Although prevention is always better than cure, there are now many treatments available to combat those signs of ageing and repair any damage sustained by the skin. One area that can be a dead giveaway but is often overlooked is our hands.

Hands are often exposed to sunlight without being protected, and as a result, the skin can display signs of damage. The skin can easily become dehydrated, and as we age and the body doesn’t regulate pigmentation production as well, liver or age spots can also start to appear.

For slim people, veins can become prominent, as there is insufficient body fat to conceal them. This is often a comment directed at celebrities such as Angelina Jolie and Madonna, who was seen wearing fingerless gloves at a recent film première.

Age spots can be removed using IPL, which will restore a more youthful appearance. The IPL causes the hyper pigmented spots to fade away, ensuring that the appearance of your hands doesn’t let you down.

Salmon patches are very common and are thought to affect at least fifty per cent of healthy infants. Unlike port wine stains, salmon patches tend to be paler and are due to tiny blood vessels remaining dilated rather than forming abnormally. They usually appear on the head or neck, and those on the face tend to fade with time.

Port wine stains appear when capillaries develop abnormally and whereas salmon patches are likely to fade as the capillaries contract, port wine stains will grow with the child and can darken. They can also become raised with time, and the surface of the skin can appear lumpy. Depending on where a port wine stain occurs, they can cause cosmetic problems and more rarely, more serious health problems.

Birthmark removal can help to improve the appearance of port wine stains, by causing the affected capillaries to collapse and disintegrate. Advanced intense pulsed light is applied to the skin, where the haemoglobin absorbs the light energy. It is transformed into heat energy, causing the temperature within the capillaries to rise until they begin to break down and the birthmark to fade.

As the light is pulsed, the skin is only exposed to it for very short periods of time, making it safe for the skin tissue surrounding the area to be treated.

Intense Pulsed Light can be used for a variety of treatments:

• Permanent hair reduction
• Rosacea
• Broken capillaries and thread veins
• Birthmark removal – both vascular and pigmented
• Hyper pigmentation – age spots etc.
• Sun damage

It uses the pigmentation of the lesion or hair for a highly focussed form of treatment. Hair and hyper pigmented areas of skin contain more melanin than the surrounding skin, which absorbs the intense light more quickly and heats up. In thread veins, the haemoglobin absorbs the light and causes the blood to increase in temperature.

Once temperatures reach a certain level, pigmentation begins to break down, while cells lining blood vessels or hair follicles are denatured, causing the veins or follicles to collapse. The principle is simple but effective, and can produce excellent results quickly and safely.

As she sat in the waiting room she tweeted her fears of the laser rather than the pain, but fellow celebrity Lily Allen was on hand to reassure her, tweeting back that she has had the procedure and had no problems.
The idea of applying a laser to any part of your body can feel a little scary, but the lasers used for these kinds of procedures are very safe when in the hands of a competent and experienced operator.

The discomfort has been likened to having an elastic band snapped on the skin and should not cause extreme pain. Any inflammation or bleeding caused by the treatment is temporary and simply requires some TLC and simple precautions, like protecting the skin from the sun’s rays.

Laser treatment is certainly the safest and most effective form of tattoo removal, and although there will be some discomfort and inconvenience, it is worth it when you are living with tattoo regret!

These hyper pigmented areas can appear anywhere on the body, although those that are more frequently exposed to the harmful rays of the sun are usually more affected (the face and hands). If your skin has been damaged by the sun, these age spots can make you appear older than your years.

While prevention is certainly the best approach, pigmentation treatment can successfully and effectively even out skin tone and reduce the amount of pigmentation in the skin. The Laser Treatment Clinic offers a combination of treatments in order to achieve superior results:

• IPL, or Intense Pulsed Light, works by directing short bursts of light at the hyper pigmented areas. The light energy produces heat within the lesion, and once the temperature reaches between 60 and 70°C, the pigment starts to break down. Once the particles are small enough, the body can remove them naturally from the site.

• Microdermabrasion and laser treatment removes the damaged layers of skin, and stimulates skin renewal to encourage the production of healthy new skin cells.

The other problem caused by acne is the scars it can cause. Acne scars are typically pitted due to tissue loss caused by infected and inflamed spots. This lack of tissue can make acne scars difficult to hide.

There is no need for acne scars to continue making life difficult for those who have previously suffered from acne. Using a combination of microdermabrasion and laser treatment, the skin can undergo a deep form of exfoliation that removes the damaged layers of skin to reveal smoother, healthier skin underneath.

Not only does the treatment reduce the pitted appearance of the skin, but it can also reduce the redness left behind by inflammation. The laser stimulates skin renewal and collagen production, ensuring that the new skin cells look as good as possible!

Don’t be defeated by acne scars having triumphed over the active acne itself; it is never too late to remove acne scars.

These changes are gradual, however, and for those who are already displaying the signs of skin damage and premature ageing, they may feel it is too late to do anything about it. There are skin-rejuvenation treatments available, however, that can significantly improve how the skin looks and feels.

Intense Pulsed Light can safely eliminate superficial signs of ageing, such as wrinkles, age spots, thread veins, the permanent flushing associated with rosacea and enlarged pores. It offers a non-invasive approach to achieving younger-looking skin with minimal effort.

Another method involves removing the damaged layers of skin to reveal the newer and healthier layers of skin beneath the surface. This is done using a hand-held device that applies a pressurised stream of medical-grade crystals to the skin to remove damaged skin cells in a uniform way.

The subsequent laser treatment encourages the more youthful new skin to heal and renew itself, producing a smoother, clearer complexion.

It can be used to remove stretch marks, acne scars and for pigmentation treatment, but what does it actually involve?

Microdermabrasion involves using a hand-held device that directs a stream of very fine, medical-grade crystals over the surface of the skin. The crystals and dead skin cells are simultaneously removed through suction.

When used correctly, microdermabrasion removes the superficial layers of the skin while respecting the skin’s natural structure.

The laser is usually applied after microdermabrasion, and can often feel like an elastic band is being flicked on the skin’s surface. It can cause pinpoint bleeding and inflammation, but this quickly subsides as the skin heals. The epidermal renewal usually takes between four and five days, after which an improvement can be seen in the texture and appearance of the skin.

While the microdermabrasion can cause a scratching sensation, and the laser can be mildly uncomfortable, the skin is not damaged and is encouraged to renew itself in a safe and controlled way.

IPL is a great option for those who do not want to shave daily or haven’t the time for monthly visits to the salon. It destroys the hair follicle, causing hairs to fall out from the root and impairs the ability to produce new hairs. This is done using intense pulses of light which creates heat energy that denatures the regenerative cells lining the hair follicles, preventing them from continuing the hair-growth cycle.

For those looking for laser hair removal London offers a wealth of choice, but it is always of paramount importance to check out the credentials of a clinic before going ahead with treatment. In the right hands, IPL provides fantastic results, but a laser can be terribly damaging if operated by someone without the necessary experience and knowledge.

• Exposure to sunlight
• Smoking
• Harsh environmental conditions
• Pollution etc.

Fine lines and wrinkles begin to appear on the face, an area particularly vulnerable to the ageing effects of the environment. Thread veins can start to form beneath the surface of the skin, showing through as red or purple spidery lines. Age spots can also become more prominent and numerous, as damage from the sun causes pigmentation to develop unevenly.

These dreaded signs of getting older can be combatted in several ways:

• Prevention. Ensuring that skin is nourished and moisturised can help minimise the effects of ageing, and a healthy lifestyle will also help.
• Camouflage. Make up can help to conceal the imperfections associated with skin damage and ageing.
• Repair. There are two types of non-invasive treatment used at The Laser Treatment Clinic that can significantly improve the appearance of damaged or aged skin. Photo rejuvenation treatment uses IPL for pigmentation or thread vein removal, while microdermabrasion and laser treatment remove the damaged layers of skin and stimulate the production of youthful-looking new skin cells.