Dermal Fillers/injectables/Juvederm

5 Surprising Causes of Early Wrinkles

Dr. Victoria Negrete Leave a comment

It’s well known that the passage of time leads to lines on the face, but in some cases, our everyday habits also contribute to signs of aging. If you’re aware of what’s making these wrinkles occur, you can take steps to prevent them from becoming more prominent and even stop new ones from appearing. To maintain smooth skin, follow these wrinkle prevention tips from Excelin Medical Spa in Appleton, WI. Juvederm® and BOTOX® can help to smooth out certain lines, but keeping wrinkles from forming in the first place—or at least delaying their development—is ideal.

1. Frowning, Squinting, and Pouting

While you can’t keep your face completely still and robotic (and who would want to, anyway?), you can train yourself not to use certain facial muscles as often. People who have very expressive faces and the tendency to repeatedly squint and frown can actually damage their skin. Each time facial muscles contract, they pull on the skin above, gradually causing creases to appear.

2. Sleeping in Some Positions

The constant pressure of sleeping on your side or stomach, with your face pushed down into a pillow, is believed to cause collagen to be break down faster, leading to “sleep wrinkles.” You can avoid this by sleeping on your back and using a silk pillowcase or contoured pillow.

3. Your Beauty Routine

The skin around your eyes is very thin and fragile. If you strain this skin too much by pulling and rubbing it when you apply makeup, the action can weaken it and lead to crow’s feet forming at the corners of the eyes. Arching your brows and stretching your mouth when putting on makeup can also has negative effects, similar to squinting and pouting.

4. Chewing Gum Excessively

If you constantly chew gum, your muscles in the lower jaw are working overtime. This could lead to a heavier, square jaw as the muscles bulk up, as well as wrinkles around the upper lips due to routine muscle motion.

5. Staring at a Phone

Bad posture when you’re constantly looking down at a screen causes more lines to appear on the chin and neck area. This is called “tech neck” and can be avoided by lifting your phone and taking regular breaks to sit up straight and look away from your device.

Want more information about preventing or treating other common signs of aging? Contact Excelin Medical Spa in Appleton, WI, by calling our office to request an appointment at 920-931-0022 or submitting a form with your contact details.

Facials/Microneedling

Make Your Skin “Summer-Proof” with These Strategies

Dr. Victoria Negrete Leave a comment

Longer days and warmer, more humid weather take a toll on the skin. Sweat, oil, and dirt build up more heavily during these months, causing your pores to become congested. It’s common for your overheated skin to become dehydrated or breakouts to occur. If these skin issues sound familiar to you, it may be a good idea to change your overall skincare routine instead of just reaching for the nearest acne gel or hiding imperfections behind heavy concealer. The best way to start may be with a treatment such as microneedling or a relaxing facial. For Appleton, WI patients and anyone else with similar skin struggles, here’s what our skincare professionals at Excelin Medical Spa recommend doing to keep your skin clear, balanced, and soft on sunny days.

Chemical Peels and Facials

Summer is an ideal time an exfoliating chemical peel or facial. Peels remove dead skin in a mild, gentle way to minimize damage such as blotchy discoloration. They also stimulate healthy new skin growth, take away excess oil, and unblock pores. One of the best things about chemical peels and facials is that they can be customized for the specific concerns and goals of individual patients. Note that you’ll need to protect treated skin from the sun for some time after having a chemical peel, but this is a common necessity after a range of skin treatments. Also, consider a three-in-one HydraFacial® to exfoliate, extract, and infuse the skin with a carefully selected serum.

Microneedling

Spots and uneven textures are common, especially in older skin that has suffered years of ultraviolet radiation damage. Microneedling is a great way to give your skin a complete refresher. The treatment starts the skin’s natural healing process through controlled micro-injuries, and collagen is gradually generated over time to improve the overall texture.

Keep Hydrated

Drinking plenty of water is important all year round, but the habit is especially critical during the summer, because we lose a lot of water from the body and may become dehydrated from sweating or need more fluids to heal sunburned skin.

Switch Up Skin Products

During hotter, more humid months, swap heavier creams for more lightweight, foamy cleansers and oil-free moisturizers with SPF added. Try overnight hydrating serums and spritz toners to calm the skin.

Need more advice on protecting your skin during the summer? Our staff at Excelin Medical Spa is available to answer your questions. To schedule an appointment for a facial or another procedure in Appleton, WI, call us at 920-931-0022 or submit a form with your contact details.

Laser Hair Removal/Laser Treatments

Will Laser Hair Removal Work for Me?

Dr. Victoria Negrete Leave a comment

Hoping to get a summer body? From waxing to threading, shaving to hair removal creams, tweezing to plucking, there are a variety of ways—many of them painfully repetitive—to get rid of unwanted body hair. For men and women in Appleton, WI, laser hair removal with Forever Bare BBL™ can be a way of getting more significant and long-lasting hair reduction results. The treatment destroys the follicle itself to “zap” hairs that have already grown, while also inhibiting future growth so you won’t have to deal with a 5 o’clock shadow on your legs anytime soon, if that’s a concern.

Our Excelin Medical Spa team often fields questions from patients who are unsure about whether this type of treatment would work for them. We can evaluate your hair and skin to determine whether you’re a suitable candidate.

The effectiveness of this procedure will depend not only on the color of your hair and skin, but also on the thickness of the hairs, the type of laser used, and your Fitzpatrick skin type. Developed in the mid-1970s, the Fitzpatrick scale is a scientific skin classification system used to identify skin types based on physical traits and reaction to sun exposure.

In the past, some patients with darker complexions have been apprehensive about using lasers due to the myth that any focused light energy would cause scarring or hyperpigmentation. Laser hair removal is generally safe for most skin types, provided that the pigment in the follicles is dark enough to absorb the laser energy.

Forever Bare BBL™ can treat skin tones ranging from Fitzpatrick skin type I, which is very pale white, to type V, which is a dark complexion. That said, the combination of fair skin and coarse, dark hair will generally yield the best results. Gray, white, light blond, and red hair do not respond at all to lasers.

Laser treatments can be used on all body areas, including the face, neck, chest, arms, and hands.

Have questions about laser hair removal in Appleton, WI? Board-certified dermatologist Dr. Victoria Negrete and our team at Excelin Medical Spa would be happy to assist you. If you’re thinking of having a cosmetic procedure, call us at 920-931-0022 or send us a message to get started.

HydraFacial/Skin Care

Spring Skin Essentials: 5 Reasons to Try HydraFacial®

Dr. Victoria Negrete Leave a comment

We all love having glowing skin, but there’s no doubt that a lot of work goes into maintaining a bright, even complexion all year round. Wouldn’t it be amazing if there were a way to simultaneously cleanse, exfoliate, and hydrate your skin with just one treatment? The breakthrough, three-in-one HydraFacial® is a popular procedure that can accomplish exactly that. It’s great for improving common skin irregularities, such as wrinkles and lines, discoloration, and oily or clogged pores. Here are five reasons why we love using HydraFacial® skin treatments at our Appleton, WI-based Excelin Medical Spa.

  1. It Goes Beyond Traditional Microdermabrasion

As early as our 20s and 30s, our skin is no longer as supple and dewy as it used to be, partially because it experiences more water loss that it did in our teens and childhood. What separates HydraFacial® from other skin resurfacing options like manual microdermabrasion and chemical peeling is that, as the name suggests, it replenishes the skin with much-needed moisture. The medical-grade device suctions debris and delivers ultra-hydrating ingredients when the pores are most receptive.

  1. It Offers a Gentler Alternative

Many people find HydraFacial® to a more comfortable treatment than traditional microdermabrasion, which involves exfoliating the outer skin layer by rubbing it with an abrasive surface or spraying it with gritty particles.

  1. It’s Safe for Most Skin Types

HydraFacial® is suitable for different skin types, unlike some other techniques that may not work as well on all skin tones. It’s also a calming treatment and less likely to irritate sensitive skin compared to lasers or chemical peeling.

  1. No Painful Side Effects or Significant Recovery

If you’re preparing for a special occasion like a wedding, work event, or important birthday, HydraFacial® is your go-to treatment. It offers some of the same benefits as classic microdermabrasion techniques without the same discomfort, and is unlikely to result in visible complications. HydraFacial® takes just between a half hour to an hour to be completed and doesn’t require extensive recovery times or aftercare.

  1. It’s Fully Customizable

People from all different age demographics with very different skin concerns can benefit, as HydraFacial® can be customized with various serums and intensities.

Considering skin rejuvenation with HydraFacial®? We’ll help you plan your procedure. Call Appleton, WI’s Excelin Medical Spa today at 920-931-0022 or write to us to let us know more about your goals.

HydraFacial/Skin Care

How Do HydraFacial® Treatments Work?

Dr. Victoria Negrete Leave a comment

Spring is a time for new beginnings. As the beauty-savvy among us already know, a change of seasons is a great opportunity to get a head start on skin rejuvenation—especially for anyone who wants to get rid of winter-damaged skin and prepare their face for the coming warmer months. We may be closed at the moment, but for anyone interested in learning more about an ideal treatment—HydraFacial® at our Appleton, WI-based Excelin Medical Spa—read on:

HydraFacial® is an in-office procedure that has become increasingly popular throughout the world in recent times. It is essentially an advanced type of facial, believed to offer more consistent results than conventional facials. But how exactly does this technology work, especially on skin that has been “roughed up” by significant fluctuations in temperature and humidity?

The first step toward giving your skin an extra brightening boost is smoothing out the flaky, dry areas. Moisturizing is highly important, or course, but exfoliation is also key to getting rid of dead cells and debris. HydraFacial® is a form of hydradermabrasion, which includes exfoliation among its gentle, three-phase process. Treatments clear away the outermost layer to reveal younger and fresher skin beneath. Next is cleansing, which involves suctioning material out of pores and moisturizing the skin. Finally, the treated skin is infused with customized serums to nourish the skin.

The flexible HydraFacial® treatment combines all three steps into a single session, which takes only about half an hour and can help with a wide range of unique skin needs, whether it’s brightening, hydrating, protecting, reducing lines and wrinkles, clearing up hyperpigmentation, or decreasing oiliness and congestion to improve acne. One of the main advantages of the procedure is that it is suitable for people with almost any skin condition, age, and complexion.

Want to discover more about the HydraFacial® options available, so you can be ready once we’re back in the office? Call 920-931-0022 to leave us a voicemail, and a member of Appleton, WI’s Excelin Medical Spa team can get back to you. You can also send us a message to tell us more about your skincare and cosmetic interests, or reach out on Facebook.