Need Neck Therapy? How to Minimize Signs of Aging on the Neck
The neck seems to always give away a person’s age. The skin on the neck is thin, contains fewer sebaceous glands, and is just as vulnerable to damage as the delicate area around the eyes.
But the real answer as to why your skin shows your age lies in how you treat it. Your face is easier to remember to take care of since it stares back at you in the mirror. By just giving your neck some therapy, too, you can look younger.
Learn how to treat your sagging neck:
Why your neck wrinkles and sags
The first wrinkles to appear on the neck are horizontal rings called Venus’s rings, which are a result from repeated neck stretching. Repeated movements are only one of the causes of wrinkles, however.
The real culprits that cause neck wrinkles and sags are free radicals and inflammation. Free radicals are unstable cells that damage healthy skin cells to regain stability. When the free radical steals an electron to become stable, the molecule from which it stole the electron becomes a free radical.
Collagen is one molecule in particular that gets targeted by free radicals because of its abundance throughout the body. Collagen is an important protein because it essentially holds the body together, and in particular, gives skin its suppleness and tautness. When free radicals attack collagen, a process called cross-linking occurs. Cross-linking causes collagen molecules which normally slide over each other to become stiff and inflexible. This damage and inflexibility results in sagging and wrinkles.
External factors such as cigarette smoke and UV radiation cause free radicals, but your body’s natural processes, like digestion, do too. Free radicals are one cause of inflammation, the other culprit. When free radical damage occurs, arachidonic acid is produced, which then activates the chemicals that produce inflammation. In turn, inflammation causes free radicals. All of this accelerates the signs of aging on the neck and other parts of the body.
Since the neck has less oil glands, the skin on the neck gets less therapy than your face. Your skin needs oils to stay hydrated and supple. The neck is also more easily damaged by UV radiation because it has fewer melanocytes, the cells which produce melanin. Melanin is important because it helps protect skin from the sun’s rays.
How to give your sagging neck therapy it needs
To start, when you apply sunscreen to your face, be sure to also apply it to your neck (and other exposed skin areas, like your hands, while you’re at it). 15 minutes before you step outside, apply sunscreen with at least SPF 15. Some moisturizers contain SPF to help eliminate one step from your daily regimen.
Then, be sure to apply a topical product that can help boost collagen production. For example, vitamin C ester, found in a number of Perricone products, helps stimulate the growth of fibroblasts, the cells that help produce collagen and elastin, another important protein that gives skin its structure.
Consider Perricone Active Tinted Moisturizer with SPF 15. This moisturizer, formulated with vitamin C ester as well as alpha lipoic acid and DMAE, is a great way to give your neck the sun protection it needs. The anti-aging key sciences in this treatment helps to lift and tone while minimizing the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines. When applying to the face, be sure to extend down to the neck to give it therapy, too.
Finally, if your neck skin is sagging, a topical product with Palmitoyl Carnosine, a peptide, can help firm and smooth skin. Palmitoyl Carnosine has anti-glycating qualities, which helps prevent wrinkles and loss of elasticity. Glycation, a process that occurs when sugar attaches to a protein, causes the aforementioned cross-linking which results in sagging and inflexible skin.
Perricone Firming Neck Therapy is formulated with Palmitoyl Carnosine as well as Phospholipids and Tocotrienols.
Phospholipids help to repair and treat dry and damaged skin, while Tocotrienols deliver antioxidant and emollient benefits to nourish dry skin and improve skin’s overall health. These ingredients are especially helpful for giving your neck therapy since it is in need of extra hydration due to its having less sebaceous glands.
I am in my early 50s and have recently lost weight. My neck seemed to change after the weight-loss. It looks old compared to the rest of my face area. Help please!
I would love to try this! I am 35 but my neck is aging so much faster than my face!
I would love to try this product! I am 45 years old…I look young, but my neck dates me.
My son told me that I look funny in our Christmas card this year…I said “why?” and he said “it’s your neck mom!”
Dr. Perricone, can you help me?
I am a jewelry designer and stylist, an avid blogger, tenthingsblog.com and twitter-er with over 2,400 followers http://twitter.com/ten10things and would love nothing more than to tell the world that your products work!
Thank you! I look forward to hearing from you!
I am all for testing….then testifying!!!
I love trying new products. I love telling people about new products I have found. This product would be great for me as I am 34 & already seeing sagging in my neck. I hate it. Hope you’ll consider me!
I am 59 but look 10 years ouoonger except for my neck. I would love to try your neck cream as the others I have tried did not seem to do anything.
I am 39 years old and in general have very good skin. My face has very few wrinkles and the rest of my body has survived the test of time and 2 children (no stretch marks or cellulite)but my neck definitely needs some help. The skin has become very loose and just does not look very healthy compared to the rest of my body. I would love to be able to try this product and see if there is actually a product out there that can improve my neck skin.
Iam turning the big 60 this year, the signs of ageing seem to be excelerating. I really want to try DP products. I watch TSC in Canada. I would love to become a tester.
35 yrs old…have noticed neck sagging and wrinkly the past few months. Also dealing with early menopause which began when I turned 30. I think lack of hormones has really begun to affect my skin. Please send samples!
I have horizontal lines going across my neck. I am 37 and they have become prominent since i had children. They are now really obvious, and make me look like i have some sort of disease!
I’m interested in being a product tester. I need to give my neck some attention.
I’m a good candidate for this product! I’m 47, but frequently mistaken for 10 years younger. I’m noticing my age in my neck though. I’ts just starting – that crepe-y looking skin at my throat and the beginnings of the dreaded wattle! Yikes – help me nip it in the bud!
I’m 52, my face looks 40 but my neck looks 55. Recently divorced and hoping to date again, I would love to try something to minimize the old looking neck
I saw this presented on QVC and would really love to try this and review it!
HELP!
I’m still really young and already notice a change in the way my neck looks.I would love to find something that actually helps this.
I’m 34 years old, I’m stating to see the signs of age on my neck. I’ve trying to us the same cream from my face, however, my face is oil and my neck is not. I need to try this product to see if it really works!
Who doesn’t want their neck to look better? At least anyone over 40 for sure. It’s one area that’s hard to hide. And I’d love to be a tester.
Of all the products, I would love to be a tester of this one. I am 56, am proud to have a pretty smooth and unwrinkled face, but my neck is another story!! I guess that’s where my face wrinkles went! As a recent empty nester, I want to look younger as I “reconnect” with my husband. Please help me do that by being able to test the firming neck product! Thanks!
Yes, I would like to try it.
I have been using a sample of the Firming Neck Therapy for 2 weeks now and already I can see a huge improvement in firmness.
It’s funny, I really never thought to pay attention to my neck, even though my genetics would say otherwise. Dr. Perricone, I’d LOVE a bottle of this!
I would like to try for neck area also
This is one of the few products I have not tried. I would love to get a sample and/or become a tester. My neck is in the early stages of aging (I am 38). I would love to see if those lines (I feel like a tree trunk!) start to go away. I can tell my neck is in need of something. What better than a Perricone treatment?! So…feel free and send my way.
Would love to try the cream as I have noticed more sagging in my neck and lower face lately.
I really need to try this product!!!!!
yeah it does work!
I need and would love to try the Neck Therapy cream because my neck looks its age of 50 but my face does not. I can’t stand my neck that has the “chords” stretching vertically. It is disgusting to me, and I cannot afford plastic surgery to pull these throat lines and chords back and up. I would love to see how Dr. Perricone’s neck therapy works!