When it comes to aging there are two roads: natural or enhanced. As with all roads, you may not travel them simultaneously. You will come to a certain age where you are at that fork in the road and you will need to choose. But, what does each path look like? I can help you with that….

Let’s say you choose the enhanced road. That road includes a visit to a dermatologist or a plastic surgeon.  During the first visit, the dermatologist or plastic surgeon will start injections close to the brow line and just outside the eye area. The next few sessions will dictate how high on the forehead and how far out and around the eyes you’ll go. There is a ripple effect when you restrict movement, and you can begin to create lines in odd areas since your skin naturally wants to move. Once you’re in the groove of injections, it’s pretty easy to start with dermal fillers. You can think of fillers as facial-caulk since it’s a flexible material to fill in bags under your eyes, laugh lines, and lips. Fast forward a bit on this path and you may be contemplating eyelid surgery or a more invasive brow lift. The nip-n-tucks can go on and on…screech! How often do you have to do this and how much is it?

Botox wears off after 3-6 months, and since there are a variety of fillers out there, you could say 3-12 months. Using the “per unit” pricing model for Botox, you could spend between $450-1000 per visit and higher for the alternative “per area”. These prices do not include the cost of the dermal fillers. This is how it becomes a lifelong expensive proposition.

Now let’s say that cost isn’t an issue, it comes down to how long you want to maintain all of this. Do you set a date on your calendar for each decade to ask yourself “Am I ready to look my age this year?” Can you look into the future to see when you will ever want to go au naturel or will you continue this approach 30, 40, 50 years? It is a harder decision to make than you think.

Okay, whoa! What if you want to age naturally, how do you do that? While technically speaking, it is almost free, it requires some work. You will need to have a good amount of rest, reduce stress, quit smoking, eat well, make healthy drink choices and get the recommended amount of daily Vitamins either from food (preferred) or pills. The hardest part of this path will be emotional. The natural approach takes some effort like training yourself to sleep on your back to avoid squishing your face into the pillow is a big one. Tapping your skin, demonstrated in a previous post, applying adhesive strips before bedtime is helpful to restrict the movement of your face while you sleep. Using beneficial products containing ingredients like EFGs (epidermal growth factors), Vitamin A and staying out of the sun are also important.

Emotionally speaking, aging naturally is an exercise in loving yourself and appreciating who you are and how you got those lines, laughing like crazy, crying over lost love or maybe hot summers at the beach without sunscreen. Aging is imminent, and although we are individuals, we’re all in this together, and it’s your call how to handle it. Personally, I’m hoping someone will say one day “she looks good for her age” versus “yikes, how old do you think she is, what has she had done?”

Stay tuned for more posts about aging naturally and not, we have upcoming interviews with doctors and industry experts. Let’s do this together, one way or another!

Thank you for reading The Freckle blog! Please subscribe to stay informed of all things relating to skin care. Also, check out my website and YouTube channel for product news and recommendations.

[ocinsta-carousel]