Liquid facelifts: Why people are saying no the knife and yes to the needle
10 October 2019, 15:18 | Updated: 10 October 2019, 15:20
No downtime, less cost and immediate results? It's no surprise that interest in 'liquid facelifts' is on the up.
If you’re unhappy with the lines around your mouth, you might think the obvious solution would be to have them injected with filler.
But while that might have been the way to deal with that one common bug bear ten years ago, the modern approach requires targeting the face further back to recreate lost structure and volume - and leaving the lines well alone.
It’s just one of the many developments that has come from years of product and technique evolution in aesthetic medicine.
Dr Zoya Diwan of Trikwan Aesthetics told me that there are now 300 different filler brands on the market, each of them featuring a selection of products of different consistency, designed to be used on specific areas on the face.
She said: “You can tell people who had fillers straight in to the lines a few years ago as that part of the face now looks heavy.
“The trick is to use products that work with a client’s natural face, and to do smaller tweaks as you go along, allowing you to maintain their appearance and beauty.
“Jennifer Lopez is a great example of someone who has had little tweaks over the years. On the other hand, Nicole Kidman looks very ‘done’.”
Newer technology and scientific advancement within the dermal fillers world allows there to be huge variation is terms of quality of product. As Trikwan Aesthetics is a natural look specialist clinic, they specifically use specialist products that allow them to gently sculpt and rejuvenate clients' faces.
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For cheeks and midfacial volume and lifting, they favour using a filler called Teoxane, which has a patented RHA technology which allows it to better integrate with dynamic movement and give a more natural looking result.
"With newer products at the high end, you get better longevity, better integration with your own tissue, better natural looking dynamic movement with the product, and reduced chance of any lumps or bumps." said Dr. Zoya.
"Older products integrate less well, can appear 'stuck on' or obvious, allow less for movement and natural expression, and their longevity can be less than half as long."
Another huge development is that compared to a decade ago, doctors and practitioners now have a better understanding of ageing’s effect on the face, and how different areas of subcutaneous fat (the layer of fat beneath the skin) lose volume, drop down the face due to poor collagen levels and depleting bone density - causing jowls and the much-loathed saggy jawline - or pocket in parts of the face and as a result make you look much older.
“There are conferences, training opportunities and seminars almost every week, there is so much to learn, even as experienced doctors,” said Dr. Zoya.
With so much scientific knowledge and medical advancement, it really is important that if you do decide to go ahead and have any form of aesthetic procedure that you go to someone who is up to speed with the latest methods and injectables, is qualified, experienced - and most importantly, insured.
“A lot of our work is rectifying procedures carried out by people who don’t know what they’re doing,” explained Dr Sanjay Trikha, who is the other half of the glamorous husband and wife duo working from the modern Harley Street-based practice.
He added that not only is it expensive having the treatments rectified, it can have more serious consequences on people’s confidence levels.
“After all, they have had this procedure to correct something that really bothers them or they are insecure about, and for it to go wrong will bring more attention to that feature or what they perceive as a flaw,” he said.
Dr. Zoya and Dr. Sanjay are highly regarded in the competitive world of cosmetic medicine, and first shot to prominence for their revolutionary approach to lip fillers.
When Kylie Jenner’s overfilled pout kickstarted an international trend for huge pouts, they instead started offering more natural options, and were featured in Vogue magazine.
There’s no denying that social media and selfie culture has made people a lot more aware of their looks than ever before - some might say insecure, vain, or just obsessed - it’s not just millennials and people in their thirties who are taking action to correct little niggles.
While I was visiting their airy central London HQ, I saw them work their combined magic on a woman who had turned 60 this year who had come to them for a liquid face lift.
Her treatment took an hour, but it could technically be done quicker and, due to the lack of down time, be categorised as a lunch break ‘tweakment’.
But as the doctors rightly told me, when clients are paying up of £610 for their new look, you need to devote as much time to them as they need.
Like many women of her age, this client wanted a refreshed look - but not to look so different that people wouldn’t recognise her, or that she felt conspicuous when going about her daily life.
After seeing her cry tears of happiness after her big reveal, it’s not surprising that more and more older women (and men), are looking to boost their confidence and spoil themselves. With results lasting up to 18 months, there’s plenty of time to save for the next treatment, which is more about maintenance.
This category of people once would have spent their savings or taken finance out on a major surgical procedure like a face lift but are now coming round to the idea of ‘liquid face lifts’ using fillers, mostly thanks to word of mouth recommendations from their peer group, or seeing their daughters and their friendship groups take the plunge.
Dr Sanjay added: “The older generation often think of Leslie Ash, or see before and after pictures of women in their 20s or 30s. They don’t think that they can achieve the results they want with injectables.”
The doctors both laughed as they told me they had to deal with similar concerns with two very special clients of this age group - their mums - and now regularly had them calling asking for top ups or a couple more procedures here and there.
