How to Save Your Skin and Hide Your Age

"The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly and lie about your age," legendary comedian Lucille Ball once said.

It certainly is becoming easier to lie about your age due to the astounding advances in age-defying procedures in dermatology as well as over-the-counter products that can help erase some of the results of the skin's aging. You can now use your lunch hour to visit your dermatologist and take a few layers (and a few years) off your face--and your office colleagues will be none the wiser upon your return. It's more than likely the 40-something in the next cubicle is doing the same on her lunch hour.

Model and actress Vanessa Williams said she started getting Botox around age 40 as "a preventive" measure. Her "Ugly Betty" character, Wilhelmina, also is a devotee of the muscle freeze method of wrinkle prevention; Wilhelmina requires her assistant to perform in-office injections. (Wouldn't it be great if we could all afford that kind of star treatment?)

The "Private Practice" star, Amy Brenneman quipped that Botox is "not my thing." But "as for fillers, yeah, I am totally down with collagen." Ultimately, deciding how far to go when it comes to skin care and rejuvenation is a personal choice. Everyone gets to pick their own poison, so to speak. But there are some safe and easy steps to help you save your skin and hide your age.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Never leave the house without applying sunscreen. Use a sunblock with a minimum of 30 SPF on at least your face and hands daily. Both areas get more sun exposure than the rest of your body on a normal day, and your face and hands are the first places that show signs of aging. There are more and more products coming out every year that basically shield your body from the unkind effects of the sun. Check out Neutrogena's Ultra Sheer Drytouch Sunblock SPF 100+ with Helioplex (available at drug stores).

   Get in the habit of wearing your sunglasses when outside to cut down on the squinting (which creates those lovely little laugh lines, although, really, there's nothing funny about them) and wear a hat to block the sun's damaging rays.

   Begin using over-the-counter products with a proven track record. Every dermatologist recently interviewed by More Magazine insists that peptide is the most effective ingredient in serums and moisturizers to firm and lift. One peptide-packed product that works on all skin types is Kinerase C8 Peptide Intensive Treatment (available at sephora.com).

   Whereas peptides plump and firm, retinol (or tretinoin, its Rx cousin, in products like Retin-A and Renova) smooths and evens out skin tone. Try ROC Retinol Correxion Deep Wrinkle Serum (available at drug stores).

2. Choose wisely. Before putting your face into the hands of a virtual stranger, do your homework. Botox parties, injections at the mall, clinics or day spas are not the way to go. You don't want to cheap out on these procedures. Find a board-certified medical doctor to perform them for the best results. Find out if a doctor is board certified at the American Board of Dermatology's website.

   Also, check with your state's medical board to see if the physician has any complaints on file. Ask how long the person has been performing the procedure you are requesting and how many days a week the doctor does it. (If you're going to be the first patient he's performing the procedure on, run--don't walk--to the nearest exit.)

   Look for a doctor who has a good bedside manner, who explains the procedure in plain English to you during the consultation, and with whom you feel comfortable. Most of the procedures and products used to rejuvenate your skin aren't covered by insurance so make sure your dermatologist isn't a smarmy Snake Oil Sam. If you feel pressured to buy all the products being suggested, it's time to move on.

   Ask to see patient references or before-and-after photos of patients who have had the procedure you are considering. Your dermatologist should be happy to provide such resources.

   Finally, listen to the chit-chat of your friends. Many do not spill that they have had a little work done, but there are a few who will. If you notice that they look more "rested and refreshed," get the name of their doc.

3. Plump it up. Unfortunately, as we age one of the first things to go is our lips. The good news is there's a remedy readily available for that dilemma. Hyaluronic acid fillers, such as Restylane and Juvederm, and human collagen fillers, such as CosmoDerm and CosmoPlast, can be injected into the lips to subtly plump the mouth, define its borders, or fill out vertical smoker's lines around the lips.

   The days of procedures leading to crazy fish lips are a thing of the past. The procedure takes just a little longer than a coffee break, about 20 minutes. After applying a numbing cream, the doctor uses a hair-thin needle to inject the filler into two to four areas in the lips and then massages it into place.

   Voila, you now have the kisser of your youth. Slight swelling and bruising are the most common side effects, usually lasting no more than a few days.

4. Fill in the blanks. Wrinkles can now be filled in a matter of minutes by using injectables. New treatments deliver in ways that cosmetic surgery can't.

   "If people got a little bit jowly or noticed the eyebrows or eyelids coming down, everybody used to think, well, that's gravity; let's have a face- or forehead lift," says Dr. David Bank, director of the Center for Dermatology, Cosmetic and Laser Surgery, in Mount Kisco, N.Y.

   "But we've realized it's not just that gravity pulls everything straight down, it's more like a tire slowly going flat. The move has been toward restoring the volume that has been lost," Dr. Bank told More magazine.

   Non-hyaluronic acid fillers like Radiesse (made of calcium hydroxyapatite, a substance found naturally in the body) and Sculptra (made of poly-L-lactic acid, a synthetic substance) are used to fill in your deepest wrinkles and add volume to the face.

   According to New York City cosmetic dermatologist Dr. Deborah Sarnoff, Radiesse is most commonly injected in the grooves that form next to the nose and mouth (the nasolabial folds). Once this area is filled, the cheek also gets pushed upward and the result is a liquid face-lift. Both products last from two to three years, partly because they boost your skin's own collagen production. How cool is that?

   For finer lines around your eyes and lips, your doctor will use a hyaluronic acid under the names Restylane, Juvederm and Perlane. This product is extremely versatile; it comes in different densities that can be used for different purposes--thinner for fine lines around the eyes and thicker for deep grooves like the marionette lines around your mouth. Your doctor can also use it to plump hollowed-out cheeks. Hyaluronic acids only last about 10 months, though, so to get more bang for your buck you may want to use longer-lasting non-hyaluronic acid fillers for the areas needing more volume.

   This procedure takes about a half an hour. The doctor applies a numbing cream and then makes two to four injections on both sides of your face. Although this procedure usually causes a little bruising, swelling and redness, there is little social down time for this--certainly nothing an ice pack and artfully applied makeup can't fix.

5. Smooth it over. If you suffer from brown spots, skin discoloration, mottled, rough or scarred skin, book some laser treatments.

   "We have lasers that can be superficial or intermediate and deep," says Dr. Bahman Guyuron, the chairman of the department of plastic surgery at Case Western Reserve University who has been researching cosmetic treatments for about 30 years.

   You may see redness from one day to two weeks, depending on how aggressive the treatment is, Guyuron says. The great thing about this type of treatment is that not only does it smooth the skin, it also boosts collagen production--the Holy Grail of younger-looking skin. You can also use lasers to erase the effects of the sun on your chest and hands.

6. Paralyze it. Injections of Botox or its baby sister Dysport (which also contains botulinum toxin) can paralyze tiny facial muscles, smoothing out the appearance of lines or wrinkles. No more furrowed brows, or permanently mad expressions here, baby!

   Botox injections cut off the signal between the nerves and the forehead muscles and relax the muscles until the neurotoxin wears off, usually after about three months. The injections can be made above the eyebrows, on the forehead, at the corner of the eyes and in that crease at the top of the nose. It takes Botox about five days to kick in and Dysport only three. You will come back from that long weekend looking like a million bucks.

Tips & Warnings

• Lower the chance of bruising and swelling from injections of filler by avoiding blood-thinning agents for a week before any procedure. Over-the-counter painkillers such as aspirin, ibuprofen (Motrin and Advil) and naproxen (Aleve) should be avoided; acetaminophen (Tylenol) is considered safe. Alcohol and supplements containing vitamin E, ginseng, garlic, ginger, kava kava, celery root, glucosamine, fish oil and chondroitin may also thin the blood.

• The day after any noninvasive treatment, keep your head elevated when possible and apply an ice pack two or three times for 10 minutes each time. If swelling persists, apply on the following day too.

• Avoid alcoholic beverages because they may exacerbate bleeding and swelling; steer clear of exercise, hot baths and steamy saunas, which can dilate the blood vessels, making the swelling even worse.

• Some patients report that arnica pills (available at health food stores), pineapple juice (which contains bromelain, a natural anti-inflammatory agent) and vitamin K cream speed healing or reduce bruising after a procedure, says Dr. Joel Cohen, chairman of the patient-education committee of the American Society of Dermatologic Surgery.

• All of these procedures are temporary.

Resources

• More Magazine: Saving Face: Nonsurgical Facelifts
• More Magazine: Stars Who've Had Work Done
• US News & World Report: 9 Top Cosmetic Treatments for Aging Skin
• American Board of Dermatology