Mel Secker discovers how to bring it back

Baby face

Remember that soft, youthfully plumped face you had 10 years ago? Mel Secker discovers how to bring it back.

Think of one of Hollywood’s most famous beauties, Marlene Dietrich at her loveliest, face pulled back taut using fine gold chains hidden in the hair line, hiding lines, giving great cheek bones and deep hollows underneath, oozing sophistication. But, she didn’t ooze youth.Youthful faces are full, cherubic baby faces, so, what do you do if you aren’t so well, youthful?

Traditional facelifts pull back the skin giving that wind tunnel effect. The lines may be gone but it can look strange and pained. But, now we have a liquid facelift to thank for a more natural look and softened features favoured by celebrities and non-celebs alike.

Sculptra is an injectable collagen stimulator which, unlike fillers, corrects shallow lines, sunken cheeks and wrinkles while stimulating your own collagen. It’s the loss of collagen, as we get older that Sculptra helps to give us back. The information is that it will do its job, then safely disappear after a couple of years causing no side effects whatsoever. It’s great after weight loss when you can be left looking gaunt.

I remember it being said that as you got older you needed to make a choice between your face (keeping it nice and plump) or your body. Could Sculptra mean that these days we can have it all?

There aren’t many of these types of product that have FDA approval, it’s the product of choice though and has been for numerous years of Zahida Butt, partner in The Cosmetic Clinic in Norwich.

Zahida also has clinics in King’s Lynn and Peterborough, and remains working for the NHS as a consultant oculoplastic surgeon doing really worthwhile work for cancer sufferers and others.

My consultation with Zahida lasted 40 minutes. The process, expected results and time line were explained in great depth and my appointment was booked for the following week – as the product is pre-mixed I need to ensure I won’t cancel.

Appointment day arrives and the clinic’s calm, clean atmosphere is a great welcome. The team is a great bunch of girls who pamper and assist at every turn. Tara, the clinic manager spreads a thick layer of anaesthetic cream on my cheek area and the sides of my face. This is left for half an hour to ensure the treatment is as comfortable as it can be.

Upstairs in a treatment room, Zahida explains that my face is going to be subjected to many injections, primarily in my cheeks, the sides of my face and near the base of my nose. Thankfully the cream means I don’t feel a thing – really!

When it’s over, I have my face massaged and must do this every morning and evening for a few weeks. Then it is a matter of just waiting and watching.

My face is swollen at first due to the product and the injections and this is some idea of how I will look in about eight months’ time when my collagen is stimulated to plump out my face. No bruises or bleeding, just a slightly rounder, plumper face.

I can’t wait to see myself in a few months’ time; if half an hour can knock off a few years then I will be very happy and certainly will consider more Sculptra in the future.

Costs from �400. Norwich Cosmetic Clinic, 6 Exchange Street, Norwich, 01603 877470, www.norwichcosmeticclinic.com