Reflections: The French Face

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Nora Ephron had it right with her famous line, “Our faces are lies, but our neck is the truth.” The neck and décolleté are often the areas where the signs of aging first appear. There are a number of reasons for this. Of course, the skin here is thinner than other parts of the face and body. Also, the décolleté is often overexposed and underprotected when it comes to sun damage. However, one of the main reasons that this area shows the signs of aging first is that many men and women focus their skin care regimen on their face and forget to take it all the way down to the neck and décolleté, a secret French women have known for decades.

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Since they are young, French girls are taught that the proper skin care routine involves effective cleansing both morning and night and taking their treatment products far beyond the face to the neck and chest. After all, décolleté is a French adjective for a low-neck garment. The phrase “the French face” has even been used to describe the neck and chest region, an essential treatment area for skin care.

Skin care practitioners who take a more European approach to facials likely spend a moderate amount of time on this area; however, for those of you who spend little time on it or would like to brush up on or expand your treatment offerings for the neck and décolleté, this issue of Skin Inc. is for you.

On Page 40, Terri Wojak starts by reviewing the skin differences between the neck/décolleté and the rest of the body, highlighting common conditions for the area before going into medspa treatments that are effective at treating the region. She also discusses ingredients in topical products that are beneficial for the neck and décolleté.

If your spa is in need of products to address this area, our editors have put together a group of products shown to beautify the neck and décolleté on Page 46. Incorporate these products into your treatments or offer them in your retail to ensure the youthfulness of clients’ “French faces.”

Finally, on Page 64, we are featuring an article from 2005 on treatments for the neck and décolleté that is as relevant now as it was back then. In the article, Mary Bemis highlights the importance of treating the area before detailing what the neck and décolleté treatments well-known spas are offering and including insight from those spas’ management.

If you aren’t giving the neck and décolleté enough love in your treatment menu, we hope this issue of Skin Inc. convinces you to do an about face...or rather a French face.

Yours in Education,

Katie Anderson

Katie Anderson

Senior Managing Editor

[email protected]

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