Why Neck and Décolletage Go First

The New York Times recently featured an article, Bosom Buddies, about neck and décolletage creams designed to help smooth out age-revealing lines and wrinkles. The sad truth is, neck and décolletage are the first places to start showing age. There are a few different reasons for this, but let’s take a look at the most obvious one first.

The skin that covers your sternum under your neck, called the décolletage (translates into cleavage in English) is very thin and prone to sunburn. It is also tends to get more sunburns in its lifetime, because we often stop sunscreen application at the jawline, with some of us taking a swipe at the neck. So, more sunburns=more wrinkles, and sooner. Sunscreen applied all the way down to the bra line, every day, rain or shine, to protect against UVA damage is your first line of defense against a crepey neck and a wrinkly cleavage. But that’s not the end of the story. There’s something else we do (as opposed to don’t do) every day that influences enormously the aging of the neck and cleavage over a lifetime. The three simple experiments below dramatically illustrate the role played by posture.

Experiment One: Standing

Stand in front of a full-length mirror. If you are like most of us, when you do this you unconsciously stand up straighter and hold your head up. Now, stand the way you would normally. Look to see if wrinkles form as your shoulders come forward your chest caves in.

Experiment Two: Sitting

Take a chair and place it in front of the mirror. Sit in the chair as you would normally. If you sit with your arms crossed note how chest wrinkles form. If you slump, note how your head sinks into your shoulders. We tend to hold up our heads with our shoulders rather than our necks. If you really want to see what bad posture is doing for your neck and cleavage, turn your chair sideways and pretend you are typing at the computer.

Experiment Three: Sleeping

This is an easy one. Lie down on your bed, and assume your favorite sleeping posture. If you sleep on your side you probably cross your arms, which will create cleavage lines. At some point these lines become permanent.

Remedies

Women who carry burdens on their heads have beautiful necks, because they are actually using the long muscles in their necks the way they were intended to be used. Try walking around with a book (or your laptop) on your head until you get used to the feel of it, and remember to walk that way even when you are burden-free. Visualize your neck as a long smooth column holding up a very heavy object. Heads are actually very heavy, which is yet another reason why we have a tendency to hunch our shoulders.
When sitting at the computer, imagine that a wire is pulling your head towards the ceiling. Other wires are pulling your shoulders towards your chair. Take frequent breaks to stretch. You will be surprised at how much less tired you are at the end of the day.
Sleep on your back. It may be uncomfortable at first, but try at least to vary your sleep posture so it isn’t eight hours on your side with your chest all squished up. Imagine what your face would look like if you scrunched it up for eight hours straight!

About neck creams

You need sunscreen every day on face, neck and chest, without fail. At night, moisturizing with your night time oil is all you need. Special neck creams appear to do the job because you are holding your head up and your shoulders back as you apply them. If it helps you pay attention to your posture, by all means use them, but oils will work every bit as well as a $350 neck cream. And don’t forget, L-ascorbic acid applied topically is the best thing you can do to repair surface wrinkles and sun damage on the chest.