This month I had a terrible moment: my husband was driving me to work and I happened to open the visor mirror. OMG! The slanting early morning light and the position of my arm combined to reveal every little crepey wrinkle on my decolletage!
Picture taken on that fateful morning, gives you an idea of the texture of the skin.
I have to confess — my face looks pretty good but I don’t do treatments very often on my chest area. However I wasn’t expecting it to look this bad. This will make me think twice about wearing a low cut dress.
And now that I look at my decolletage more observantly, I see that it has a lot of sun damage. There’s a big brown patch in the centre. Even though I don’t get much sun exposure lately, that sun damage is from all the years that I tried to tan.
The first thing I did to address this was to start applying a cream every day to build collagen in my skin. I’m using GrenzCine Neck Cream. I also recommend TNS Essential Serum. See more skincare suggestions here.
I’m going to work on it this fall. Here are my options:
Brown freckles and patches
This is sun damage. It may include a lot of red as well. The best treatment is the laser. You can also use IPL (intense pulsed light) or peels but it will likely take many more treatments to get the same results.
Circular red spots
These are benign knots of blood vessels called hemangiomas. I used to have a lot of these on my chest but got rid of them years ago with the laser. If you have any of these and they bother you, I highly recommend zapping them.
Crusted spots
This is sun damage progressing from a simple freckle to the next stage, called an actinic keratosis. It’s still benign but has texture as well as colour. The laser alone will not get rid of it. We gently remove the texture with liquid nitrogen and then laser to remove the colour. Jaye has one that she is going to treat and I will include her pictures when I have them.
Wrinkles
Wrinkles may be those long lines between the breasts that follow the curve of the breast, or they may be what I saw, lots of little lines going in all directions like crepe fabric. They both indicate a loss of collagen and elastin in the skin, making it more lax and saggy.
There are lots of ways to build collagen in the skin. My favourite is microneedling with growth factors. You could also do a fractionated laser like our Pixel laser. Another treatment is PRP or Platelet-Rich Plasma. This involves taking 2 tubes of your blood and separating the liquid plasma from the red blood cells. Your plasma contains growth factors. We inject the plasma into your skin and the growth factors stimulate your skin to make new cells and collagen, thus rejuvenating your skin.
These treatments take time to show results because they are dependent on your body making the collagen that was stimulated by the treatment, a process that occurs over 8 to 12 weeks after the treatment.
If you want to see overnight results, I highly recommend a new Juvederm product called Volite. Volite is composed of hyaluronic acid, the hydrating compound we make naturally in our bodies. Volite is injected as little drops in the skin, about a centimetre apart. Within 24 hours, the Volite disperses into the skin, plumping the wrinkles and hydrating the skin. That’s the almost-instant gratification. In addition, the process of the little injections of filler stimulates collagen formation in the skin leading to a long term firming effect.
And here’s a suggestion, if you’re going to join me and work on this area, it’s a good idea to support your breasts while you’re trying to build collagen in your skin if you’re generously endowed. I’m planning to get a sleep bra so that I have support 24 hours per day. Otherwise the weight of the breasts could cause traction on the new baby collagen and damage it, so that your results aren’t as good as they could be.
Join me in improving your decolletage
This fall we are holding a contest to see who can improve their decolletage the most!
It costs nothing to enter the contest. Simply register with us before September 14, 2019 and have your Before pictures taken. All participants will receive treatments to the decolletage at 20% off the regular price for the duration of the contest. You get to choose what treatments you want to have, and of course we will assist you in choosing the best treatments. Contest ends December 14, 2019. All After pictures must be taken before December 14th to ensure inclusion in the judging. Judging will occur between December 16 and 21, 2019.
The winner will receive a $2500 gift certificate at Advanced Rejuvenation!