Thyroid disorders will manifest themselves in dry skin, brittle or thinning hair, constipation, mental fog, and weight gain. If you suspect a food intolerance, try an elimination diet. You can’t always blame hormones for body changes…it’s usually inconsistencies with diet and exercise that age your face and body. So, make yourself a priority, even for an hour a day, and get some self-love.

Now…what modern science can do for you…let’s discuss effective non-surgical options.

Instant gratification procedures:

1. Microdermabrasion. Get an instant glow with microdermabrasion, which is a gentle sandblasting to remove the top layer of dead cells. Chemical peels get similar results but can have some down time of mild peeling for a few days.
2. Botox. Botox Cosmetic, Xeomin, or Dysport is an almost instant gratification procedure that relaxes expression muscles that cause wrinkles.  These kick in a few days after injection and last 3-4 months.  When applied properly, you don’t look frozen or shocked…it shouldn’t be obvious that you had any cosmetic procedure done. There are some burgeoning technologies that use radiofrequency to target the nerves that cause contractions…will keep an eye on those.
3. Dermal fillers. Juvederm, Voluma, Restylane, Belotero, and Radiesse are used to plump up laugh lines, deflated lips, fallen cheeks, dark circles, sunken temples. The correction is instantaneous, and should last six months to two years, depending on the product used. Bruising may occur, so avoid alcohol, advil, aspirin for at least three days prior to any injection. With dermal fillers, it is all about placement, not necessarily volume, so beware of places that push large numbers of syringes…they may be incentivizing their staff by how much they sell, not by how good their clients look afterwards.
4. Intense Pulsed Light Treatments.
   • Skin Tightening on our IPL provides instantaneous lift, and collagen production two weeks later.
   • Spider Vein Reduction targets blood cells and unwanted blood vessels; the body absorbs these within a week or so.
   • Photofacials target brown spots and some blood vessels, and it takes about a week for your body to reject and slough the fried spots.
   • Hair Removal targets the actively growing hair follicles, which occur at different rates in the various parts of the body.
   • Acne Treatments target overactive oil glands and the P. acnes bacteria responsible for acne. If flares are related to your periods, plan your treatments the week before, or whenever it is most active. As with all IPL treatments, multiple treatments may be necessary.

Delayed gratification procedures:

1. Collagen-inducing procedures: Microneedling, CO2 fractional resurfacing. Both of these create tiny wells in the skin that stimulate collagen production to fill in lines, acne scars, and minimize pores. Other modalities, such as stem cells and PRP (platelet rich plasma) can be added to these procedures to improve long-term efficacy.  These treatments have some subtle instantaneous results, but typically are most obvious several months down the line.
2. Dermal filler. Sculptra is used to fill in hollow temples and cheeks, but the results slowly show themselves. Multiple treatments are usually necessary, applied every 6 weeks until the desired effect is achieved.
3. Stem cell harvesting is used to grow your own fibroblasts (which takes a few months) and reimplanting them to produce more of these collagen-producing cells. Although it’s a promising technology, I’m watching to see if these cloned cells mutate or cause other side effects.

As you emerge from your hoodies and Uggs, plan your transformation into the beautiful butterfly you are.  Trust your face to a physician who has superior knowledge of internal factors of aging, facial anatomy and has a keen, artistic eye to bring out your unique, innate beauty.