Rebecca Treston, Founder of Rebecca Treston Aesthetics, Euromed Clinic Dubai, shows us how to implement the 4 R’s – Relax, Refill, Resurface and Re-drape into our lives
While living a long and happy life is a privilege, the aging that goes along with it is something that is definitely less desirable. Striving to minimise the unsightly effects of aging is not a new phenomenon. In fact, it’s well archived that in Ancient Egypt, Cleopatra bathed in milk to keep her skin smooth (The lactic acid in milk has wonderful exfoliating properties!)
In recent years, there has been an explosion of procedures, which I like to call Tweakments. These types of treatments are often dubbed lunch-time procedures because they are minimally invasive, with little to no downtime, and yet offer significant results in skin restoration.
But before you rush into the nearest clinic to ask for the latest miracle procedure, it is important to first make sure you consult with someone who has an in-depth understanding of how the skin ages. By visiting a reputable skincare professional who is brimming with this knowledge you can be confident that you will be able to reap the benefits of following a tailor-made rejuvenation plan that will restore, maintain and help prevent further damage to your skin. In my experience, a skincare plan that is designed to rejuvenate aging skin should have four components to it. I call these the 4 R’s.
Relax: Wrinkles can be both deep and fine. These tell-tale lines develop from the activity of underlying muscles and those with more animated faces will have more wrinkles over time. The best way to treat these dynamic lines is through Botox, which will paralyze the muscle.
Refill: Youthful full round faces will gradually loose fat, collagen and hyaluronic acid and sadly, the losses do not stop there. In addition, bone density, ligaments and muscles are also depleted over time, resulting in thinner sunken skin. Thankfully, we have a clutch of entirely safe products such as fillers and great techniques to restore volume and construction of the face, hands, and other areas of the body such as décolleté.
Resurface: The skin endures a lot of trauma during a lifetime. Being the biggest organ of the body and the only one that is exposed to UV radiation, pollution and other environmental factors, it is little wonder it ultimately shows the most visible undesirable signs of a life well lived over its entire surface. These signs include mottled, sun-damaged pigmentations and vascular lesions. But the good news is that issues including dry rough dull skin, volume loss and dehydrated crepe-y wrinkles can all be reversed thanks to the wonderful technology that laser and energy-based devices boast. When it comes to resurfacing procedures, the main goal is to remove the old damaged skin and replace with new fresh skin at the same time. In many cases, this is done by producing a controlled wound that will stimulate the fibroblasts to place and regenerate new collagen and elastin. It is worth remembering that the aging process starts in the 20s and so it is a good idea to kickstart a regime to reverse any damage before the tell-tale signs of aging take a firm hold.
Re-drape: With any rejuvenation plan the goal is to achieve the best results with the safest and least invasive way possible. However, if the skin has become incredibly saggy or has gone untreated for many years, sometimes a surgical intervention will be required to give the client their ultimate result. Any surgery, including liposuction to remove unwanted fat and skin or a facelift to smoothen complexions, will give dramatic and significantly improved results but it will have more downtime. Given this, it is important that the aesthetician can manage the client’s expectations and help them to understand the scope of the procedures and how to incorporate them in the overall rejuvenation plan, so they endure minimum inconvenience but maximum results.
Finally, it is important to note that while technology and procedures have made terrific strides in the last decade and now offer amazing results, it is crucial to realise that it is not one technique but rather a combination of all the above that will ensure results that surpass the client’s expectations can be achieved.
