Sagging jowls and neck skin solutions – a realistic guide!

We know that as we age our skin loses elasticity and starts to sag. That in itself contributes to jowls – those folds that run around our mouth and down to our chin – and we get sagging under the jawline and around the neck too.

But there are other factors beyond loss of skin elasticity that adds to sagging around these areas. Understanding them is key to prevention and improvement.

Some folks just accept jowls and the dreaded turkey neck as a natural part of aging – which it is – while for others it can get them down and they want to find solutions.

I’m 51 and some days I think: ‘I don’t really want to interfere with my face too much, I’m going to avoid the more invasive stuff and stick to home solutions’, while the next day I look in the mirror and think, ‘I would like a full facelift.. today.’

I interview doctors, scientists and skin specialists to gather a range of expert opinions on the most effective skin and healthy aging options.

And in this article I want to distill some of what we’ve learned from them to look at the best treatments for both existing sagging and for slowing further skin sagging.

Because we can’t stop the aging process, and there are plenty of aspects of aging to embrace, but we can slow down some of its negative effects.

We’ll cover everything from clinical procedures to at-home devices, and even strengthening exercises and toning massage techniques.

Causes of sagging skin

So let’s start with what causes the sagging and eventually folds of skin around our mouth and jawline and on our neck too. Because when we think of sagging skin we usually look at it on a surface level which is why we so often rush to skincare as a solution.

And yes, sun damage, lifestyle and just the reduction in cell productivity as we age, all cause our skin to become less elastic and lose volume.

But the causes of more obvious sagging run much deeper than that.

What we now know is that it’s a combination of interconnected factors. Those include the loss of structural support from bone shrinkage and loss of muscle mass. We also see a reduction in subcutaneous fat in our skin as we age as well as the slowing down of our skin cells which produce less collagen and elastin – two essential proteins found in our connective tissue.

And when we lose bone and muscle, that means the frame around which our skin is hanging actually shrinks. So let’s keep those different factors in mind as we look at solutions.

Surgery

We’ve got to start with surgery because I’ve interviewed quite a few cosmetic doctors now and they all say the same thing. Where jowls and turkey neck are more pronounced with a more significant and obvious amount of loose skin then surgery is really the only thing that’s going to properly tackle it.

Skincare and at-home devices and lasers and other technologies are just not going to cut it in those circumstances. They can make superficial differences and slow down the progression of skin sagging but they’re not going to change the existing picture in a major way.

Fillers

Most of the aesthetic specialists I’ve talked to have said there is a line beyond which they would say to patients that filler isn’t going to give them the natural results they’re looking for while tackling skin sagging.

That said, when done by an experienced and talented medical practitioner, filler can make a signficant difference to earlier-stage jowling around the jawline.

If you want to understand filler safety and the range of options available and what they’re best used for, do watch my discussion with Dr Qian Xu and Dr Emmaline Ashley. We cover everything from hyaluronic acid fillers, very commonly used for jowls and jawline, as well as biostimulators, polynucleotides and more.

Profhilo injections which are delivered superficially in the skin rather than closer to the bone to increase overall hydration and volume in the upper layers of the skin can be helpful for neck skin laxity.

So for patients showing less advanced signs of skin sagging, injectables could be a solution.

Other clinical solutions

There are other clinical treatment options like ultrasound and radiofrequency.

Results from those treatments vary from patient to patient and from practitioner to practitioner too, but again they’re best used for earlier stage skin aging from what I’ve experienced myself and learned from the experts.

In the case of Ultherapy for example, the doctor who gave me a session of the ultrasound treatment a few years ago said she thought it gave most patients around a 2mm lift – but those results aren’t guaranteed. At that time I had only very slight jowling so there was a little bit of a lift there that probably lasted a couple of years.

But with any energy-based treatment there is always the chance of a little fat loss because you’re delivering heat into the lower layers of the skin so you do have to be careful to go to a very experienced practitioner who does a lot of these types of treatment and has done for years and has a good reputation.

Laser can also tighten skin – but that’s at a surface level so not a great option for more obvious jowls and turkey neck.

Home options

And how about home options for toning jowls, jaw and neck and slowing further sagging?

First thing’s first – none of anything I run through here is going to make a significant difference to more advanced skin sagging. Home options are best used for slowing progression and they can deliver subtle tightening results too in my opinion.

Skin Devices

Red light energises our cells and helps them become more productive so they can start creating more of the good stuff that supports our skin function and volume.

I use a red light panel most days but for under 10 minutes at a time because you don’t need to do long sessions – and it is possible to overdo red light, as with most things.

Microcurrent is my other favorite home device. I like the ZIIP because it uses a mix of gentle nanocurrent and microcurrent and it doesn’t feel too powerful or uncomfortable so I enjoy using it which is key to keeping up any kind of anti-aging routine.

And I’m also using the device with its little round metal probes underneath as a massaging tool so you’ve got the double impact of the current which helps stimulate your muscles and also massage to encourage blood flow to the skin to support skin cell function.

From my experience, I believe it is the pairing of red light and microcurrent that is the most powerful at home combination for anti-aging.

Massage

I mentioned the benefit of facial massage when I was discussing the ZIIP and, frankly, I was amazed by the experience of one of my viewers called Lee who used a massage technique to tackle what were early but visible signs of turkey neck.

Her experience was shared in a video on the channel that has had several hundred thousand views and so I’ve had lots of people comment that they’ve tried the technique we discussed with a majority saying they found it helpful.

The idea is you soak a hand towel in warm salty water and then roll it into a tourniquet and buff your neck with it either side. Just in getting the blood flow going like that to the skin and to the muscles Lee saw really clear tightening results which was a great outcome because it’s a totally free solution so well worth giving it a try.

Facial exercise

And really if we’re to stand any chance of making a difference to jowls and turkey neck at home you have to factor in how to strengthen your muscles and prevent bone loss density. So just as I’m working out at the gym, I also am doing a few facial exercises.

And the thing about exercise, particularly resistance exercise, is that it has been found to have a strengthening effect not just on muscle but on our skin as well because it’s all interconnected.

So I do a couple of things. Firstly, when I’m sitting in front of my red light panel I do this kind of kissing the air and movement – demonstrated by Clare McLean on the channel – where I move my lower jaw back and forward to strengthen the muscles in my chin.

I also use a very cheap jaw exerciser made from silicone which I bought on Amazon.

I spoke in the past about struggling a bit with TMJ which is a jaw joint disorder that I feel was helped by using the Oralift device. It’s not really what it’s intended for, but that was the outcome for me because it did seem to help strengthen and retrain my jaw muscles.

So I’m building on that but just very carefully with a jaw exerciser which I use nightly but only for about 50 or 60 reps for 3 times, and a minute apart. That’s because you can overdo it with jaw exercises and you could do more harm than good if you have TJM.

Skincare

Finally, let’s briefly look at skincare because it’s not going to make a massive difference to turkey neck or already visible jowling.

I think the biggest difference you can make is using sunscreen to guard against photoaging which is thought to cause 90% of the damage to our skin.

Way less known is that studies have shown just using sunscreen in itself can create visible improvements to the appearance of the skin, with the theory being that by defending the skin and preventing the continual accumulation of photo damage we give it a chance to heal and strengthen on its own and concentrate on the day job basically. So that’s a big one.

A lot of people swear by retinoids and if you use a prescription one but find that is too strong to use on your neck, then I have always found retinaldehyde – or retinal – to be an effective but gentler option.

Peptide power

Another skincare option worth looking at is a peptide-based cream or serum. There are a few that I have more experience of which are Calecim, OneSkin and the No7 Restore & Renew range – all of which I’ve covered on the channel and have good science behind them.

But another favourite brand of mine, Bluelene, which uses the chemical antioxidant methylene blue to slow cell aging, has also just released a Face and Neck Remodel Mask. The brand was founded by a scientist who was trying to find treatments for the accelerated aging disease progeria, which is how she came across the antiaging properties of methylene blue.

I use their sunscreen every day which I love and I gave the Face and Neck Remodel Mask away as a prize in my recent newsletter – you can sign up by scrolling down to the bottom of this page. The Remodel Mask not only includes methylene blue, but also uses a peptide that has been shown to inhibit the production of progerin, which ages our cells. So it is a very interesting product.

And that’s a wrap for this round-up on all things jowl and neck toning. Hope you found it helpful.