Neck Wrinkles

Nora Ephron, a famous writer said it best in her book, “I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts About Being a Woman.” Her neck was a dead giveaway to her age. All her friends wore turtlenecks or chic neck scarves to hide their necks from the judging eyes of the public. While their faces might have been privy to various fillers,and Botox there wasn’t a whole lot to be done about the neck, unless you got a complete neck and face lift. So why is it that the neck shows such deliberate signs of aging?

The problem is sagging muscles as we age, and bulging fat along the neckline. Plus, the skin is very thin along the neck so it’s prone to showing age much faster than other areas of the body. Once a women is in her mid-40’s no amount of firming cream in the world is going to defy the natural gravity of the neck area. The best way to keep your neck looking young is to have started treating it early on in your 20’s when the area is still firm and perfect. Using the same skin care regime on your neck as you do on your face will help keep the area hydrated and supple. A daily sunscreen on the neck area goes a long way to prevent premature aging.

What do you do if you haven’t been so vigilant about taking care of the skin on your neck? You can visit your dermatologist or plastic surgeon for more intensive treatment. A neck lift is done where the surgeon sews together and links sagging muscles in an upward diagonal shape to the jawline in order to restore the structure of the neck. It’s not as severe as a complete face lift, and the recovery is minimal since the stitches are smaller. Or you can have what they call a  “trampoline lift” where the neck is uplifted by the insertion of fillers that hike up the skin.

A non surgical option is to have Botox injected in the neck early on to stop sagging muscles from occurring. People are starting to catch on to this before the sagging starts in their early 30’s to prevent the neck area from collapsing later on.

It’s up to you to know whether or not your aging neck area bothers you. One thing that definitely doesn’t work are all those creams that are specific to the neck area. They are usually more expensive than your regular skincare. The ingredients in your normal facial treatments will work just as well on your neck. For myself, I might just adopt Nora Ephron’s way of expertly tying the perfect Hermes scarf around my aging neck and get on with my life.