The Ideal Cosmetic Treatments for Holiday Break

Holiday break is the perfect time to treat yourself to non-surgical treatments that can have you looking rested and rejuvenated by New Year’s. Beverly Hills oculoplastic surgeon Dr. Christopher Zoumalan shares the top procedures patients are scheduling.

I definitely see an uptick in blepharoplasty and browlift procedures towards the end of December, especially when many offices are closed and patients take their remaining days off before the end of the year. However, many women and men don’t want to spend their time off recuperating from surgery, and this is why non-surgical treatments are ideal for holiday break. In most cases, we’re able to provide patients with dramatic results with just a few days of downtime at most—or no downtime at all.

Problem: Loss of volume in the under-eye and cheek areas
Solution: Injectable fillers and Botox
The aging process commonly causes loss of volume between the eyes and cheeks, which can lead to a hollow appearance as well dark circles and a fatigued look. These concerns can be easily treated with injectables, and the proper products in the right places help restore a more youthful, rested appearance.

In my practice, using a combination of injectable fillers and Botox to rejuvenate this area is called The Youth Lift. Botox is carefully placed around the eyes to minimize the appearance of crow’s feet, as well as above the eyebrows to give them a subtle lift. The injectable fillers used often include Voluma to restore plumpness to the cheeks, and a lighter-density hyaluronic-acid filler like Restylane to fill the area under the eyes. Although the specific injectable fillers used may depend on the patient’s unique needs and their desired goals, a combination of products usually yields the smoothest transition between these two parts of the face. The quick “refresh” provided by a combination of Botox and injectable fillers is perfect for holiday break, and often achieves the rejuvenating results that a full eight hours of sleep and makeup cannot. Many patients also opt to start using Latisse to help lengthen, thicken and darken the lashes as well to enhance their new-and-improved eye area.

Problem: Visibly aged skin, rough texture and acne scars
Solution: Microneedling and platelet-rich plasma (PRP)
For safe, effective skin rejuvenation over holiday break with significantly less downtime than laser resurfacing, microneedling is a popular treatment this time of year. This non-invasive treatment creates micro-wounds in the skin that stimulates the skin’s wound response—which includes the production of collagen. I usually recommend adding PRP as well, as isolating the most beneficial components of a patient’s own blood and applying it to the skin helps promote faster healing and provides improvement in discoloration while enhancing the skin-smoothing results. I also suggest patients use a growth factor product such as Skinuva (which has been clinically proven to help healing after microneedling) for the week after treatment to obtain the best possible results—which are visible as soon as a few days afterwards. (In my practice, this combination of microneedling, PRP and Skinuva is called NuvaNeedling.)

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