I Tried It: Sofwave
The ultrasound device promises to tighten skin. Here’s my experience.
As Nora Ephron's book title reads: I feel bad about my neck. (And if you're reading this thinking, ‘who is Nora Ephron,’ bless you; you're too young to worry about your neck.) I think I'm a little young, too, but here we are. Look, I'm okay(ish) with the natural aging process but not when things start going south before they're supposed to. I'm 42 and noticing some lax skin on my neck. Turkey neck. I knew it was coming. It's partly familial, with thin Irish skin and all, but it's also due to some unnecessary sun damage from my youth. So, aside from slathering every inch of my face, neck, and décolleté with SPF70 daily and a topical retinoid, I've been looking into non-invasive treatments to tighten the skin. Enter Sofwave.
It's the new kid on the block of skin tightening treatments devices and is FDA approved for lifting the brow, submental (the area under the chin), neck, and reducing fine lines and wrinkles. This one uses fractional ultrasound technology (others use radiofrequency) to heat the tissue in the mid-layer of skin (1.5 mm deep, to be exact). The heat causes "controlled damage" to kickstart the healing process, telling your cells to churn out fresh collagen (the stuff that keeps skin smooth and diminishes with age). It also "remodels" existing collagen, causing it to contract and tighten. It's not an automatic fix. It takes about six weeks to see the results, and results continue to appear for up to 12 weeks.
My entire face and neck were treated at Mariwalla Dermatology in West Islip. Did it hurt? I had numbing cream on my face and neck for a full hour (I snuck in an episode of Ginny & Georgia on Netflix while I waited). During the 30-45 minute treatment, I felt several seconds of intense heat, followed by a cooling sensation. It was tolerable, with a few toe-curling moments on my neck and around my eyes. But painful? Listen, I've had three 9-lb babies; this was cake. There's no downtime. My skin looked normal right after, and I went about my day.
Did it work? As I mentioned, you won't see much at first. My skin felt a little tighter the first week, but it wasn't until the five- or six-week mark that I noticed visible changes. I remember running my hand over my neck and thinking it felt taut. Then, at six weeks, I returned for my official "after" pictures. The changes are subtle (granted, I didn't have a lot of sagging to start with), but we saw some lift along the jawline, and my neck looks tighter in the after-shot. I think my skin looks a bit smoother, too. “You'll start aging from this point on,” says Jenna James, an esthetician at Mariwalla Dermatology. Translation: The treatment set the clock back a bit, which sounds great to me.
What's the investment? At Mariwalla Dermatology, it runs about $2,000 to 2,500 per treatment—pricey, but here's the good news: for most people, it's a one-and-done treatment. Although, you can do maintenance treatments every one to two years if desired.
Bottom line: I feel better about my neck, so it was worth it for me.
Left, “after” pic. Lifted jawline and less sag on neck.
Right, “after pic.”
