No one wants to be saddled with a turkey neck but the truth is that as we age, we tend to focus our TLC on our faces, leaving our necks to face the brunt of the aging process.
By the time we hit our mid-forties, subtle deteriorations like as dry, thinning neck skin and fine lines quickly progress into deeply etched necklines, prominent platysma bands, and saggy double chins with time and neglect.
It is as bad as it sounds – maybe worse when you finally see it for yourself.
Read more: Does Being a New Mother Make Self-Care Become a Bother?
Neck and Face: The Difference
The skin over our neck is thinner and has less fatty tissue and sebaceous glands compared to the skin of the face.
This explains why the skin over our neck feels drier, and dry skin tends to age at a faster rate.
On top of that, our neck muscles spread out as thin sheets right under the skin without any connection to surrounding bony structures for better support, making it very vulnerable to losing its elasticity and general aging at an earlier point in life.
Read more: Ampoules: Amplifiers of Dermal Perfection?
Neglect: The Worst-Case Scenario
Continued negligence of the neck can lead to a very unsightly scenario known as the turkey neck. Named precisely because of exactly how it would look, your face can be perfectly well-maintained, but it all means nothing when your neck gives it all away.
A turkey neck is an unflattering description given to lax skin that hangs under your chin and neck because of its resemblance to a turkey’s wattle.
With age, the loss of elasticity leads to thin, crepey skin and prominent neck rings. Coupled with the development of platysma bands, which are thin bands of muscles that are located in your neck, the undesirable features of a turkey neck are inevitably enhanced.
Read more: One Reason You’re Just Not That into Your Partner Anymore (That You Don’t Even Realize)
What You Can Do
Pay as much attention to your neck as you do to your face and it won’t betray you.
One of the easiest habits to cultivate to slow down the aging process of the neck is to make sure that whatever serums and creams you apply to your face are extended southwards to cover the neck and décolletage.
Sunscreen is especially important as the neck is prone to wrinkles, fine lines, textural changes, and pigmentation. UV rays are known accelerators of aging, so please do extend the courtesy of application to your neck, when you apply sunscreen to your face or arms.
Read more: Your guide to at-home facial peels
What Can Be Done Unto You
If your neck is already feeling crepey and showing various signs of aging, it’s not all beyond salvation. The skin around the neck is probably suffering from a lack of hydration, and there is no better way to supplement the deficit with Youth Preserve.
This procedure uses a leading-edge technology known as Profhilo, to stimulate the skin’s restructuring and remodeling process through the delivery of hyaluronic acid, a molecule known to hold 1000 times the weight of water.
The result is a very visible and gradual tightening of the skin, wherever it may sag.
The platysma muscles under the neck that undergo stress daily with every form of facial movement can also stretch and loosen the skin, and in turn, affect your jawline.
The Nefertiti Facelift is another great non-surgical, “ lunchtime facelift option to tackle sagging neck skin and double chin to restore an aging jawline to more youthful and aesthetically pleasing proportions.
For those looking for treatment modalities sans scalpel and needles, a combination of Ulthera which utilizes ultrasound energy for deep tissue lifting to address double chin, and Thermage which engages monopolar radiofrequency waves for effective skin tightening has given satisfactory results to many.
There is little to no downtime for all of these mentioned procedures and one can return to work after a day or two.
There can be slight swelling for 6 to 24 hours due to the anesthetic injections administered, and with all procedures that involved needles and injection, small pinprick marks and bruising can occur, but none that cannot be concealed with makeup.
Read more: Science-backed tips if you want to get rid of cellulite