Your neck ages first
YOU have your daily skincare routine for your face down to a science, and you never leave your house without your sunscreen and moisturiser.
But do you pay attention to your neck?
In terms of looks, the neck often gives away your age, even before eye wrinkles appear.
This is because the skin of the neck is much thinner than facial skin, but is exposed to the same wear and tear every day.
Over time, the skin loses collagen and elastin.
Combined with environmental factors such as sun damage and smoking, neck skin typically ages quicker than facial skin.
Fortunately, there are ways to prevent neck skin ageing. > Protection from the sun
If you are too busy to care about performing skincare routines for your neck, then at least apply sunscreen on it.
Ultraviolet (UV) rays from the sun cause major damage to your skin and accelerates skin ageing significantly.
It increases skin pigmentation, wrinkles and skin DNA damage, while reducing skin elasticity.
The single best thing you can do to maintain a youthful neck is to wear sunscreen with an SPF (sun protection factor) of at least 30, regardless of whether you are spending the day indoors or outdoors.
Avoid unnecessary prolonged or excessive exposure to the sun.
> Quality skin care
While there are dedicated neck creams on the market, they are not strictly necessary.
Face moisturisers are usually as good as these neck creams, which do not offer any additional benefits unless they contain retinoids.
A general rule of thumb is that whatever skincare products you apply on your face can often be applied on your neck as well.
Take care of your neck skin just like how you would take care of your facial skin.
Retinoids – an ingredient that includes retinol, retinyl palmitate and retinoic acid – can help repair skin damage caused by UV rays.
Adding a retinoid to neck skincare helps reduce wrinkles and improves skin texture and skin tone.
It helps accelerate skin cell turnover, improves collagen production in the skin and reduces skin pigmentation.
> Healthy lifestyle
A well-balanced diet and regular exercise will improve your overall health, as well as your skin quality, and delay skin ageing.
Avoid consuming a diet high in carbohydrates and fats.
Keep your body well-hydrated throughout the day.
Regular exercise improves blood circulation, which provides essential nutrients to the skin effectively.
Avoid smoking and excessive alcohol.
Recreational drug use, which is illegal, is also known to accelerate skin ageing.
> Dump bad habits
Did you know that constantly looking at your mobile phone can accelerate the formation of horizontal neck wrinkles and make your neck look older?
We often hold our mobile phone lower than our eye level, thereby bending our neck downwards and creating neck wrinkles.
Over time, these wrinkles may become deep permanent horizontal lines, just like a piece of paper can form permanent creases when it remains folded.
Overuse of perfume on the neck can also age your neck skin.
Perfume often contains alcohol and aromatisers that dry your skin quickly.
Dry skin is more prone to ageing and wrinkle formation.
Avoid daily usage of perfume on your neck and keep your neck skin moisturised at all times.
> Embrace technology
There is only so much we can do to delay neck skin ageing.
Often, advanced skin ageing such as sagging skin, can only be treated with the help of medical technologies.
There are many non-surgical medical treatments that can improve neck skin.
Medical treatments such as ultrasound lifting and radio frequency tightening can help improve neck skin sagging and wrinkling.
These treatments use controlled energy to heat up specific layers of the skin and boost the production of collagen and essential proteins.
By doing so, they can produce skin lifting and tightening.
Laser treatments such as skin resurfacing laser and pigmentation laser may be useful in improving neck skin texture, skin irregularities, fine lines and pigmentation.
If you are comfortable with needles, skin hydration injection treatments such as hyaluronic acid injections, can effectively provide intense hydration to the skin to improve skin elasticity and fine lines.
Do not neglect your neck. Take care of your neck skin just like you would with your facial skin, and allow it to age gracefully!
Dr Sii Sik Liong is a physician practising aesthetic medicine in Singapore. For more information, email starhealth@thestar.com.my. The information provided is for educational purposes only and should not be considered as medical advice. The Star does not give any warranty on accuracy, completeness, functionality, usefulness or other assurances as to the content appearing in this article. The Star disclaims all responsibility for any losses, damage to property or personal injury suffered directly or indirectly from reliance on such information.