THE FUTURE OF MY FACE

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Despite warnings from wrist-slapping pundits, I never really believed the lifestyle you lead could show on your face.  We have wrinkle doctors, Touche Eclat and endless ways to manipulate light for that. It seemed absurd that my monthly benders or daily chocolate bar could make any difference.

But earlier this year, I was forced into a rethink after stumbling upon changemyface.com, a website run by Auriole Prince, a forensic artist specialising
in Age Progression.   Trained by the FBI, Prince’s day job is in ageing missing persons and criminals in police investigations.  The lifestyle an individual has led, she says, plays a key part in the way she ages their face.  Now through her site, people can have their images manipulated in the same way to see how they would look after certain surgery procedures or – if they really wanted it – how they would age after a life spent smoking, drinking or eating too much of the wrong foods.

Staring down the barrel of 42, I’d begun to notice signs that perhaps my lifestyle was making me look older.  Morning ‘pillow marks’ took longer to disappear, I needed to see my reflection in ever-lowering light to be able to leave the house with self-esteem intact, only to get a fright when – under the normal wattage of any public toilet mirror – I saw what I really looked like.  Shopkeepers always called me ‘madam’. People asked me ‘what’s wrong’ when I was perfectly happy.  I had begun to notice the same signs of age in my girlfriends.  Even the Botoxed ones.

‘After 40, your body stops forgiving you for your lifestyle,’ said my dermatologist, Dr Nicholas Lowe at London’s Cranley Clinic, coming at me with a syringe containing my bi-annual botulinum toxin top-up.  ‘Botox and filler can only do so much,’ he said. ‘But smoking, drinking and eating a diet high in sugar can do irreversible damage.’

Studies on identical twins like these have compared one leading a healthy life with another that has smoked, drank and eaten a diet high in processed food and sugar and seen around 15 years added to the appearance of the skin.

In the past there have been days when I can’t face a deadline without a Galaxy Bar or three.  Having smoked sporadically in my 20s – about a pack of 20 every couple of days – I gave it up at 30 though I’m still known to have the odd puff after a few merlots.

Ahh merlot – my friend.  Getting older hasn’t mellowed my taste for it.  I used to have a glass of red every other night, and every couple of weeks go out and get a little tipsy – well okay, shattered – with my girlfriends.  Most women I know drink the same way.  Anyone of them will tell you that’s absolutely normal, for any professional, 30 or 40 something with a social life, family and stressful job.

My nights out had even developed their own name.  Shout Offs.   Feeling ‘let out’ I would get so happy go lucky I’d somehow end up taking unregistered mini-cabs home, screaming in private clubs about the state of the economy and flirting with strange men so that post night out  my handbag contained cards from pimply insurance salesmen.  The summer before last my husband Kevin, after spotting me clutching my wine glass while watering the garden, began to call me ‘Joanie’ followed by a little hiccup, after a boozing Joan Crawford.

To investigate exactly what lifestyle does to skin, I talked to experts in ageing, dermatology and plastic surgery and asked Auriole Prince to doctor my image using Age Progression techniques showing what I would look like in ten years time as a result of smoking, drinking or eating too much sugar.

 NOW AT 42

As I am now (plus good lighting)

‘In the photo of Anna as she really is today there’s still a lack of wrinkles and the skin has a plump, smooth texture, evidence of good genes and a reasonably good lifestyle in her 30s,’ says Dr Lowe.  ‘In the doctored shots, Anna looks at least ten-15 years older with deep wrinkles, skin redness, bloating and sagging.  These photographs show exactly what an unhealthy lifestyle can do to your face.’

 AFTER A DECADE OF SMOKING

In ten years at 52, after a decade of smoking 20 a day

Deep wrinkles ‘Smoking makes all lines worse by damaging the collagen and elastin in the skin that give it its plumpness,’ says anti-ageing physician Dr Lynette Yong.

Tooth damage ‘Smoking, as well as red wine and orange sugary drinks stain teeth,’ says Harley Street dental surgeon Dr Simon Darfoor.   ‘Smoking also leads to gum disease and tooth loss with 42 per cent of smokers aged over 60 having none of their own teeth.’

Sagging brow, eyelids and cheeks ‘With age the muscles, fat and bones under the skin shrink and this can lead to sagging,’ says Dr Yong.  ‘Smoking deoxygenates the blood so you get less nutrients going to the skin, dramatically accelerating this sagging’.

Dark circles ‘Reduced circulation makes skin appear sluggish and dark circles become more prominent,’ says Dr Yong.

10 YEARS OF BOOZING

After ten years of three small glasses or two large glasses of wine every night

Redness  ‘Drinking causes enlargement of the blood vessels,’ says Dr Lowe. ‘This causes flushing and if you’re prone to rosacea, could exacerbate it’.

Thread veins ‘After flushing from occasional or moderate drinking, blood vessels usually bounce back,’ says Dr Lowe.  ‘But if someone with a tendency towards flushing drinks to excess night after night, in as little as two years the blood vessels lose tone and they can end up with permanent redness and thread veins’.

Faint necklace lines.  ‘These go horizontally across the neck and occur at points where the skin attaches to underlying tissue to hold the skin up,’ says Dr Yong.  ’These lines are hereditary and little that can be done about them other than surgery though drinking, smoking, sun exposure and a sugary diet can make them worse.    Plus, if you have poor neck posture and chronically slump your chin  forward, then the tissues over time sag and make these lines more prominent’.   

 Crow’s feet  ‘Big drinkers are chronically deficient in vitamin A which is essential to collagen and elastin formation,’ says plastic surgeon Dr Jonathan Staiano, of Liberate Cosmetic Surgery Group.

Forehead lines  ‘Drinking dehydrates the skin leaving which can lead to sallowness, deepening of wrinkles and increased dryness,’ says Dr Yong.

A DECADE’S JUNK AND SUGAR HABIT

If I spend the next years gorging on sugar, cakes, junk food and refined carbs

Lines and sagging

‘A diet high in sugar and high glycaemic carbohydrates such as breads, rice, starches, potatoes, baked goods, pastas, desserts and soft drinks can lead to glycation in the skin,’ says Dr Nicholas Perricone, dermatologist and the world’s leading authority on diet and ageing.  ‘This is where sugar molecules attach to collagen fibres and cause them to lose their strength and flexibility so the skin becomes less elastic and more vulnerable to sun damage, lines and sagging.’  Avoid over-exercise.  ’Too much physical exertion in the form of long periods spent on running and other aerobic exercise or hours of weight training can have a detrimental effect on skin and promote ageing,’ says Dr Nicholas Perricone.  ’This causes the production of more of the same inflammatory free radicals that a sugary diet produces’.

Waxy, bloated face ‘Too much sugar and white, refined carbohydrates can give skin a soft, doughy look,’ says Dr Perricone.  ‘The sharp definition, contoured cheekbones and crisp jaw line become blurred because carbs create an inflammatory response that causes more inflexible skin, puffiness and a loss of radiance.’

Pimples ‘A high sugar diet makes you more prone to infection,’ says Dr Staiano.  ‘In the skin this manifests as acne and as bugs feed on sugar, the more you eat the more pimples you may have.’

Grey, thin skin ‘Eating a low protein diet makes the epidermis or outer layer of the skin thin and crepey, leaving it looking grey and sallow,’ says Dr Staiano.

AGE PROGRESSION IMAGE HOW I WILL LOOK ANYWAY

Still scary enough to turn me back to the Merlot.

Nothing prepared me for how real these images would look.  My husband Kevin was walking past the computer and caught a glimpse as I opened the one after ten years spent eating a high sugar, high junk food diet.  I thought I looked like the pre-diet Monica Gellor.  But he wasn’t impressed.

‘One word,’ he said. ’Divorce.’   I don’t think he was joking.  But then again, he is no Mona Lisa himself.  See below.

he is the one on the left

I couldn’t relate to the images and talked about them in the third person while going through the wrinkle-by-wrinkle damage with the doctors.  ‘In the smoking one, she looks saggy…,’ I would say, unable to believe it was me.

Although I am  often the delivery girl for many a heart disease or liver cirrhosis warning in print, there has been nothing more powerful than this excursion into the future of my face to drive home the effect of my lifestyle on my face.

Since seeing the images I have thanked God repeatedly that I gave up smoking 12 years ago, virtually given up sugar altogether and cut back dramatically on my drinking even managing one complete night out on mineral water in a wine glass – no one even noticed.

Read more about this and how to control some of the damage in the November issue of UK Marie Claire magazine

Video series: THE NEW TWEAKS AND TUCKS

 

I have produced this video about blepharoplasty (upper eyelid surgery done under local anaesthetic) featuring plastic and reconstructive surgeon Charles Nduka, founder of safercosmeticsurgery.co.uk and the Liberate Group.  One of the most talented surgeons in the UK, Mr Nduka specialises in facial reconstruction which he performs regularly for the NHS.  The results of this operation you’ll see are stunning.  I watched the whole thing and it took about an hour, she chatted throughout and got up afterwards and her friend took her home.   Toni was beautiful before, but afterwards she looked radiant, like she had been on a long holiday.

This is part of a new wave in surgery where smaller, faster nippettes and mini-lifts with shorter recovery times, higher safety levels and much  more subtle results  can be done as day surgeries. Best of all, there are no tell tale wind tunnel signs of massive ‘jobs’ (very last century). Tweaks and tucks are the future of cosmetic surgery.  You read it here first peeps. More to come.

My Big Fat Hairy Greek Life

You think that's hairy? You ain't seen nothin'...My ongoing battle with the mighty bush

Hello, my name is Anna and I’m a depilation addict. I’ve been attempting hairlessness for the last 25 years.  It shouldn’t be a problem along the lines of say, other –aholisms, like drink, drugs, gambling or sex.  But it is.   You see, I am hairier than most men.  Think not of soft downy lady-hair but thick, black, coarse hair that grows all over my face and body, that I spend a fortune obsessively removing.  Hair that, if it were to reach its full follicular potential, could be a Channel 4 Extraordinary People documentary. Like any fully paid up addict, if you told me tomorrow you’d discovered a side-effect-free way of removing my unwanted hair permanently, legal or not, I would sell my own grandmother to obtain it.

It wasn’t always this way.  I grew up being told I was pretty (don’t you just love mothers) blissfully unaware that my heavy jet black monobrow and lower back covered in thick black hair would ever be an obstacle to my world domination in the beauty stakes.  Then I went to the beautician for the first time, my ever diplomatic but uber-groomed mother saying ‘It’s time.’ Nothing was off limits for my spatula-wielding hot-wax happy therapist – legs, upper lip, cheeks, chin, back, bikini line, even my toes, fingers and arms (I was 12!).  I knew to expect pain.  I was brought up in Australia but ethnically speaking I come from a long line of hirsute Greek/Egyptians and my cousin Maria had clearly warned me about this rite of passage.  But nothing prepared me for the brow wax.   I lay on the therapist’s chair, the rest of me red and spotty when she shone one of those fluorescent lights on me and peered so closely at my forehead that I could see her nose hair.

‘I grew up being told I was pretty (don’t you just love mothers) blissfully unaware that my heavy jet black monobrow and lower back covered in thick black hair would ever be an obstacle to my world domination in the beauty stakes’.  

‘Hmmm.  Hold on, I have to get a consult from the other girls.’  She ran outside and returned with the salon owner and what looked like three trainees who watched my subsequent brow-reshape like interns observing Dr Kovacs removing someone’s gall bladder in ER’s Trauma One.  I was officially a specimen and from that day forth, my big, fat hairy Greek life began.

First, in an attempt to escape Brow-gate humiliation, I tried home depilation. That was back before the makers of Nair had discovered a way to mask its unique bleach-meets-self-tan smell and my OCD mother wasn’t having its stinking blobs clogging up her drainwork.

Then came Nad’s.  The oddest phenomenon in hair removal ever, it was a little container of cold gel made of sugar and water by an Australian mum with a Lebanese background, whose daughters had the same hair issues as me.  No heating, you just spread it on, cover with a sheet of paper and rip it off.  Although the stuff has become a worldwide phenomenon (see nads.com) – making Lebanese mum a  guzzillionaire, her daughters famous examples of defuzzing success – for me it just didn’t work.  Basted in thick green toffee, I sat on the cold bathroom floor and cried about my bad hair life.

His first reaction to my unedited nether-regions wasn’t disgust at all but delight and the rather alarming exclamation, ‘Hmmm, peasant girl.’ 

Speaking of, you know.  I do go for the occasional Brazilian, though my very first ‘flight strip’ caused an involuntary chuckle and ‘What’s that?’ from my husband rather than the lustful Fabio-like lunge I was hoping for. Who can ever predict or begin to understand male sexuality?  I recently did an experimental piece for a national newspaper in which I stopped grooming for three months.  His first reaction to my unedited nether-regions wasn’t disgust at all but delight and the rather alarming exclamation, ‘Hmmm, peasant girl.’  I’ve yet to succumb to a Hollywood though – that’s the obsession with waxing everything in the vaginal vicinity so that only what you were born with remains.  Besides finding it a little creepy, I’ve heard they get itchy.  Anyway, wouldn’t one get cold?

But nothing, nothing prepared me for the epiphany that was my first full face threading.  Until recently, I was addicted to full facial waxing.  But hair grows back in angry black spikes, almost whisker-like, faster and thicker each time.  I needed an alternative or I’d end up looking like Rolf Harris.  At the beginning of last year I met Vaishaly, a  London facialist famed for her facial and eyebrow threading.  My first threading session was with Vaishaly herself, a stunning, tiny brunette and the most outstanding advertisement for her own beauty techniques one could get.   I wanted to look like that so I asked to have whatever she has.

As Vaishaly took her magical spinning sewing thread to every little hair on my face – brows, chin, forehead, cheeks – the tears of pain literally streamed down my face. An hour later I emerged like a newly scrubbed doll, my eyebrows two stunning Bollywood-worthy arches and skin glowing and utterly hairless. Honestly, it was as if I’d had a facelift. Now, like childbirth, I forget the pain as soon as I catch sight of my hairless face each time.

The thing with threading is that hair not only grows back much finer and far slower than any other from of facial hair removal I’ve tried, it leaves the surface smooth from the get-go, without a hint of the angry pink follicles that have become the story of my former waxing, tweezing life.  If someone ever invents a way the entire body could be threaded, my grandma had better watch out.

Vaishaly.com or call 020 7224 6088

The Braun Silk-Epil Xpressive Pro Wet & Dry costs £129.99 from Boots, Argos, Amazon, larger supermarkets and electrical retailers.

WHAT ABOUT LASERS?

Up to now, I have been regaled by many a doctor extolling the virtues of laser as that Holy Grail of hair removal, a system that is permanent.  I shied away because traditionally laser hair removal was always best done on women with pale skin and dark hair.  Having olive skin and dark hair, two years ago I had been told that my skin might end up discoloured with unsightly pale spots as laser works by being attracted to any dark pigment then zapping it, be that of hair or skin. Now, it seems things have changed and a new generation of lasers can help.

‘If skin is darker you can now use certain lasers on the skin that generate power more gently, rather than all in one go,’ says Dr Patrick Bowler, medical director of Courthouse Clinics.  ‘Previously you would use one zap of energy with lasers, but new technologies such as the Soprano and Alexandrite lasers have scanning devices on them so the energy is spread out more evenly and targeting the hair and not the skin.  This means an experienced practitioner can treat olive and Asian skin for hair removal in about 10-12 sessions.  However, it’s still not possible to treat women with pale skin and blonde or red hair as there is not enough pigment in the hair follicle for the laser to focus on.  It just won’t work.’

Make sure you see a reputable practitioner, advises Dr Bowler. In October last year the government de-regulated the use of laser technology making it easier for anybody with a laser to set up in business. Make sure your practitioner had had the technology for at least two years and they have used it on many, many clients.  Ask to see before and after photos and to speak to previous hair removal clients. You can also check that they are registered with the Care Quality Commission at cqc.org.uk.

Could it be hormones?

My hairiness came courtesy of a set of hirsute Greek genes I couldn’t escape.  But some hormonal conditions, most commonly Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) can manifest as a hair overgrowth.  ‘Such hair is called Terminal Hair by doctors,’ says Stephan Franks, Professor of Reproductive Endocrinology at the Institute of Reproductive and Developmental Biology, Imperial College London.  ‘It usually shows up in the wrong places such as unwanted facial hair on the chin and cheeks, or hair around the nipples and trunk.’  Because PCOS is usually related to an excess of testoterone in the system, Terminal Hair usually comes in a ‘male distribution’ pattern, for example on the upper lip, chin, neck, breast bone and abdomen spreading downwards from the navel.  ‘You may have excess hair alone as a symptom of PCOS or you may have normal hair growth and other symptoms, such as irregular or infrequent periods and/or acne,’ says Professor Franks.

So what can be done?  First, you will need a diagnosis from a doctor, ideally a specialist so if your GP hasn’t an interest in PCOS, ask for a referral to someone who has.  They will take a clinical diagnosis and perhaps do a testosterone level test.  The good news is that along with hormonal treatments to balance out your PCOS (these include the oral contraceptive and other treatments that lower testosterone levels) you may also be entitled to hair removal treatment on the NHS such as laser, waxing or threading. ‘There is also a new prescription cream called Vaniqa which slows the rate of hair’s growth once it has been removed,’ says Professor Franks.  ‘In the majority of cases it takes between two and three months to work but it is effective.  It is not a hair removal cream but a local, medical treatment that that gets to the root of the hair and reduces the rate of its growth’.   Talk to your doctor.

More information:  pcos-uk.org.uk

 

BOTOX? FILLERS? LASERS? WHAT DO I NEED?

Doctors now have a better understanding than ever of what happens to our faces as we get older.  That means our options for treating ageing are wider than ever.

During my trip to Oz I found my friends keen to pick my brains about fillers and Botox. Can’t imagine why.  It seems there is so little information out there on who needs what that even the uber-smart women I know assume there is a one-size-fits-all approach to having ‘work’ and that Botox can treat everything from facial sagging to laughter lines. It can’t.  But other stuff can.  Here’s a lowdown on exactly what works on what ageing problem of the face.

PROBLEM:  Sagging cheeks

SOLUTION:  Fillers

‘Fillers’ made from hyaluronic acid injected into the cheekbone in small quantities. ‘This can help lift the sag that leads to a visible fold in the nose to mouth lines,’ says Dr Lynette Yong, a cosmetic doctor specialising in anti-ageing medicine in London’s Harley Street.  ‘The fat pad that sits on the cheekbone slides down the face as we get older and a touch of filler can literally help lift that.’  Fillers are injected into the skin and last from three to nine months. Fillers are temporary and reversible if you’re not happy with results and brand names include Juvederm and Restylane. The great upside of these fillers is that they are made with hyaluronic acid and in repeated clinical trials this substance which occurs naturally in the body has been shown to naturally encourage the growth of new collagen in the area injected.  What that means is that after a few applications, you may stop needing it.  A word of advice, don’t keep pumping your wrinkles with filler.  About three applications with about six months between each (it takes this long for fillers to wear off) will be enough for subtletly.  After that take a break or you could end up with a pillow face (any Grazia reader worth her salt will know what I mean – if you don’t PM me and I will explain).

PROBLEM:  Pigmentation spots

SOLUTION: Laser, peels and microdermabrasion

Laser treatment, chemical skin peels and microdermabrasion can all help improve pigmentation and sun spots but freckles and deep pigmentation won’t disappear immediately.  ‘You must avoid sun exposure if you have these treatments,’ says Dr Yong.  ‘They work by cutting away a layer of skin which encourages a new layer to emerge.  That makes skin much more vulnerable to sunlight and pollutants so protection is essential’.

PROBLEM:  Line and wrinkles

SOLUTION:  Botox (if you can see it only when the face moves) and fillers (if the wrinkle is visible when the face is at rest)

When a wrinkle is visible at rest, for example around the lips, between the eyebrows or from the nose to mouth, doctors may use fillers (see above) to gently correct them.  ‘There are light versions of filler designed to go into the skin for fine lines and thicker versions for use in the deeper layers of skin if lines are deeper and more pronounced,’ says Dr Yong.  ‘Unless you are absolutely certain it’s what you want, never use permanent fillers,’ she advises.  When lines are only visible when expressions are made, for example when you frown or show surprise, that is when doctors choose to use muscle relaxants such as Botox or Vistabel (a new Botox-type injectible).  According to some doctors, the more you use these to relax the habitual facial expressions that are causing your wrinkles to form, the more likely it is that the wrinkle might soften because of lack of use.  Of course, this brings with it the question:  Do I want to be devoid of emotion? It’s a question only you can answer.  But in my experience, the best doctors will leave you with the facial expressions that make you you and take away those that make you look old.

PROBLEM:  Drooping brow

SOLUTION:  Botox eyebrow lift (it’s amazing)

‘We can now do a brow lift for women using Botox,’ says Dr Yong.  ‘You need to go to a highly experienced practitioner as that frozen forehead look is unappealing.  We tend to paralyse the forehead muscles less and less with Botox today so that patients are still able to animate their faces and have full expression as this is what makes a face attractive, individual and appealing.  Strategic Botox use should enhance that, not erase it.’

PROBLEM:  Dull texture

SOLUTION:  Dermaroller

Professional skin-needling is a new in-clinic procedure that uses a ‘dermaroller’ device that applies hundreds of tiny needle incisions to the skin.  ‘These puncture the skin and induce a small injury, which creates a healing response in the skin’, says Dr Yong.  Within a month of treatment, the skin that comes back is improved in quality and texture with smaller pores and fine lines, she explains.  Some patients see a difference after just one treatment.  Prices start from £250 per session.  For a practitioner see www.geniunedermaroller.co.uk

Dr Lynette Yong practices at 1 Harley Street, London. Phone 07866 436 373 or email drlynetteyong@googlemail.com for appointments.

FINDING A QUALIFIED DOCTOR

Please ensure that your doctor is qualified and trained to a high standard and please do NOT go to beauticians administering any of the cosmetic procedures named above.  To ensure you are seeing someone who is accredited, check that your doctor is a member of one of the following professional bodies.  If you haven’t found a doctor yet, the websites below all have facilities through which you can find an accredited doctor in your area. Please use them.

UK: The British Association of Cosmetic Doctors www.comsmeticdoctors.co.uk or 0800 328 3613, the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons baaps.org.uk

AUSTRALIA: Society of Cosmetic Physicians Australia 1300 552 127 www.cosmeticphysicians.org.au

Don’t have anything done before you read this

I have just guest edited the second issue of Expert Beauty which features honest advice about everything from Botox to boob jobs to teeth whitening.  It was gruelling to edit because every single feature was reviewed by at least three medics who all insisted on sober information and clear outlining of the risks and downsides of anything we covered.

Here in Britain, anyone with a general physician’s qualification can perform plastic surgery (I know, mental but true) and when it comes to administering Botox, fillers and other non-surgical procedures – even laser which can be hugely dangerous in the wrong hands – you don’t even need to be a doctor and can get away with being a beauty therapist who has completed a weekend course.  Such dire lack of regulation in this area in Britain looks a lot like a new wild west where the cowboys hold syringes and scalpels instead of guns.

Expert Beauty contains clear instructions on how check out the qualifications and expertise of doctors you’re considering having something done with and exactly how to find a really top surgeon or practitioner in the first place.  Oh and by all means shop around for someone fab, but don’t shop by price.   Especially stay away from two for ones or special offers from clinics on the high street where the consultation doesn’t take place with the doc who will be operating.  Your consultation should always be with the surgeon that will be doing the work.  For a directory of the absolute best surgeons in Britain go to www.safercosmeticsurgery.co.uk.

You can get a free copy of the new mag and subscribe at www.expertbeauty.com.  It’s out until March 2011.

THE BOTOX BRINK

Right, look closely at these photos.

BB. Before Botox. Make-up free and many many months since my last Botox injections, probably about 18. So it's safe to say all trace of botulism will have worn off leaving my poor 41-year old brow the worse for wear.

AB. After Botox, but only a few days (It usually takes a fortnight to fully freeze your face). can you spot the subtle lift in the brow? There's also a slight lift in the cheeks because my genius surgeon, Dr Lynette Yong of 1 Harley Street, put a little around my mouth too.

YIKES! WAB. Well After Botox. Three weeks after seeing Dr Yong, the toxin has had time to well and truly remove all signs of emotion from my face. For the ensuing two months I carried around little cards in my purse that I held up during conversations. Variously they said things like 'Angry', 'Flummoxed' and 'I know I look surprised, but actually I'm not.'

CBA. Craving Botox Again. It's now about five months since i had my last hit. I want more. I promised my husband I would never have it again - he has been threatening to divorce me, obviously not terribly successfully - since I started having Botox in 2005. I really, really want some more. But I am going to resist. I am going on a Botox Detox. Honest.

This point is what I call the Botox Brink.  It’s that place where I know if I have just one more teeny little shot, that’s it, I’ll be a bone-fide Botox Junkie all my life, even after it’s frozen my forehead for the 100th time.  The Botox Brink is the point where once past it (so to speak) you abandon objectivity and get officially obsessed about freezing your age.  Your face starts looking waxier, puffier and ever-increasingly crazier to all those around you because nothing moves on it except your eyeballs (exhibit A: Simon Cowell).

Past the Botox Brink

Meanwhile, to yourself, you look flawless.  I see them in dermatologist’s clinics all the time. Even in the waiting rooms of the guys who claim to keep everyone looking natural.  I am convinced that the first few years of having Botox works a treat for most people.  But do it for more than a few years and there comes a time when you stop looking natural and simply start looking like Someone Who Has Botox (exhibit B: Nicole Kidman who one doctor called a ‘bat face’ because of her repeated Botox use).

Well beyond the Botox Brink

Seaweed: could you? should you?

I’ve often read about the incredibly high nutritional content of sea vegetables with their odd-sounding names and mossy, boatshed smells.  Nice in theory.  Sea vegetables are the most nutritious and mineral-rich food on the planet apparently, with the ability to help the body detoxify heavy metals from the environment and regulate the thyroid because of their high iodine content.  But I tried wakame once and it made my soup taste like the beach and so gave up.  Up to now they were a healthy step too far.

But thanks to Angela Agnati-Prange (the macro-chef extraordinaire who has cooked for Rachel Weisz – I didn’t even know she was macro – and Madonna who everyone knows is a macrobiotic maniac) at last weeks’ retreat I’ve learned how to cook these nutritional lottery winners so they actually taste rather good!   They’re not hard to cook and they somehow help you feel more satisfied after eating.  It’s quite remarkable and an effect I think worth a tryst with their slight sliminess.

Here’s a crash course to using these magic foods:

Agar-Agar a tasteless gelatin replacement which can be cooked to high temperatures in jelly, mousses and quiches in the same way as jelly.

Hijiki is among the most mineral-rich of plants, containing fourteen times as much calcium as cow’s milk.  Along with its cousin Arame it should be soaked in warm water for 15 or so minutes after which it doubles in size.  Then you can dress it in a few drops sesame oil, fresh lime, chopped fresh corainder, some Japanese rice vinegar, a teaspoon grated fresh ginger juice and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds if you fancy.  This sea salad keeps in the fridge for days is a great vitamin-rich side dish.  Tonight I made this and had it with Soba (brown rice noodles, which cook in six minutes), some cubed firm tofu and a light peanut butter and orange juice sauce.  Faster than most TV dinners and guilt-free.

 

 

 

Arame summer salad

Nori I love this stuff!  Macrobiotic maestros recommend toasting the sheets over a hot flame.  This is the stuff sushi rolls are wrapped in but toasted it’s far tastier, crispier and less chewy.  You take a dark green sheet and toast it and after a few seconds the colour lightens and the sheet hardens and it’s done.  Then crush and sprinkle it over salads or stir-fries or crush it into larger flakes and munch on it like you would crisps.  Sounds strange but it’s delicious.   In a marmite-love-it-or-hate-it kind of way.  Honest.

Wakame Soak it for about ten minutes and then slice and add to soups like miso and stews.  Don’t use too much, this one can tip the fishy scale if it’s over-used.

If you’re looking for a good brand, I would recommend Clearspring who make all the varieties and they’re organic so you can be assured harvesting and production methods are fish-friendly.

 

 

 

 

 

They’re all available from any health food store

Don’t be scared, enjoy!