How to Tighten Facial Skin

Tightening the skin on your face no longer requires drastic measures in many cases. Instead, dermatologists say, a series of little tweaks—they may involve firming serums, lasers, and more—can be more effective, not to mention much more natural-looking, than going big.
What makes a person’s face look younger or older involves a number of variables, from skin texture, tone, and color to wrinkles, loss of volume, and sagging. The last of those—sagging—happens because collagen, the structural support of your skin, diminishes over time. Collagen loss also contributes mightily toward volume loss and wrinkle formation; the very best way to stay youthful-looking is not to lose collagen in the first place, says New York dermatologist Robert Anolik, a clinical assistant professor of dermatology at NYU School of Medicine. “The ultimate is prevention,” he says. “There’s no substitute for regular sunscreen use and a good lifestyle—no smoking, low alcohol and sugar consumption, exercise, keeping down inflammation in general. Do it and you won’t have as much visible aging to begin with, and any results you get with anti-aging dermatology will be better and hold longer.”
“But what’s revolutionary now in lifting, tightening, and firming is the ability to stimulate multiple layers of skin remodeling, not just the surface layer,” he explains. “The surface layer reveals many signs of aging, like fine lines, discoloration, blood vessels, sun spots, acne scars, etc. But it’s the remodeling of deep to surface collagen layers that lifts and tightens.”
Dermatologists disagree on which is the absolute best treatment—understandable, because there are now so many options. “We all have different patients and different techniques that we’ve seen work,” says New York dermatologist Doris Day, a clinical associate professor of dermatology at NYU Langone Medical Center. “Doctors also tend to like the devices that they have in their offices. Technology in tightening devices is always evolving, so the ‘best’ treatment is sort of a moving target.” (Day has some sixteen different devices in her office and says she tailors each treatment plan to the individual patient.)
Until recently, the ways to tighten skin were either mild (stimulating collagen in the very top layers of skin with treatments like peels, retinoids, and certain kinds of lasers) or severe (CO2 peels or pulling the skin tight with a surgical face-lift, both of which involve downtime and a greater risk).
People who might have gotten a face-lift in the past are now opting for dermatological treatments instead—or at least first, forestalling the need for one, reports Chicago plastic surgeon Julius Few, who helped pioneer the new, no-downtime thread lift. “In our offices, we’re stacking treatments—the thread lift, fillers, Botox, lasers, Ulthera—and getting amazing results,” he says. “Fewer patients are needing full face-lifts.”
A detailed consultation is important, says Santa Monica dermatologist Karyn Grossman: “You have to weigh so many considerations.” She mentions downtime, risk, cost, durability (how long the effects are going to last), severity (in terms of the resulting look), and potential scars as factors.
“I feel confident we are delaying the need for surgical tightening procedures,” says Anolik. “This is not to say some people don’t need plastic surgery, but this is a way of looking and feeling younger with much less downtime.” Injectable fillers temporarily replace lost collagen a little deeper in the skin: Dermatologists inject a filler along, say, the cheekbone, and the volume it creates pulls up the skin below. This sort of lifting has its limits and is easy to overdo, but it can also really help.
The biggest noninvasive technological breakthroughs are in radiofrequency and ultrasound devices, which build collagen by sending energy to different layers of the skin: radiofrequency in a broad, diffuse way and ultrasound in a deeper, targeted way. “Think of the collagen fibers as a loose-knit sweater, and these treatments tighten that sweater,” says Anolik. Both usually require skin numbing but have no downtime because they work beneath the top layer of skin; significant results develop over a period of months as the body grows the new collagen. “Ulthera is the backbone of most of the tightening I do,” says Day, who supplements it with radiofrequency treatments like EndyMed and Thermage. “I find the EndyMed treatments make the effects of the Ulthera last longer,” she says. Grossman considers Thermage her gold standard for tightening but feels Ulthera is equally effective; Anolik prefers Ulthera but uses Thermage in certain situations.
Grossman says she gets incredible upper-eye-tightening results with Thermage treatments and prefers another radiofrequency device called Forma, which requires multiple sessions, for fullness in the lower eye area. She also loves Thermage for the neck. Anolik likes to combine Ulthera with Botox—done a week before or after the Ulthera. “If I’m trying to lift the brow or the neck but see muscle pull that is countering an upward direction, then combining the process with Botox can be very helpful,” he says. “It helps create an optimal environment for unencumbered lifting.” Day likes Thermage for tightening the stomach and hips and prefers EndyMed for lifting the eye.
Microneedling technology is combined with radiofrequency in several new devices. EndyMed makes Intensif, a version of its radiofrequency device that uses microneedles to help remodel and build collagen. “What’s great with the EndyMed device is I can dial up or down the depth of the needles depending on the patient,” says Day. “It’s not a bloody procedure—there’s very little downtime. It’s reliable, it works on skin of color and for smoker’s lines around the lips, and it really lifts around the eyes. I like it for acne scars, too.”
Another device, Infini, combines radiofrequency that’s able to target specific points in the skin the way Ulthera does, with the collagen-enhancing action of microneedles. “The idea with microneedling is you’re triggering an immune response to stimulate collagen production.”
Grossman, too, is excited about microneedling: “It has beautiful results in the neck, and recent studies have shown it may also improve cellulite on the back of the legs.”
If the many options sound like too much, Day thinks about it differently: “I think you get the best results doing a little of a lot of things—skin care, neuromodulators, diet, exercise, fillers, devices. It isn’t about going big in one particular area. We age in many different ways, and so it’s better to do a little of one thing and a little bit of another. It’s no longer about chasing wrinkles: Now we investigate the wrinkle.”
Skin Care to Help Keep Skin Tight and Fresh
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Exfoliate Regularly
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Exfoliate Regularly


GOOPGLOW 15% GLYCOLIC
OVERNIGHT GLOW PEEL
goop, $125/$112 with subscription
Wear Mineral Sunscreen


CELLULAR PROTECTION
SUN CREAM SPF 50
goop, $69
Apply Topical Vitamin C Daily


VITAMIN C BOOSTER
goop, $90
Drink Collagen


GOOPGENES Marine Collagen Superpowder
goop, $95
Temporarily Lift and Tighten


GOLD SCULPTING BAR
goop, $195
Nourish with Botanicals


ACTIVE BOTANICAL SERUM
goop, $185