Are your aspirations for the New Year only skin deep? Rest easy because hi-tech beauty aids are getting more alluring and cutting-edge with every year that passes. And, if you’ve been fearful of trying out anything that remotely resembles surgery, remember that billions of dollars is going into making these beauty treatments swifter and more painless.

“With every passing year, the technology to attain flawless and youthful skin is getting more and more advanced,” says Dr Navin Taneja of Delhi’s National Skin.

There is something for everyone no matter the age, skin or body type.

“Less downtime — that’s time taken to completely recover — and the effectiveness of the treatments is keeping the number of clients seeking beauty enhancement clinics on an all-time high,” says Dr Chiranjiv Chhabra of Skin Alive, a skin and beauty clinic in Delhi.

“Our new-age treatments like the Perfect 10 Face Lift and the Pumpkin Peel Facial are gaining popularity with men and women on the wrong side of 30,” says Dr Shobha Sehgal of VLCC Health Care.

No scarring and no surgery — that’s the promise of all the new treatments that are available right now. All you need to do is consult the experts in the field and take a call...

Caffeine serum shots around the eye area help reduce puffiness and dark circles

FABULOUS FACE
Caffeine cure

You may love the caffeine kick in your coffee but now your skin will love to soak it in. Found in plants like coffee and green tea, caffeine is known to reduce the size of the blood vessels and is being used in numerous eye creams to reduce puffiness and the dark circles around the eyes. Caffeine serums are a big hit too. “These days caffeine serum injections are becoming increasingly popular for rejuvenating the skin around the eyes,” says Taneja.

To rid yourself of those crow’s feet, dark circles and under-eye puffiness, caffeine serum can be injected with a syringe around the eye area. “Caffeine speeds up the flow of blood in the micro-capillaries around the eye, which makes the skin in the area look fresher and brighter,” says Taneja.

What’s more, a cocktail of caffeine serum and hyaluronic acid fillers (dermal fillers) as well as different injectible vitamins can be injected on the face using a mesotherapy gun for an instant glow.

Number of sessions: 4 to 5
Cost: Rs 5,000 onwards per session
Downtime: An hour or two

The Pumpkin Peel Facial treats dull and pigmented skin to the goodness of pumpkin and acts as a preventive against dryness, ageing and acne

Pumpkin Peel Facial

This one is for all skin types. If you are sick of hyper-pigmentation, dry, acne prone, allergy-prone or ageing skin and want to treat it with something natural, then the latest Pumpkin Peel Facial by VLCC is loaded with promise. If you’re on the wrong side of 30 (and counting) then this treatment will serve as an anti-ageing maintenance therapy.

“The Pumpkin Peel Facial is made of pumpkin which is good for regeneration of cells and acts as a preventive against dryness, ageing and acne,” says Sehgal.

What makes the peel work wonders on the skin is the goodness of beta carotene (a substance from plants that the body converts into vitamin A), Vitamins C, P and F as well as enzymes extracted from pumpkin. Packed together all these cleanse the skin, remove the dead cells and enhance the skin tone/ texture. It also helps in cell renewal, treats hyper-pigmentation and improves hydration, leaving the skin with a healthy glow that lasts for weeks.

Unlike other peels which could make the skin turn red or blotchy and prone to hyper-pigmentation on exposure to the sun, the pumpkin peel does not have any visible peeling effect after the therapy.

Number of sessions: Eight sessions (once a week). A single session for maintenance can be opted for after the completion of the treatment.

Cost: Rs 4,500 per session

Duration: 1 hour

Perfect 10 Face Lift

There are facelifts and then there are facelifts. VLCC’s latest Perfect 10 Face Lift is a new-age cosmetic technique that’s specially designed to lift and tighten sagging skin with the thread-lift technique.

Perfect 10 Face Lift tightens sagging skin with the painless thread-lift technique

For this facelift, the suture or thread is looped into a fine needle and the needle is introduced into the skin at the location where the thread is to be placed. The needle is then withdrawn leaving the thread under the skin. These sutures create a mesh under the skin and uplift the skin’s sagging areas. “This technique uses bio-absorbable and anti-microbial filament threads which stimulate the formation of collagen in the skin giving it a ‘lift’,” says Sehgal. This together with the increased blood flow results in the rejuvenation of the skin along with a lifting effect.

A skin-numbing cream is applied on the area to be treated that makes the procedure practically painless. The optimum effect is visible after three months. The sutures don’t have to be removed as they dissolve automatically. But after the procedure facials should be avoided for some weeks.

Number of sessions: Results are achieved in one session but repeated sessions are recommended for long-lasting results

Cost: Starts from Rs 3,500 onwards (depending on the area and the number of threads recommended)

Downtime: Minimal downtime, slight bruising and redness may occur which subsides in a few days.

Cool Multipolar RF

A cutting-edge new technique, the Cool Multipolar Radio Frequency treatment rejuvenates and tightens the skin

Yes, the Bipolar Radio Frequency treatment has been around to treat sagging skin. But check this one out — the Cool Multipolar Radio Frequency treatment which is the latest and most advanced treatment that’s been gaining ground with men and women looking for skin tightening and rejuvenation. The machine comes with a hand-piece with eight copper-tipped points emitting radio frequency waves. While the radio frequency waves (at temperatures between 70°C and 80°C) heat and rejuvenate the collagen underneath the skin, the cooling tip of the hand-piece cools the skin’s surface. This advanced machine works not just on sagging skin but also improves its appearance.

“Results are long-lasting depending on your skin condition,” says Taneja.

Number of sessions: 4 to 5

Cost: Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 onwards per session.

Downtime: No downtime and any redness that results usually disappears in a day.

THE BODY BEAUTIFUL

Cynergy’s Multiplex Pulse Dye Laser

Get rid of vascular lesions and redness with Cynergy’s Multiplex Pulse Dye Laser

This procedure uses a machine called the Cynergy Vascular Workstation, which offers a combination of two lasers — pulse-dye laser and Nd:YAG long pulse laser to get rid of vascular-lesions (numerous or large vessels that form underneath the skin and result in redness of the skin). “The wavelengths of both the lasers are perfect for performing vascular-related applications,” says Chhabra.

The pulse-dye laser effectively targets vascular lesions such as portwine stains (a birthmark with swollen blood vessels), smaller red vessels and scars. On the other hand, the Nd:YAG laser is particularly effective for treating larger facial and leg veins, facial and leg telangiectasias (widely open or dilated blood vessels in the outer layer of the skin), spider veins, mature portwine, rosacea (a skin condition that makes your face turn red and may cause swelling), scars and warts and other vascular malformations.

Number of sessions: 8 sessions, once a week

Cost per session: Rs 3,000 onwards

Downtime: No downtime

Cryo Body Sculpting

For those men and women who aren’t obese but unhappy with the bulging love handles and the extra fat around the abdomen, back or arms can go for this advanced treatment meant to target specific fatty areas.

Getting rid of area-specific fat is now possible with Cryo Body Sculpting

Cryo Body Sculpting is the latest technology that has recently been approved by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in which cold energy from the machine’s probe almost freezes the fat cells to a point that they are destroyed. These destroyed fat cells then exit the body through sweat and urine. This treatment can be performed within an hour or two depending on the area of treatment.

“Cryo sculpting is not as effective or precise as liposuction but it can be used to shrink away small areas of fat,” says Taneja.

Number of sessions: 4 to 5

Cost: Rs 12,000 onwards per session

Downtime: No downtime

 

MANE MAGIC

Hair fibre

If you have been losing sleep over balding and thinning hair, then check this out — Advance Hair Studio’s (AHS) hair fibres which claim to give your scalp an appearance of a full hair in 30 seconds flat!

This hair fibre comes in a black, dark brown, medium brown and light brow shades so that you can pick the hair fibre close to the colour of your own hair. These hair fibres are laser-cut with great precision into micro-sized-fibres and are sprinkled on the balding area. Once sprinkled, these hair fibres electrostatically bond and blend with your existing hair. This (almost magically) builds up the volume of your hair and minimises the appearance of thinning hair.

The micro-composition of the hair fibres is such that they stay bonded to your existing hair and can only be removed when you wash them out with shampoo. Yes, it’s a temporary treatment which lasts as long as your next hair-wash.

Number of sessions: 1

Cost: On request

Downtime: No downtime

Strand by Strand is an advanced hair replacement technique

Strand by Strand Ultimate

As the name suggests, this technique by Advanced Hair Studio (AHS) addresses the loss of hair — strand-by-strand. This one-day procedure is painless as it doesn’t involve any cuts, with no skin removed, or any stitches given and no resulting itching. This procedure is carried out using AHS’s patented and advanced instruments with the help of which each hair follicle is removed individually from the donor area (usually back of your neck) and is implanted into the bald region — strand-by-strand. The procedure doesn’t leave any scars.

Number of sessions: One sitting

Cost: On request

Downtime: 6 to 8 hours

Photographs by Rupinder Sharma