Aging

In June I turned 37. Now for people 38 and older this is nothing. But for me it was a significant birthday. I now feel very close to 40 and I have started to be more critical with my skin. I think, and my friends tell me, that I look OK. However, I have two problems, a red nose (due to constant hay fever from April to October every year) and what I now call my turkey neck. I have vertical fine lines on my neck, which I notice every morning when I do my make-up.

A friend mentioned a facial she has for her Rosacea at a local clinic. Within a couple of visits her condition was so improved there is no obvious signs of the redness. She swears by the work of Sue Barrett at The Loft Anti Aging Clinic. So I looked up the site , had a brief telephone discussion with Sue and booked myself in.

The loft treatment rooms are above a converted garage. Beautiful scents greet you as you open the wooden door at the top of the stairs. Sue guided me through a short questionnaire and made me comfortable in her treatment room. Before she began she was honest and said I didn’t look like I had any problems (she is used to treating scarring from severe acne, very aged skin and bad skin conditions). However, she did say I was a classic skin tone 1. Under her magnifying glass she did see sun damage to my neck, top of forehead and a slight loss of collagen on my cheeks. She advised a ‘Vitamin A enriched’ facial.

The Loft uses a South African range called Environ and I enjoyed a 1 ½ hour treatment facial. At a later date and hopefully with Sues help I will detail the exact products and processes used.

Other advice offered – from April to October I should not leave the house without a sun screen on my face, neck and décolleté. I did question this. Recently I have read a lot about women who are deficient in vitamin D. Due mainly to our paranoia skin cancer and sun aging, thus hiding ourselves away from the sun (with high factor creams and a stylish kaftan!). I was advised that 10 minutes of arm and leg exposure was sufficient and in the winter to take a supplement. A further piece of interesting advice was regarding sun screen SPF factors. For the past few years I have been using factor 50 on myself and children (a variety of brands; Clarins, Clinique, Boots Soltan, Boots No. 7 and more recently Ambre Solare). Sue advised that a factor 15 regularly reapplied was what I needed as the extra chemicals added to the high factor creams were just as bad for my skin as the sun damage I was protecting against.

So did I have the facial and leave – no don’t be silly! I had to have a little bag with goodies. Sue also stocked a brand of fake tan (I have not used fake tanning since I was at university!) called ‘Fake Bake’. Of course I couldn’t resist and purchased Fake Bake Tanning Body Butter for dry skin and also took her advice and bought Environ RAD Factor 15 for face and body.

When I next have the bathroom to myself for more than two minutes I will test the fake tan and report back!