A facelift in your lunch hour

From Fashion.Telegraph <URL>
December 16, 2004

Most (honest) people's idea of growing old gracefully isn't embracing each wrinkle like a friend, but rather heading it off at the pass (the soaring sales of beauty products are testament to this). And if a wrinkle manages to sneak up on you, then you try to blast it off the face of your epidermis with Bush-like zeal.

Creams and moisturisers, all those promises-in-a-jar, are not the answer. "I get asked all the time what moisturiser is best and my answer is always, just use the one that makes you feel good," says Penelope Tympanidis, consultant dermatologist at Renascene Facial Aesthetics in London. "An over-the-counter product can't make a significant difference because it can't penetrate dermal layers. If it could, it would be on prescription. So really, it doesn't matter if you spend £1, £10 or £200."

Surgery, of course, can work miracles. It grabs time in a headlock and forces it to retreat decades. But lifting and implants are expensive, the procedures traumatic. And then there is the little problem of what to do if you hate your new look.

But as of last week, there is a new weapon available in the war against wrinkles. Restylane Sub Q, the latest from Swedish skincare laboratory Q Med, is an injectable treatment that fills and lifts, and it is being hailed as something of a breakthrough.

"Sub Q can alter facial contour, rather than just filling lines or folds," says cosmetic surgeon Rajiv Grover. "I've been using it since March and it has proved effective in a way which previously I could only have achieved with surgery."

It is made from non animal stabilised hyaluronic acid gel – a tissue-friendly substance that occurs naturally in the body. It's versatile and once inside the skin, the practitioner can move and mould it to get the desired look and lift. The effects are gratifyingly immediate and, unlike surgery, it can be carried out in a lunch hour.

Sub Q lifts the skin by plumping from within, says Mr Grover. It can last up to 18 months, so while beauty trends come and go, you won't run the risk of being stuck with something you loathe.

In the past few months, I've been feeling that age has caught up with me – my skin is thinner, softer, crêpier and a lot more "south" than it used to be – so I decide to give Sub Q a try.

Penelope Tympanides, who carries out my treatment, is efficient, honest and reassuringly beautiful. "I'm very cautious," she says, handing me a mirror. Patients are required to tell her in their own words what they dislike about their faces so that she can gauge whether expectations are realistic. "I'm good, but I don't have a magic wand. I can't make you 10 years younger, but I can probably make you look like you did 10 years ago."

That's good enough for me. Tympanidis draws on my face, marking the areas she will treat. She leads me to a large mirror, stands behind me and pulls back and lifts my skin with her fingers to show me what the result will be.

She suggests just one injection for both sides of my face – more dramatic results would entail one in each side and I can come back later if that's what I want.

A local anaesthetic, probably the most uncomfortable part of the whole procedure, is applied to the entire face. After 20 minutes or so, my face is numb. Tympanidis is humming happily to herself as she takes the needle and the Sub Q out of its packaging, and even though I know I won't feel a thing, the sight of the glinting sabre she's flicking with her nail makes me a bit anxious.

"Is that needle five inches?"

"At least – and it's a canella not a needle."

"You say it so... casually."

"I know. I'm cool, huh? OK now, so lie still, please."

It might have been the mother of all needles/canellas, but I did not feel it enter my flesh. In fact, I have had more painful bikini waxes. The photographer fares less well and almost drops his camera, grabbing my foot for support.

"Always the men," says Tympanidis.

The results are hard to gauge immediately after the procedure, because of swelling. "I look a bit hexagonal," I say. Tympanidis just waves off my worries and says to come back two days later, on Thursday.