Move Over Anti-aging! We're All About Healthy Skin Aging Using This Simple Integrated Approach
Beauty Divided
For many years the aesthetics industry has focused on anti-aging, marketing treatments designed to ‘prevent and reverse’ signs of getting older. But aging is awesome. We’re supposed to age; our bodies naturally go through an degenerative process, but because these changes are most outwardly obvious in the skin, we tend to focus on these signs and do everything we can to prevent them from becoming more obvious.
Keep in mind that todays beauty standards are incredibly unrealistic; the faces we are exposed to are such edited and airbrushed versions completely unattainable in real life, that now even a youthful beautiful but unedited face draws criticism; so it’s no wonder that as we age we start to perceive a humongous gap between our own reflection in the mirror and what’s being advertised as attractive and desirable.
As a skin care provider, I want my patients to feel excited to support their largest organ, not to feel obligated to. But I also don’t want my patients to feel embarrassed or ashamed because they do undergo skin care treatments. For example. botox and fillers seem to still carry this stigma; like anyone who undergoes these types of procedures must be into looking fake or are propagating the unrealistic beauty standard. This is simply an outdated understanding of what these types of treatments are achieving when it comes to skin health.
So what can you do to preserve your skin health across the decades, and support healthy skin aging? It starts with an integrated skin care plan.
Integrated Skin Care Steps:
Prep - this first step involves having am intake and skin analysis done by your skin care provider. This sets the stage for internal support and plans the path to healthy skin.
Treat - oxidative, sun and environmental damage ages skin in an unhealthy way, which increases the potential for diseases like cancer. Treatments in this stage are targeted to treat signs of skin damage. Lasers, dermabrasion, botox, dermal fillers, peels and lifestyle intervention are some examples of targeted treatments.
Regenerate - facials, microneedling, prp and dermal fillers are treatments designed to replenish and rejuvenate the skin. This stage is often done too soon in a skin care plan, when the damage hasn’t yet been addressed. Don’t race to this stage, there’s a method to this madness, I promise!
Maintain - probably the most important step is what you’re doing at home on a daily basis. Here again we promote lifestyle and diet, and harness the power of a customized skin care routine; cleansing, toning, serums and moisturizer based on your skin health and any dermatological conditions we’re working on correcting.
Repeat! - Skin is just like any other organ. One treatment won’t fix something for life (unless you’re really lucky!) Repeat the cycle of repair, regenerate and replace and maintenance again and again, why? Because results improve with consistent effort.
To book your initial skin health consultation please visit Mint Integrative Health.
In Health,
Dr. Alaina