Many women don’t want to consider cosmetic surgery but feel they want to look as good as they can in middle age and beyond. But where do you start? What’s available and how do you choose what will suit you?
Leaving surgery aside – there are a huge range of products from skin care and hair care to in office treatments for wrinkles and sagging skin।
when most women think about anti aging we tend to think skin care – products that help us deal with the changes that age brings to our faces like lines, wrinkles, sagging skin and age spots. Anti aging skin care now includes a huge range of products – mostly for the face but increasingly targeted at specific problem areas like the neck and decollete, the under eye area and even the hands.
Most anti aging skin care lines focus on the four steps to good skin care (cleanse, tone, exfoliate and moisturize) and include products that target each step. Moisturizing creams aim to hydrate skin as a first step and also include active anti aging ingredients to deal with skin wrinkling and sagging. The key actives are alpha hyaluronic acid (AHA), retinol, peptides, and antioxidants like vitamin e and vitamin c. Skin care products in the anti aging market also include temporary wrinkle fillers, botox alternatives and exfoliating or microdermabrasion creams and gels.
If you want to take it further than a topical cream or serum you can consider anti aging treatments either at home or in office. Most treatments target the signs of aging on the face and use low level interventions to lift and tone, relax or fill wrinkles, eradicate uneven skin pigment and restore radiance.
Again there is a bewildering range of options and most target one or two of the symptoms at most. The most well known anti aging treatments are probably botox and dermal fillers but there are also many laser skin treatments as well as photo facials, microcurrent and radiofrequency face lifts like Thermage. In office facial treatments will often be more powerful and deliver greater improvement – you also get the benefit of combining treatments for the best overall result. Take a look at the facial treatments section of this site for more information or read our guide to anti aging treatments.
Anti aging cosmetics are one of the latest product developments – these aim to combine the active effects of the best skin care products with the benefits of a cosmetic. This means you can buy face makeup or concealers that make you look good whilst helping to deal with your wrinkles, puffy eyes or bags. The anti aging effect of these products is obviously lesened when combined with the cosmetic but they are worth considering.
An increasing trend recently is to seek a natural approach to anti aging through anti aging products that work from within. This is part of a movement among many top dermatologist like Dr Perricone and Dr Murad to encourage a total or holistic oapproach to anti aging – getting the best improvements through correct nutrition, mental balance and skin care. Dr Perricone has identified a list of his top superfoods for maximum anti aging nutrition – hardly anti aging products since all you nmeed is a shopping list and a good supermarket!
