The beauty spy: how to keep your neck youthful

Secrets on how to maintain a youthful-looking neck.

"You hate me now, but but then you will love me," says my torturer, sorry my doctor, the normally charming Dr Juliana Correa, who is in the process of vigorously rubbing a laser up and down my neck. The NIR (Near Infra-red Technology) heats up my neck to around 41 degrees on the surface in order to boost the collagen and make it look younger. Collagen is what keeps our skin elastic and young-looking and, as we age, we produce less of it. Hence the need for lasers.

I am here because I suddenly realised that if I didn't take decisive action I would end up like the American writer Nora Ephron, who wrote a book called I Feel Bad About My Neck. She woke up one morning and her neck looked as if it belonged to her grandmother.

According to Dr Juliana, most women neglect their necks. "What they should be doing is treating the face and the neck as one area by cleansing, toning and moisturising them both. I often see women who have looked after their faces, maybe even had some work done, but their necks age them terribly, because the skin on the neck is much thinner." The Aesthetica Clinic where Dr Juliana works suggests a multi-layered approach to neck rejuvenation. She offers me several options when I tell her about my neck anxiety.

Mesotherapy is one very popular cure for the so-called "turkey neck". It consists of a microinjections of vitamins, minerals and amino acids placed just under the surface of the skin. Peels are extremely effective for resurfacing the skin, the aim of a peel being to accelerate the rate of cell renewal while removing surface blemishes. Then there is the Pixel Laser, the most aggressive of the options, which creates thousands of microscopic perforations in the skin, thus encouraging collagen growth. "Your skin will go red, like a tomato, then brown, then fall," explains Dr Juliana. Sounds great. She assures me that the results are amazing but adds that, as I have a pretty "good neck" the NIR would be a better option, followed by the AFT (Advanced Fluorescence Technology), a laser that evens out tone skin colour by reducing brown spots and also gets rid of broken blood vessels.

The following day my neck looks like it has been ravaged by a grizzly bear. But once it has calmed down I am thrilled. Smooth skin, and not a turkey in sight. Or even a grandmother.

The Aesthetica Clinic, Jumeirah Beach Road, Villa 359, 04 342 8383; Dubai Healthcare City, O4 429 8533.

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ELEMIS PRO-COLLAGEN LIFTING TREATMENT NECK AND BUST, DH631 Skin crêpiness is a problem of the past with this brilliant product. A powerful solution for slackening skin, it minimises the signs of ageing for a smoother, firmer-looking neck and bust.

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