Technology can be wonderful — just not for your neck. It turns out that looking down at your phone 8,000 times a day is likely exacerbating the wrinkles and rings around your throat.
OK, maybe 8,000 is an exaggeration. It’s more like 221, according to StriVectin, the beauty company that has coined and trademarked the term “tech neck.” According to the brand’s research, each Instagram scroll or emoji-filled text puts 60 pounds of extra pressure on the neck, resulting in lines, sagging and even crepey skin on the chest.
“The skin of the neck is very thin, and already more prone to aging than other parts of the body,” says Manhattan dermatologist Dendy Engelman, who not only confirms the tech-neck phenomenon but notes that our phones can also generate “tech spots.” Though UV exposure is the primary aging trigger, she explains, “we now know cellphones emit radiation, which can lead to premature dark spots.”
Fortunately, there’s no shortage of new treatments designed to tighten and tone the neck area. StriVectin just unveiled a lighter, gel-like version of its popular TL Advanced Tightening Neck Cream. Rodial’s sheet mask, a companion to its Chin & Neck Lift cream, deploys a neuropeptide for line softening. British brand 111Skin also offers a mask and serum targeting the neck and décolletage. Engelman, meanwhile, recommends a two-step Derm Institute regimen that includes Cellular Rejuvenating Cream worked into the skin with its Youthifier LED Light Therapy Massager. (In theory, the device’s 630-nanometer-wavelength light helps the cream penetrate more deeply.)
But not everything in Neckville is so high-tech. Botanical options include Clarins’ Super Restorative Décolleté and Neck Concentrate with extract of Harungana, a tree with “regenerating properties”; Korres’ Rose-Enriched Brightening Targeted Tone Corrector Neck & Décolleté; and SkinOwl’s Neck+, which features an ocean mineral complex, turmeric and yarrow. Meanwhile, Huxley, a new addition to GlowRecipe.com’s Korean beauty lineup, is gaining traction with its Secret of Sahara Cream: Anti-Gravity, formulated with prickly pear desert cactus.
Whether it’s chemical- or plant-based, you should probably slather on something, says Maria Hatzistefanis, CEO and founder of Rodial and co-host of Lifetime’s new “Project Runway: Fashion Startup.”
“Unlike areas of the face that can be fixed with Botox and injectables, for the neck there’s no easy solution; you have to go right to a lift, which is really drastic,” warns Hatzistefanis. “Women should be using a specialized neck product on a daily basis.”
And that cellphone you’re welded to? Hold it up and out.