Roll out the calliope… we’re gonna need some ‘Step Right Up’ music here! Gather round ladies and gents, for the moment you’ve all been waiting for! That’s right we’re going to wind up this week's Skin Care Advances Carnival with some of the most recent anti-aging heavy hitters (outside of surgery) that you (and by ‘you,’ we mean the dynamic duo or you and your doctor) can use to stave off the havoc that that unyielding passage of time does to your gloriously youthful visage. Weeeeeeeeee!

First stop on our ride is a skin tightener (drum roll) with zero downtime! I’m no flim-flam man! I said zero downtime – and then I said 'allegedly'. Your doctor may now have his or her mitts on a little in-office treatment called Ultherapy, which uses fancy ultrasound to heat, then lift and tighten sagging skin. Some doctors are saying that it’s the closest thing they’ve seen that gives incision-free facelift results.

Teeny fine print: Okay, there is a downside to this Ultherapy treatment… as in $1,000 - $5,000 clams depending on how much facial zone you’re targeting. Oh yeah… and there’s also initial swelling and redness. AND you’ll pro’lly have to wait two to three months for the full payoff… but still… the payoff might be worth it. (Let loose the confetti!)


There are also (finally) pain-free ways to lift and smooth the skin that are noninvasive and tightening (applause.) Two of the new methods that your doctor might use to replace the traditionally painful treatments and resurfacing lasers of the past are Thermage Comfort Pulse Technology and the Fraxel DUAL 1550/1927.

The Thermage Comfort Pulse Treatment is a radiofrequency skin tightener that is a gentler version of its ouchy ancestor. It’s also not exactly cheap—treatment runs from $1,500 - $4,000—but the payoff is that you get the same tightening results as the old-Thermage but without the pain. The TCPT and its fancy vibrating tip, interrupts the reception of pain signals in your nerve endings just like AT&T interrupts reception to your cell phone.

The Fraxel DUAL 1550/1927 laser is like Fraxel 2.0 for treating fine lines, pigmentation and acne scars – but with a fancy new cooling system that makes the heat sensation more tolerable. (Okay… more tolerable doesn’t exactly mean “pain-free,” but let’s call it semantics and move on.) You can still expect the sunburn-like redness, swelling and bruising for a few days, but after that – you’ll be home-free (and nearly wrinkle and spot free too!)

And finally, we’re going to move on to that area that has through-the-ages been the most difficult to treat in terms of turning back the hands of time: your once glorious swan-like neck.

That foe of Nora Ephron and countless other ladies is the sure spot to spot a ladies age(spot)—and it’s just not cool. Never fear! It seems that ever-popular muscle-relaxing botulinum toxin injection friend is found to be friendly to more than just your crow’s feet and forehead. Doctors are now discovering that those pesky platysma (Platypus? No, platysma. *Cue the canned laughter.) bands around the neck, the very ones that are pulled up during a facelift, can be carefully injected with the likes of Botox or Dysport and will smooth themselves out like wrinkled silk in a dryer. Okay… maybe not that smooth… but still, smoother than when you wrote that book I Feel Bad About My Neck. (Oh, wait. That wasn’t you. That was Ephron.)


The injections will cost between $300 and $800 depending on how many you need and will take about a week to kick in… but once they do. Va-Va-Victorious! One important note: As always, do make sure you’re putting your neck in the hands of an experience professional… the injections are only successful if they are properly placed. And—as we all know and as with most things—failure should never, ever, ever be an option.