Neck: what gestures to avoid to keep skin smooth?

“When it is not pampered in the same way as the face, the skin of the neck is one of the first to mark, and therefore to betray our age or make us look older than we are in reality”, explains Alexis de Brosses, Director of Talika. We owe this to the fact that she is not only very exposed to UV rays and other external aggressions such as pollution, by being little covered by clothing.

The area is also poor in sebaceous glands, so it dries out very quickly and looks dull and damaged easily. In continuity, the skin of the décolleté is also very fragile, because it is very dependent on the weight of the chest and victim of weightlessness over the years. But if the neck marks quickly, it is also because of our sometimes involuntary letting go. Find out what actions to avoid to keep your neck young and smooth.

Zap to apply his care on the neck

It’s a classic case: you take the time to apply a face cream, but you stop at the jawline. Maybe you even hydrate your body, but there too, you zap your neck, as if this intermediate zone did not exist. And yet, as it is poor in sebaceous glands, it needs maximum hydration and active ingredients allowing the re-meshing of the skin tissue. Key active ingredients: hyaluronic acid, ceramides and even collagen.

The solution : every time you pamper your face, think about your neck too. Morning and evening when you moisturize it, fight against wrinkles and spots… Above all, specifies Dr. Rachel Pessis, doctor and cosmetic surgeon, “don’t forget to continue your weekly mechanical facial peeling on the neck area and cleavage”.

Not the budget or enough space to allow you to combine face care and neck care? Never mind, facial treatments will do just fine. The main thing is that they contain the right ingredients. “Apply them with movements that go from the bottom of the neck upwards and not the other way around, so as not to crease the skin”, advises Alexis de Brosses. The pro’s bluff: before a party or after exposing your décolleté to the sun, give it a treatment rich in moisturizing active ingredients: apply a bio-cellulose mask (from the fermentation of coconut water), a texture whose biomimicry with the skin is ideal. Rich in hyaluronic acid and adenosine, these masks offer a real boost of radiance and smoothing effect to this area.

Stress your neck

Dancers, athletes, comedians, people with tics or very stressed and who grimace a lot tend to be very marked in the neck. And for good reason, when the muscles in this area are overworked, they score extremely quickly. In particular the platysma muscle, which goes from the corner of the lips to the shoulder blades like a veil. This creates vertical wrinkles on the neck.

The solution: “Facial yoga techniques are yours,” recommends Mari Lakspere. “This is’well-targeted exercises that can relax the neck muscles, but also keep them toned, but not too much“. Place mirrors around you, especially on your desk, to spot the movements you make without realizing it, and which cause you to wrinkle the area. This will help you to correct this gesture. “Every time As you apply your facial treatments, take the opportunity to relax your neck: tap it slowly with your fingertips from the jaws to the collarbones.

Finally, if this area is particularly complex for you, know thatit is also possible to intervene in a beauty salon, as Dr. Rachel Pessis explains. “To improve the appearance of the skin, we can recommend mesotherapy (a skinbooster of vitamins and nutrients to be injected for more radiance and tone), prophilo (a moisturizing remodeling treatment ideal for dry skin, lacking tone and elasticity) or even Botox (to redensify the tissues).” “If the sagging skin is moderate, it can be repaired with a little radiofrequency. If, on the other hand, it is more substantial, it will be necessary to target the tensor threads or the facelift”, explains the doctor.

Tap on her phone all day

It’s the drama of the century: “Between the fact that more and more of us are working on a computer during the day and that we spend many hours a day on a smartphone, we have developed a new posture that makes us bend our upper body like monkeys do, which is not very natural for humans“, regrets Mari Lakspere, founder of ÖKO Face Fitness. This has created a wrinkle aptly named the smartphone wrinkle.

The solution: hold your phone at eye level rather than below so you don’t have to lower your head, and thus preserve your neck and cervical spine. The pro also recommends the practice of yoga and Pilates, so as to strengthen her back and be able to maintain her straight posture over time.

Position your laptop incorrectly

Placed on a basic table, our knees on the sofa, askew on the desk… We make our head, spine and chest see all the colors that contort for hours to watch the screen. Result: shoulders bent like an elderly person and neck wrinkles that form prematurely. This bad posture has another effect according to Mari Lakspere: “it closes the lymph node pathways, which limits the circulation of flows”.

The solution: the ideal is to position your computer in a high position so that you have to stand up straight and keep your head up. Not only will it be less harmful for your neck, but in addition in this way, you will protect your back from herniated discs. Dr. Rachel Pessis recommends “taking breaks every two hours to relieve the body”, but also making sure to organize a desk at the right height and an ergonomic chair in the best case.

Wear your phone around your neck with a cord

Impossible to have missed the phenomenon of special smartphone cords which allow them to be worn over the shoulder, so as to have permanent access to them without having to rummage through their bag. But if the accessory has a certain style, it is not so good for the beauty of the neck, willingly accentuating the wrinkle of the smartphone with the weight of the phone, and the fact that you stand all the more leaning forward while using your phone. The phenomenon is also irritating if the cord is placed directly on the skin and creates friction.

The solution: only wear your smartphone with a lanyard when you really need to have it close at hand. “Make sure it is not positioned on bare skin and regularly change the direction of the shoulder strap so as not to mark the neck,” recommends Alexis de Brosses.

Expose yourself to the sun without protection

Of course, the whole body needs to be protected from the sun, whether from a health point of view (without protection, they increase the risk of developing skin cancer) and aesthetically: UV rays are the main factor in skin aging. And the neck, which is generally bare, is particularly vulnerable to the sun if it is not protected. “The sun causes horizontal wrinkles (this is called Venus’ necklace) and vertical wrinkles on the neck, but also exposure-related brown spots down to the décolleté,” explains Alexis de Brosses.

The solution: apply sun protection whenever you expose yourself, swimming, walking, but also during lunch and in town using an urban screen. “After the beach or a hike where the sun has been beating down hard, get into the habit of massaging your neck well with an after-sun face or body treatment” advises Alexis de Brosses, in order to limit the harmful effects of UV rays, while boosting hydration of the epidermis. Bonus, these treatments diffuse a summer fragrance, which we revel in after a day in the sun, but which will not be too heady.

Spray her perfume directly on her skin

There is no more refined way to diffuse a sensual fragrance through the city than to wear perfume. The downside is that the neck being very exposed to the sun, if you spray perfume just before going out in the sun, the alcohol and photo-sensitizing molecules it contains could irritate the skin or form spots.

The solution: choose a specific non-photo-sensitizing perfume or spray your usual juice on clothes rather than directly on the skin of the neck. On the other hand, it is possible to diffuse it on other pulse points that are less exposed to the sun, such as the wrists.

Do the yo-yo with your weight

Weight variations are not very good for the body in general. On the neck, they leave traces, because the skin stretches a lot there.

The solution : ideally, one should manage to maintain a stable weight and ensure that the circulation of flows is always as optimal as possible. “The neck is the bridge between the face and the body,” explains Mari Lakspere. “When you are very swollen in the neck and face, you have to restart the circulation with 3 to 5 drainage movements”, recommends the specialist. For this, smooth each side of the neck with the palms of the hands from the top to the bottom and the central part from the bottom to the top.