I Hate My Neck! Notes from a San Francisco Bay Area Dermatologist
I hate my neck. Or as Nora Ephron would say…“I feel bad about my neck.” Long before Nora Ephron penned her book with this name, men and women have looked in the mirror and seen loose neck skin that didn’t seem to match their facial skin. Why? Neck skin is thin and has few adnexal structures (oil glands, hair follicles) that can give skin more support. Neck skin is often overlooked when applying sunscreen, yet is almost always exposed. Women also begin anti-aging regimes to the face much sooner than they do the neck. Ms. Ephron complained that surgery could do little to improve her neck’s appearance and until recently there was very little we could offer for neck rejuvenation. Now we have quite a few answers!
First and always is skin care. In most instances your neck care routine can be very similar to your face routine. Neck skin can be more sensitive, like eyelid skin, so care must be taken to use “active” products sparingly. A suggested routine for people with normal skin would be to apply an anti-oxidant such as SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic, SkinCeuticals Phloretin CF, RevaleSkin Coffee Berry, Replenix Green Tea Serum or Prevage in the AM then a sunscreen on top. Reapplication of sunscreen is also important during the day, which may be easier with a powder sunscreen, such as Color Science Mineral SPF 30. Banish V neck shirts from your closet for daywear and consider sleeveless tees when you know you might be stuck out in the sun. I always carry a thin scarf to tie around my neck if I am at a prolonged outdoor event. In the evening you may be able apply a small of amount of Retin-A 3-5 times a week. Non irritating brands like Atralin, Refissa and Micro Gel may work best for you. After Retin-A apply a thick, moisturizing cream. I love Neova’s Creme de la Copper which enhances Retin-A’s work in collagen building. Neocutis cream is also great as is SkinCeuticals A.G.E. Interrupter. Sensitive skin types may not tolerate Retin-A on the neck but may be able to try retinols like Replenix Retinol Serum or glycolic acid products found in the Vivite skin care line. There are some home devices that can encourage collagen growth and can be used on the neck. We recommend the Omnilux home LED device and the MTS Roller to help your current products penetrate more deeply into the skin.
Discoloration the neck is usually due to excess sun over the years and can appear as patchy, red brown areas on the sides of the neck. This is called pokiloderma and responds to laser treatments as do brown spots and broken blood vessels. Unsightly growths such as skin tags and flesh moles can also be easily removed in the office. The neck is difficult to treat with chemical peels as it is not as resilient as facial skin. We do have several peels suitable for the neck, but improvements can be subtle.
What’s next! Consider what really bothers you. For crepey skin nothing beats Fraxel laser treatments. These treatments are non-ablative and heal like a sunburn over a week. They are easy to tolerate and very cost effective. In our office a neck Fraxel treatment costs about the same as a syringe of Restylane or Juvederm. You will need 2-5 treatments to see improvement. Treatments can be done every 4-6 weeks. A before and after photo is listed below. Click on the photo to link to the Fraxel website for more results!
If the skin quality seems good but looseness is more of a factor, especially underneath the chin and jowl, Titan or Thermage would be best. These treatments use heat to promote collagen building and focus on tightening of the skin over time, rather than texture. Both treatments have no down-time, which make them simple to fit into any busy schedule. One or two treatments may be required for best results. We can help determine which treatment will be most effective for you.
If “stringy” muscles and “cords” are an issue and are not too advanced an exciting treatment is to use Botox for the neck. This treatment takes about 5 minutes and can improve the neck appearance dramatically, while also preventing future wrinkling.
So, don’t give up on your neck - there is hope out there. Too bad we couldn’t offer Ms. Ephron these treatments before she wrote her book!
Tags: atralin, Botox, colorscience, ephron, fraxel, green tea, neck, retin-a, san francisco bay area dermatologist, skinceuticals, thermage, titan, vivite, wrinkles
This entry was posted on Monday, March 15th, 2010 at 10:31 am and is filed under Botox, Products, Treatments, procedures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
