A Fashionable Trend: Aging Gracefully

Over the past few years, I’ve noticed a growing trend toward respecting and even embracing the aging process rather than fighting it. Older adults are more often being depicted as beautiful in advertising, TV, and film, and plastic surgeons here in Mississauga and throughout North America are increasingly hearing requests from our facial rejuvenation patients who want results that are as natural-looking as possible.

The New York Times recently weighed in on how designers and brands have started to use more “women of a certain age” in advertising. I, for one, am pleased to see this trend on the pages of popular magazines, and I expect it to spill over into my practice, as well.

More patients have come to me looking for subtle, natural results in recent years, and my staff and I have responded by honing our skills when it comes to non-surgical procedures, including fillers and wrinkle-reducing injectables such as BOTOX COSMETIC®. In our Mississauga-based practice, these procedures are often “mixed and matched” for each patient, leading to completely customized results.

Even patients who choose plastic surgery procedures such as a facelift are now commonly asking for a conservative approach, relying more on improving the integrity of underlying facial muscles than simply stretching the skin on top. This leads to results that not only look quite natural but also last much longer.

All this seems to show that patients are not as worried about trying to look younger so much as trying to look like they’ve aged well. True beauty is timeless and celebrates the individual rather than an unattainable ideal of youth, and I hope that the trend of “aging gracefully” is here to stay.