Giving face and body a lift, without a needle

Techniques for non-invasive aesthetic procedures that provide lifting and tightening have improved

- Vasudha Rai

A few years ago, a friend got a neck lift. She had just turned 50 and felt she needed the bit of skin tightening to feel better about growing older. For many, sagging of the skin is one of the biggest concerns when it comes to ageing. And in today's beauty landscape, plumping and lifting are the biggest drivers of the aesthetic market.

As knowledge of skincare and actives becomes commonplace, the focus on aesthetic procedures has shifted from texture and clarity to non-invasive lifting and tightening. This could be because while cosmetics address every other problem, they still cannot work on the last frontier of skincare the elasticity that keeps skin smooth, firm and youthful.

"The evolution of beauty aesthetics is influenced by several factors... in the last few years, we are more focused on tone than ever before, not just on the face but also the body," says Uma Ghosh, Dubaibased co-founder of Uma Ghosh Beauty Tools as well as the beauty and wellness school Pro Age Aesthetics Academy. "Social media and the rise of selfie culture," she says, have fuelled the trend.

Adhishwar Sharma, consultant (reconstructive and plastic surgery) at Gurugram's Fortis Memorial Research Institute, gives another reason for the shift: "Earlier, only the elderly (those above 60) used to come to remove signs of ageing but as the industry progressed and people got more disposable income, more young people also came into the fray, driving the trend of non-invasive lifting techniques, like energy machines of botox in the massseter, fillers, which work best on younger skin (30s, 40s, 50s)."