What is Prejuvenation? The New Anti-Ageing Approach The Next Generation is Taking When It Comes To Skincare
Perhaps the answer to looking younger lies somewhere between non-surgical interventions and high-tech skincare?
What is Prejuvenation? Bazaar Arabia shares everything we know about the new approach the next generation is taking to skincare.
There’s a certain kind of frustration that comes with the first sign of an angry forehead crease. But sometimes our dog-eared approach to anti-ageing needs a shake up. Even creams and serums with an ingredients roll call that reads like a science journal can’t single-handedly hold back the hands of time. Certainly not if left too late, given skin starts to lose one per cent of collagen each year after the age of 25 and bone loss becomes significant by 35. “Bone loss means your face loses the underlying structure and foundations that support the fat tissues, muscles, and ligaments,” says Dr. Karim Sayed, aesthetic doctor at the Ouronyx Clinic in Dubai. “The skin becomes too large for the overall face scaffolding and starts to sag, making wrinkles more obvious.”
Rather than stage an intervention further along in the ageing journey, the victory blow against slack skin and deeply etched wrinkles is early preemptive prevention, or what beauty insiders are dubbing ‘prejuvenation’.
The premise is simple: combine skincare infused with the best that science has to offer with tweakments that smooth, restore a youthful plumpness and shore up a bank of collagen while your body is still efficient enough at making it. “Prevention is better than cure,” says Dr. Marwa Ali, resident aesthetic doctor at The Wellness Clinic at Harrods in London, who regularly treats patients in Dubai. “Performing prejuvenation treatments at a younger age to boost levels of collagen and hyaluronic acid in the skin, as well as replenishing the volume of facial fat pads, which gradually diminish over time, will undoubtedly mean that we can slow down the ageing process.”
Dr. Sayed concurs but is quick to point out that intervention is only needed when you see the first signs of ageing, and prevention in the form of SPF, retinoids and antioxidants shouldn’t be overlooked. “Traditionally, patients waited and more intervention was needed,” he says. “If the face has descended too far, it is more difficult to get significant improvements with minimally invasive treatments.” In other words, think of prejuvenation as the ultimate insurance policy to soften the blow later. “While minimally invasive treatments will not prevent bone loss, with consistent support early on, the need for more intrusive interventions later will decrease or be delayed,” Dr. Sayed adds.
For this reason, Dr. Sayed prefers to focus his attention on the periorbital region around the eyes, “partly because the skin here is thinnest and partly because of its anatomy with fat pads and ligaments,” he says. As ever, it is rarely one treatment alone that delivers the maximum impact, but a carefully choreographed sequence of two or three based on individual needs. “Treatments with Botox help to lift the brows and reduce frown lines and crows feet,” says Dr. Sayed. “To improve texture, look no further than energy-based devices such as Morpheous8 [where radiofrequency energy is ‘injected’ into the skin via tiny needles to tighten and stimulate collagen] and skin boosters including Profhilo. Then dermal fillers hydrate the skin and promote collagen synthesis, lifting and creating structural support in the area.”
“While minimally invasive treatments will not prevent boneless, with consistent support early on, the need for more intrusive interventions later will decrease or be delayed.”
Dr. Karim Sayed
Dr. Ali, on the other hand, prefers to lean on a combination of photo-fractional laser for prejuvenation and medical grade Obagi skincare. “Photo-fractional laser is a combination of two technologies: IPL to reduce the appearance of broken blood vessels and pigmentation, plus a fractional non-ablative laser. The latter delivers energy beneath the skin’s surface to cause the contraction of the deeper tissue for a tightening and lifting effect. It resurfaces the skin, stimulates collagen production, tightens pores, reduces the appearance of fine lines and yields very natural looking results.”
And “natural” is key, especially considering something shifts in the mirror around our mid-to-late 30s. Teenage faces are like upside-down triangles – all the plumpness is concentrated around the cheeks before tapering toward the chin. With age that triangle inverts as a result of depleted collagen and elastin reserves. Consequently, skincare brands such as Chanel, where in-house scientists examined 60,000 faces, have identified the ‘triangle of youth’, as an anti-ageing hotspot.
The new Le Lift Pro range from Chanel addresses this triangle with a facial tool to lift the contours of the face, a Concentré Contours serum and Créme Volume, both of which are laced with a special honey that contains an enzyme for lifting and plumping – ideal alone or in between cosmetic treatments. Shiseido’s two-step Bio-Performance Skin Filler claims to be inspired by aesthetic procedures for skin that looks five years younger in just one day. Used in tandem, the day and night serums infuse skin with the moisturising molecule hyaluronic acid, then cause it to expand to its original size and push the skin up from within for an instant gain in volume. Or apply the Meder Beauty Myo-Fix Concentrate directly into any expression lines, as it is packed with line-relaxing peptides, alongside Matrixyl 3000, a peptide famous for its collagen-boosting prowess, and promises ‘Botox-like results’ after five weeks of use. One thing’s for sure: we’ve never been so spoilt for choice.
Lead Image: Monika Lis
From Harper’s Bazaar Arabia’s January 2023 issue.