A new face
October 1, 2009 by admin
Filed under Cover Story, Featured
Story by Cathie Beck
It’s the summer of ’72, and my three sisters, my mother and I baste our bodies with Johnson & Johnson baby oil, then lie all day in the sun in Kleenex-sized bikinis. We light Kool 100 Menthols and we are hot — in more ways than one.
Before
Fast forward to the summer of ’09 and the skin that did all that backyard baking? Um, not so hot. Splotched, mottled dermis wraps my 54-year-old face and arms, and my chest sports big brown globs of I don’t know what. Though I quit smoking decades ago, an adorable circle of permanent mouth wrinkles frames my lips, and the ever-critical eye squint one adopts when chain-smoking has left lovely, multi-tiered creases across my forehead.
Oh yeah — and I’m 15 pounds heavier than that sizzling 1972 summer.
I decide I’m not going down like this. So the spring of ’09, I determine to push the delete button on the last 37 years. I lose the 15 pounds and decide that I want skin that looks like that summer of 1972 never happened.
I’m the opposite of plastic anything. I eat organic, run four miles six times a week, sleep seven to eight hours a night and attend a 90-minute yoga class every Monday evening, whether I need it or not. Yet I can’t help wonder: What would I look like if I’d never smoked or spent all those summers in the sun? What if I’d used good skin-care products, not Costco-bought body splash to wash my face all these decades?
After.
Plastic Surgery Research.info, a Web site dedicated to cosmetic surgery stats, shows that interest in procedures is up. Since 1997, surgical procedures have increased 142 percent, and nonsurgical procedures have jumped 743 percent. In 2007, more than 10.6 million women had some sort of cosmetic surgery, the site reports.
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons tells a similar story, adding that $12.4 billion was spent on cosmetic procedures in 2007 alone. Whether it’s for you or not, there’s no doubt that cosmetic surgery is a big issue in America today.
Mammoth body and face makeover reality shows and “lunch-hour” facelift ads dive me headfirst into research. I interview a “Thermage” guy, who, for three treatments totaling $5,000, promises to make me look like his nurse-sales lady — who’s a dead ringer for Tammy Faye Baker.
Another Boulder surgeon I talk to is months from retirement and mad about something — and do I want a short-timer with anger issues possibly cutting on me? A Denver surgeon flat-out stands me up, and a botox gal with a new spa has hand tremors as she shows me her product line.
This is all nerve-wracking. New “cosmetic centers” and “rejuvenation centers” pop up like Starbucks.
But I keep searching, and I end up in Joel Meyers’s Aesthetic Center and Medical Spa in Longmont. Immediately I feel comfortable, primarily because he won’t do what I ask him to.
“A forehead lift by itself will look out of context with the rest of your facial features,” he says. And then he starts with healthy skin talk. “We start with the simplest things possible. Our concept is that beautiful skin is healthy skin.”
Not exactly what you’d expect in a plastic surgeon’s office. Perhaps there is more to this field than the media typically presents.
And so begins the beauty rejuvenation plan. The four-month process, starting in May, involves skin-care products; chemical peels and Intense Pulsed Light (to get the skin healthy); a face-lift (to erase the “jowly” jaw line); and blepharoplasty of the lower eyelids (to remove under-eye bags).
Yes, the cost — which would total almost $7,500 — could have been a downpayment on a new car or a time-share in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. But I don’t want a new car. (Though the time-share doesn’t sound bad.)
This is more fun than it is critically important. I have a theory that a lot of people give up at middle age, in more ways than one. We’re living to be 100 now. Why give up when you’re only halfway there?
Then I meet Beryl Reker, Meyers’ paramedical aesthetician.
Beryl’s skin sells me. I learn this is what happens with nearly every new client. Beryl’s skin is creamy and delicious: all white, and smooth and dewy and lovely. She’s in her late 50s but has the skin of a 30-something.
“It’s about education,” says Reker, who works independently with a few doctors in Colorado, one of which is Meyers. “I’m not a product junky. I believe that you don’t need 10 products to get skin healthy. The first line of defense again aging skin is putting nutrients in and protecting the skin.”
This means a balanced diet — including lots of water, vegetables, low-fat foods and sleep. And sunscreen. Definitely not Johnson & Johnson baby oil.
They give me a regime of medical-grade skin repair products, including iS brand serums, Vivite face and eye creams and a prescription for Retin A, as well as over-the-counter products like vitamins and AmLactin skin lotion. As the weeks go on, I begin to look and feel better. But it’s not all a golden-bricked walk through Beauty Oz.
The skin products, including moisturizer, skin serums, an eye cream and a mineral-based sunblock, feel decadent and lovely on my face, like satin upon my skin.
The chemical peels — a couple mild ones and a couple of medium ones — leave my skin shedding. Very much like a snake. For weeks. Wearing black is out of the question. And one day when I stand up from a friend’s maroon velvet couch, I’m mortified to see giant white-gray skin chunks flaked all across the fabric.
Moreover, surgery’s still surgery and not for the faint-of-heart, although it didn’t hurt or bleed. Riding home after my lower eyelid tuck (for pouches) and s-lift (for sagging chin line), my giant, gauzed-and-compression-garmented head — viewed by passengers in other cars — nearly causes a fender bender.
In June, one week post-op, I am weeding the garden and end up on the couch with an hour-long dizzy spell. I’d figured the “no exertion for two weeks” instructions clearly didn’t apply to me. Or so I thought.
But that was the worst of it. Ten days out, there is no swelling like I’d been warned could happen, and if I put on sunglasses and a little lipstick, no one can tell I’ve had anything done. I feel, in a word, fresh. That’s when I know I’d done what was right for me.
Obviously, plastic surgery isn’t for everyone. Meyers calls a good candidate someone he thinks he can make happy and help. Someone with realistic expectations.
“When a potential patient comes in, we are interviewing each other,” he says.
And he reiterates that beautiful skin is healthy skin. After that, he often recommends simpler approaches toward skin rejuvenation, such as botox and filler material, which can be injected into crevasses and can fill out hollow areas.
“A lot can be accomplished with just those steps,” Meyers says.
Then there are Intense Pulse Light treatments and other non-ablative light or laser treatments. These treatments break up those dark, veiny things that appear on skin, as well as age and other sun-damaged spots. Skin becomes clear, light and unblemished again.
“Excess pigment, excess hair, enlarged pores, spider veins and facial flushing can all be treated non-invasively, in a very comprehensive and dramatic fashion,” Meyers says.
My comprehensive physical transformation feels very, very right for me. It hasn’t given me any new lease on life or anything. I still have misgivings about stuff, the same as anyone else. But I feel rejuvenated. I feel I’m the best 54-year-old I can be, in all aspects of my life: spiritually, mentally and (now) physically. A redo won’t save a marriage or instill needed confidence where there was little to begin with.
But a little bit of undoing of young-bikini’d-girl’s ill-conceived behavior? It’s like getting your entire house remodeled and landscaped.
With so many “medical spa” businesses popping up, and so much not-so-great-looking surgery aftermaths, one of the most difficult steps is trying to decide what to do — and with whom.
Meyers recommends finding someone who listens to your needs and comes up with a plan to meet these goals. I echo his recommendation. Analogous to dating someone new, it’s about feeling comfortable and not pressured.
Which worked for me and my 30-odd years of only minimally protecting my skin. I don’t feel or look plastic or shiny or “surgeried.” My skin is nice, but not flawless. I’ve still got lines and spots on my arms and hands, but I believe 80 to 90 percent of the initial blotches are gone. Now I feel undamaged, healthy and like I should.
The 1972-inspired sun damaged skin is gone.
And though I’ll never wear a Kleenex-sized bikini again, I know that I could — if I wanted to — with a bit more confidence than I had a few months back.
Myth busters
Myth No. 1: Cosmetic procedures change your life. Cosmetic procedures don’t take an unhappy person and turn them into a happy person.
Myth No. 2: Because it’s new, it’s better. New treatments and procedures are constantly becoming available. Select a plan with someone who continually studies and researches new treatments and procedures.
Myth No. 3: Liposuction is a good way to lose weight. Liposuction should not be used for weight loss but should instead be used for disproportionate pockets of fat that don’t diminish through a monitored diet and exercise program.
Myth No. 4: Botox creates a frozen or unnatural appearance. When administered by an experienced individual it is safe, and when administered conservatively and carefully it can provide a natural appearance.
Source: Joel Meyers, owner of Meyers Aesthetic Center and Medical Spa in Longmont.
Costs of the summer of 2009 new face:
Vitamin C, $10
Amlactin skin cream, $13
Vivite hydrating cream, $50
Eye cream, $69
IS active serum, $120
IS super serum, $135
Intense Pulse Light, $400
Chemical peels, four at $75 each
Blepharoplasty surgery, $2,420
S-Lift (face lift) surgery, $3,960
Total: $7,480
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