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56 DAYSPA | NOVEMBER 2014 gentle options The good news is, esthetic spa treatments can offer excellent alternatives to more intensive therapies. And your clients are eager to hear about them. "Consumers today are more interested in a natural approach [to anti-aging] with less downtime, and it's a trend we see for the future," says Crystal McElroy, executive director and national educator for Derma- tude North America (dermatude.com). "Clients don't want to be looking at long-term risk factors from what they're doing for their skin. Less is becoming more." Below, we look at two of the most commonly cited age-related skin problems, the most popular medical- level therapies currently used to treat them—and the purely esthetic alternatives that can help any day spa compete for the all-important anti-aging client. Skin Slackening Why it happens: Loss of elasticity is a top skincare concern in general, and among day spa clients in particular. "At about the age of 25, the skin becomes thinner, blood circulation deteriorates, and our natural production of collagen and elastin slows down," says McElroy. "As a result, the skin loses fi rmness and elas- ticity, and wrinkles appear." According to Dr. Christian Jurist, medical director of global education for Pevonia (pevoniapro.com), the fi rst area to evidence loss of elas- ticity is usually the face, followed by the neck, décolleté and hands and, eventually, the body. It's a challenging problem, partly because it has numerous causes. "Wrinkles are an inevitable part of the natural aging process," says April Zangl, CEO and co- formulator of HydroPeptide (hydropeptide.com). "As we get older, our skin naturally becomes thinner, drier and less elastic. Although genetic makeup can determine how wrinkly someone becomes, envi- ronmental and lifestyle factors such as smoking, sun exposure, stress, insuffi cient water intake and some medications can have a negative impact. Even facial muscle contractions as a result of re- peated facial expressions can affect when and where wrinkles start appearing." "There are a number of biologic processes that contribute to aging, and free-radical damage and infl ammation are probably the two most important," says Dr. Charlene DeHaven, clinical director for Innova- tive Skincare (innovativeskincare.com). "Unfortunately, they potentiate each other, and vital structures like genetic DNA, which causes the skin cells to reproduce and instructs them in carrying out their function, are also damaged by free-radical causes of aging. For skin, which is the organ containing the most collagen sup- port protein, glycation [bonding of a protein or lipid with a sugar molecule, impairing a biomolecule's func- tion] can destroy collagen and is another part of the aging process." "From an internal point of view, we know that the main protein fi bers of the skin's dermis become dam- aged over time and also weaker, while an impairment of tissue nutrition and lack of hydration give way to progressive skin deterioration," notes Jurist. As we get older, our diminished ability to retain moisture in the skin has an effect on skin elasticity, agrees McElroy. "A number of biologic processes contribute to aging, and free- radical damage and inflammation are the two most important." Fillers are popular, but not right for everyone. © CAROL_ANNE/GETTY