Skin ageing
treated
Most of what makes your skin older comes from sunlight and not from your age. And that is exactly the part that responds well to treatment. The skin therapist chooses from medical peels, microneedling with the SkinPen or the Dermapen 4, fractional laser on the Fotona, IPL for pigment and vessels, and mesotherapy.
What it becomes for you depends on your skin and on what exactly is going on; usually it is a combination over a number of months. At the intake the skin therapist establishes what comes from the sun and what belongs to your age.
Sun or age
The therapist compares a piece of skin that has seen little sun with your face. That difference shows which part comes from sun damage.
Your inner arm is exactly as old as your face. Yet it looks younger.
So everything extra you see on your face was added and did not simply grow along. That is the part a treatment does something about. Put your age in below and see how the two compare.
35 years
Inside of the upper arm
Your face and hands
Age
12,784 days
12,784 days
Genes
The same person
The same person
Food and sleep
The same body, the same years
The same body, the same years
Hormones
The same
The same
Smoking and alcohol
The same
The same
Days the skin spent outdoors
Almost none
Almost all of them
And that is with the face usually getting the most care of the two. The variable left over is not your routine.
Has hardly ever seen the sun
Smoother, more even, few spots. This is what time alone does to your skin: it gets thinner and drier, but stays even.
Sun every day, in winter too
Fine lines, uneven colour, widened vessels, rougher texture. This is time plus tens of thousands of hours of UV.
What was built up has a dial. What simply grew along does not.
The part built up by the sun is the part we can treat. At the intake the skin therapist establishes how large that part is for you, and which treatment fits with it.
Book a consultationWhat ageing changes
in your skin
Skin ageing is not a switch that flips at a certain age. Several things run alongside each other, they do not start at the same time and they do not share a cause. Pick a stage of life and see what is going on then.
Collagen declines
Time and sunRunning, usually still invisibleProduction drops gradually from your twenties onwards. UV speeds it up and breaks existing collagen down as well, so this track runs in everyone but not at the same speed.
collagen loss
Spots come up
SunRunning, usually still invisibleThis is almost entirely a sun track. What you see now was built up in years already gone, and what you do today decides the spots of ten years from now.
lentigines, hyperpigmentation
Vessels become visible
SunRunning, usually still invisibleSmall widened blood vessels, mostly on the nose and cheeks. Sun and heat are the biggest drivers.
telangiectasia
Texture gets rougher
Time and sunRunning, usually still invisibleCell renewal slows down, which makes the skin look duller and reflect light differently. This is the part that responds fastest to treatment.
changes in keratinisation and texture
Volume shifts
TimeNot yet in playFat pads shrink and drop, and the bone beneath changes too. This is the purest time track, and exactly the part we do nothing about.
fat and bone remodelling
Now measuring becomes worthwhile
The first sun damage becomes visible while nothing is set yet. A skin analysis now gives you a point of comparison, so that later you know whether something worked or whether you imagined it.
Count the ochre bars. That is the part of what you see that comes from the sun, and so the part something can still be done about today. The green bars run on whatever you choose.
What people call ageing
Three of them we treat. To the fourth we say no, and that is stated with the same emphasis. Pick what comes closest to you.
Fine lines
static wrinkles- What you see
- Lines that at first appeared only when smiling or frowning and now stay visible at rest too.
- What it means
- The skin has less spring in that spot and the fold has worn in. That is partly movement and partly accumulated sun damage.
- What we do
- We work on the quality of the skin around it, not on the fold itself. Expect a softer line, not smooth skin.
A line that appears only when you smile is not ageing. It belongs to a face that moves.
Is it mostly about spots for you and not about lines? Then the story starts somewhere else, because there the season plays a large part in when to begin.
To the pigmentation pageWhat helps and what we advise against
The first line on the left is the cheapest treatment on this whole site, and the only one that works on all five tracks at once.
This works
- Use sun protection daily, in winter too and when you spend a lot of time behind glass.
- Tackling one part at a time and measuring whether it worked, rather than buying a package.
- Starting with colour and texture, because there you see fastest whether the direction is right.
- Putting your expectation on the table beforehand. If it is not achievable, you hear that before you pay.
- Accepting that part of it cannot be solved with skin treatments, and simply saying so.
We advise against this
- Waiting until it really starts to bother you. The tracks you cannot see yet are already running.
- Buying a treatment package without a skin analysis. Then afterwards there is no way to establish whether it did anything.
- Several aggressive treatments close together. Irritated skin makes more pigment, not less.
- Steering by an age rather than by a skin. Two people of fifty rarely need the same thing.
- Thinking an expensive cream replaces sun protection. A cream with SPF does that job, a day cream without does not.
Ageing asks for a starting point.
This is the subject where your eye fools you hardest. The change runs over years and you look in the same mirror every day, so you do not see the difference, in either direction.
We record the starting situation, so that after a while we can better judge whether anything has changed.
More about the skin analysisWhat we measure here
- Colour
- Spots, evenness and widened vessels
- Texture
- How the skin reflects light and how it feels
- Lines
- Where they are and whether they stay at rest
Every axis is measured again at each check-up, under the same lighting. That way a difference later is something you see rather than something you have to take on faith.
What we use for this
Dermaplaning
€ 150Dead skin cells and fine hairs removed with a blade. Works without acids, so it suits sensitive skin too.
Microneedling with the SkinPen
€ 180Medically certified microneedling. It works on the layer where the structure of your skin sits.
Dermapen 4
€ 180Microneedling with vibrating needles that pass through the skin evenly.
Skin boosters and mesotherapy
€ 175Active ingredients placed into the skin rather than onto it, at a fixed depth per injection.
Fotona TimeWalker
€ 150Fifteen treatments on one device, from a light laser peel to the complete 4D. Each with its own purpose.
Fotona 4D
€ 370Four laser treatments in one session. From the inside through the cheek to a closing peel.
Fotona 4D Men
On requestThe same protocol of four, set for the generally thicker skin of men.
PIANO skin tightening
On requestDeep, even heating to firm the face, jawline and neck.
RRS Hyalift
€ 175Bringing hyaluronic acid and vitamins into the skin. For firmness and moisture, not for volume.
Fotona 4D Full Package
€ 575The full 4D protocol with the neck and the jawline included, in one appointment.
Frequently asked questions
From what age is this worthwhile?
There is no age at which it starts. There is a moment when measuring becomes worthwhile, and that is as soon as you want to change something. Without a starting point you will not know later whether it worked.
Can I still undo sun damage from the past?
Partly. Colour and texture can be improved a good deal, and that is usually what people notice in the mirror. Volume that is gone does not come back, and we would rather say that now than after four sessions.
Why do you not start with laser straight away?
Because we want to know first what we are looking at. The same line can be dehydration or worn-in sun damage, and those ask for different things. The measurement costs you one appointment and usually saves more.
My skin is dark. Does this apply to me too?
Yes, but differently. Darker skin shows lines less readily and shifts in pigment more, and it reacts more sharply to overly aggressive treatment. So the settings and the order are different.
How long does the result last?
As long as the cause does not carry on. Without protection the sun damage simply keeps building and then you see the same thing return; with protection people usually get one to two years before maintenance is needed. That is a figure from experience and not a measurement, and it is written here as such.
What does this cost?
That depends on the treatment that suits your skin, and we work that out at the consultation. The consultation costs 50 euros; if you have a treatment in the same appointment, that amount comes off again. You then hear straight away how many sessions it takes and what the total will be. Every price per treatment is published on the price page.
Start by knowing what is going on.
We measure colour, texture and lines, and tell you which part comes from the sun and which does not. After that you decide whether you want to do something, and what.
Book a consultationNot sure yet? Ask your question