How to help your Anti Wrinkle Treatments Last Longer During COVID -19 Lockdowns
How to Make your Anti Wrinkle Treatment Last Longer During the COVID -19 Lockdown
Disclaimer: This article is intended to give honest and clear advice to readers and does not promote a particular product.
After weeks of quarantine, have you become a Coronavirus Bridget Jones? You work from home, you shop from home, you socialise at home and the highlight of your week is the Friday night virtual pub quiz on Zoom. In reality your cat & wheelie bin get out more often than you do!
My Lockdown Diary Today:“Minutes doing house work: 0. Work emails sent: 0. Minutes on What’s App: 552. Minutes staring in mirror: 100. Calories Consumed: 5,250. Alcohol units: 12, Fitbit Exercise: 1,200 steps. – Not Good! Have always wanted to binge watch TV in pyjamas eating ice cream.”
We are now in Quarantine week nine or is it week ten? Many of you are the family hair stylist & resident expert on home manicures, facials & root touch ups. So, what can you do at home to maintain your wrinkle smoothing regime until you see your injector again? Here are a few Booster tips to help you.
Sleep Positions & Pillow Talk
Try to get 7 hours sleep per night to rejuvenate your skin. Sleep gives your mind and body a chance to repair. That’s why it’s called Beauty Sleep!
Sleeping flat on your tummy puts pressure on your forehead. Over the years, this nightly pressure and friction leads to the development of deep sleep lines. Sleep on your side? This can cause the delicate skin on your face & chest to wrinkle.
Before you go to bed, apply night cream to your decollage area and wear a comfy sports bra with a thick pair of folded socks between your breasts to reduce the sleep lines. It is not very sexy but it really does work!
Sleeping on your back will help to minimize lines on the sides of your face & eyes. Place a pillow behind your knees to ease the pressure on your lower spine.
If you can’t get comfortable sleeping on your back, you can prevent pillowcase-induced wrinkles by upgrading to silk or satin pillowcases. Join Instagram’s Pillow Challenge and switch up your lockdown look #quartinepillowchallenge
Look Fantastic with a Jade Roller:
Now is your chance to moisturise more often, try 3-4 times per day. Keep your skin hydrated with a good hyaluronic acid based serum. Instead of using your hands to massage in the serum, use a Jade Roller. It will leave your skin glowing. Delicately roll the smaller jade stone under your eyes and below your brow bone to reduce puffiness.
Not wearing foundation will allow for maximum effect from your face creams. Your perfect excuse for not wearing makeup!
Retinol Creams
Your Anti Wrinkle injections and Fillers will last longer if your skin is healthy. Most of us can’t face the 2 to 4 weeks of dryness, flaking and peeling as the retinol takes effect. Now is the ideal time to start retinol creams as you can use the COVID-19 Lockdown for your skin peeling downtime.
Self-isolation gives you a perfect opportunity to push through the peel barrier in the privacy of your own home. Start with a low-dose retinol (try 0.5% ZO Skin Brightener) every other night and work up to nightly application. There are plenty of retinol creams available online, so no excuses!
Screen Time Detox
COVID-19 Lockdown has us glued to our smartphones. Whether it’s checking the news, scrolling through social media or keeping up with What’s App chats, they are our lifeline to the outside world.
Blue Light from our screens can cause wrinkles to develop if we spend an excessive amount of time on our mobile phones. Your constant downward gaze when texting may cause you to develop jawline creases and more lines on your neck than would naturally appear.
Frowning or creasing your face up to look at something small on the screen will worsen any wrinkles around your eyes. Try to cut down on your screen time if you can.
Alcohol & Smoking
Like our lovely Bridget Jones, we need to be conscious of how much alcohol we are drinking during Lockdown. Ever woken up after a Netflix night on the couch and a bottle of wine only to notice that you’ve actually aged overnight?
Don’t Panic -the lines you’re seeing are dehydration lines, not wrinkles. Dehydration lines are temporary. To reduce these fine lines, drink lots of water & add vitamin A, C, & E into your skincare routine. These ingredients encourage collagen production and nourish your skin.
Smoking causes you to screw up your eyes & lips which will create new lines and accelerate the sagging of your skin. Try to cut back or stop completely.
Keeping Calm
Try not to frown & try to stay calm. As each day blurs into the next, we worry about everyone we love and cry for those lost to COVID-19. We fear for the future plus the health and economy of our world. Avoid obsessively watching disturbing news & social media. Remind yourself that this is a temporary period of self- isolation to slow the spread of the virus. Value this precious time with your family as it will never come again.
Face Yoga
The jury’s still out on just how effective face yoga is. Anti-wrinkle injections wear off quicker, the more ‘active’ your facial muscles are. Focus on keeping your facial muscles relaxed. This will prolong the effects of your wrinkle smoothing injections.
While face yoga can help you erase wrinkles and lines when done correctly, a lot of exercises on the internet can cause your skin to wrinkle even more. All that flexing and yawning stretches out your skin, ultimately causing wrinkles. Face yoga can definitely help downward droop and can be very effective for sagging jowls and necks.
Zinc Supplements & Healthy Diet
Activation of toxin needs a certain baseline level of Zinc in your body, so Zinc works as a sort of catalyst. Some research studies show that the prescription medication Zytase ( Zinc+ Phytase) may help extend the results of your anti wrinkle injections. The Zytase enzyme supplement is supposed to help absorb zinc from your diet. At this time, there is not yet sufficient proof of results to recommend Zytase, as most people tend to have adequate Zinc anyway.
Taking a Zinc supplement on its own will not make a big difference to your treatment results but it is valuable as part of your multivitamin regimen. Try to eat healthy and add zinc rich foods like poultry, pork, beans and grains to your diet. If you want to take a Zinc supplement for a few days before treatment (not long term) then go for it. Let us know if it seems to help your treatments work better.
Exercise
When exercising, try not to squint or scowl. Patients who run and exercise a lot, go through their filler and anti wrinkle injections quicker because their metabolism breaks it down more rapidly than others.
Apply Factor 30 SPF to your face & neck when you go out for your one hour per day exercise. Always wear sunglasses as squinting can cause lines around your eyes. Don’t forget a Baseball Hat & a slick of Red Lipstick to finish the look and you’re good to go. And remember to SMILE at everyone you meet. Smiling is contagious…… but it only spreads happiness !
Wait for Your Aesthetic Doctors- They will be back as soon!
Sadly, it seems there are some irresponsible & unethical practitioners continuing to offer aesthetic treatments, some doing so from house to house. There are no infection control measures that are adequate in these circumstances and Your safety cannot be assured. Try not to be tempted as it is not worth the risk.
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