Men’s Guide to Cosmetic Beauty  

Express News Service

Both internal and external factors cause the skin to age.  As we age, collagen and other supportive tissues in the deeper layers of the skin decrease, causing the skin to lose its elasticity. Excessive sun exposure, air pollution, stress and chronic ill-health can hasten the process. Aesthetic and surgical treatments for men are now coming into prominence. Here are some:

Laser treatments: New technology is giving laser treatments an impetus, which are good to treat pigmentation and other skin problems. Carbon dioxide and erbium lasers are good options. Botulinum toxin and dermal filler injections: Fat is a very good, popular and natural filler. Botox is a protein that paralyses muscles and prevents them from contracting, thus smoothening fine lines and wrinkles.

Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) therapy: This is a simple, quick and effective therapy that restores radiance. A small amount of blood is drawn from the patient, centrifuged (spun at fast speed) to separate the platelet-rich plasma and is then injected into the facial skin using a fine needle.

Autologous fat grafting: Fat is harvested from one part of the body, purified and injected into the facial area. With new techniques, the fat can be treated to extract fat stem cells, which have better rejuvenating and repairing potential. This technique is called Nano fat grafting and can be combined with micro-needling.

Thermage: Also known as the ‘lunchtime facelift’, it is a quick, non-invasive facial rejuvenation technique. A handpiece delivers radiofrequency heat energy into the collagen-containing layers of the skin, stimulating the collagen to renew and repair itself, and thus adding volume and improving the texture of the facial skin.

HIFU skin tightening: It is a new cosmetic treatment that is a non-invasive and painless replacement for facelifts. Surgical facelift: This is useful when the degree of sagging and wrinkles is unlikely to be corrected by non-surgical techniques. It is done under general anaesthesia. 

The author is a Senior Consultant and Cosmetic Surgeon, Apollo Hospital, New Delhi