We probably should start with an apology to our necks for neglecting them for so long while shamelessly doting on our faces. Oh, our poor necks! Of course, our necks are sagging in their grief! Of course, we are desperate to take action now! Of course, this call to action likely has nothing to do with guilt of our blatant neglect, but has everything to do with the contrast of the free fall of fat and skin puddled below our chins next to our taut, even toned faces.

Call it payback, but treating the neck is particularly difficult. Obstacles include skin quality (one of the more thin-skinned areas of our bodies), muscle tone (strained platysmal bands, oftentimes from putting our faces and necks into our Crossfit regimens and other workouts), necklace lines (patients actually cry over these rings – and they are not tears of joy), loss of angularity (with the slope created by the dangling dumpling of fat below the chin requiring more than diet restrictions), and sun damage (spots and redness as sunscreen rarely made it this far south).

 

Let us begin…

  1. Products can no longer be conserved by foregoing use on the neck. Must have products: sunscreen, retinoids (or medical grade retinols and Epionce lytics), Nectifirm (Revision Skincare) or other recommended serums/ moisturizers (Epionce, Skinbetter Science, Vivier).
  2. Skin quality. As skin ages, it become less dense and less elastic. Texture becomes an issue. Lasers (Laser Genesis, Pixel Skin Resurfacing, ClearLift) and SkinPen microneedling + TCA (TCA for serious tissue tightening) are the best treatment options for an age rewind on neck skin.
  3. Sagging + loss of muscle tone. Botox is the answer. We [heart] Botox. Also, STOP clenching and straining your neck muscles when you exercise!

Those vertical neck bands that look like seriously thick + protruding veins but aren’t, are called platysmal  bands. They are muscles that shorten with age and overuse (ie. during exercise and childbirth), affecting the neck angle and jowls.

Skin will follow the muscle; so, as skin is stretched and relaxed repeatedly with the use and straining of platysma muscles, laxity happens. However, when these bands are injected with a neurotoxin (Botox), they relax and lengthen, smoothing the neck and jawline.   (See below)  (P.S. You’re welcome.)

 

  1.   Neck lines (aka. necklace lines, rings around the neck, raison d’etre for outdated accessories such as the choker). Dermal fillers are the answer. Dermal fillers are the answer to so many things.
  2.   Pigment and vascular issues (freckles, sun spots, age spots, redness and other manifestations of chronic actinic damage).  Laser Genesis, Excel V, AFT (IPL) will shatter pigment and erase redness.
  3.  Double chin (oftentimes hereditary; sometimes distressing; rarely resolvable with diet and exercise). We offer non-surgical options for its permanent removal and reduction (surgical being liposurgery). Kybella and/or TruSculpt 3D are highly effective treatments for the distressing double chin (aka. submental fat pad that may be negatively impacting your profile). Kybella permanently dissolves the fat pad with injections of a fat cell destroying acid. TruSculpt 3D permanently reduces the fat pad through heat and radiofrequency (radiofrequency promotes tightening btw).

Now that you know the options to resuscitate the skin and appearance of your neck, call to schedule a treatment or consultation.