Salmon sperm injections? Vampire Facial? Would you try one of the weirdest treatments in beauty in exchange for younger-looking skin?
Citizen Femme investigates six leading beauty treatments that may sound a little eyebrow-raising, but that claim to offer impressive results. Read on to find out more, and to decide whether you’d book in for some of the weirdest treatments on the beauty market.
Salmon Sperm Injections – aka polynucleotides
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Best for: smoothing your under eyes and ‘tech’ neck
It might surprise you (and probably gross you out a little bit too), but one of the most popular injectable treatments for 2024 relies on a rather unexpected ingredient – salmon sperm. More specifically, polynucleotides which are fragments of salmon or trout sperm DNA (heavily purified of course!). When injected into the skin they’ve been shown to stimulate your body’s fibroblasts. This helps boost collagen and elastin production, making your skin ‘act younger’, by increasing smoothness and firmness, as well as supercharging hydration and soothing inflammation. Results under your eyes and on your neck are especially impressive – particularly if you struggle with dullness and crepey skin. The little bumps you see in the picture (straight after treatment) may be a bit off-putting, but they’re due to the superficial nature of the injections used; they should fade within 24 hours. As with all injectables, you do need to go to a well-trained, leading practitioner – the CF team love Dr Ahmed El Muntasar or Dr Yusra Al-Mukhtar – to keep you, and your skin, safe.
Vampire Facial – aka PRP therapy
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Best for: supercharging skin and hair health
The so-called ‘Vampire Facial’ first hit the headlines when Kim Kardashian posted about her experience back in the 2010s – complete with a photo of her face covered in blood. It all sounds pretty unappealing, but there’s more science behind it than you may think. The process involves taking your own blood (a process that works like a blood test), and placing it in a special machine called a centrifuge to extract a particular component – plasma. This growth factor and platelet-rich plasma is then re-injected into your skin; a process that is said to trick your body into thinking it has been injured, which kick-starts the healing process and improves the overall quality of your complexion. It’s also been used to help with hair growth and rejuvenation with some impressive results. Importantly, you don’t need to have the blood spread quite so dramatically across your face to see results (that’s just for photographs it seems), but the redness is a real side effect, and you really need to choose your clinic carefully. Good hygiene practices are integral to avoid health concerns, especially when dealing with blood-based treatments.
Hundreds Of Needles – aka facial acupuncture
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Best for: fine lines and stressed-out complexions
Our beauty editor admits that it was seeing her social media feed filled with fellow journalists covered in tons of tiny facial needles that peaked her interest in cosmetic acupuncture. And then she discovered why it was so popular – for both its complexion and mind-boosting credentials. While it might look painful to have so many needles placed in your face, the needles are actually really, really tiny so you only feel a slight sharp sensation as they are inserted, and can then spend the rest of the time relaxing on a massage bed while they get to work. Your practitioner doesn’t just insert the needles randomly either; they’re placed at specific acupuncture points, with their amount and positions tailored to your specific concerns. For your skin, bespoke placement is said to help tackle common complaints such as wrinkles, dullness, congestion and acne. For wellbeing, there are specific areas that are linked to stress, grief, anxiety and even fertility (which is why the treatment is available for the face and body), and there aren’t many side effects either – aside from a little redness at the insertion points.
Jaw Toxin – aka teeth grinding treatment
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Best for: relaxing sore, tight jaw muscles
When you think of toxin injections (what you may hear commonly referred to as ‘Botox’) you probably think about them as purely a wrinkle-reducing treatment, popular for use on the forehead and around the eyes to tackle annoying lines. However, did you know that toxin has a wealth of other clever, if seemingly unusual, uses too? That includes as a cure for sweating (by blocking your sweat glands) and even to stop stress-related teeth grinding, which affects around 1 in 10 of us. Toxin for tooth grinding is a particularly good (if off-label) treatment for those of us who hold a lot of tension around the mouth, which may present itself as a tight, heavy or clicking feeling around your jaw, especially when you are feeling anxious. When a (suitably skilled) practitioner injects toxin into the jaw area, it helps weaken the masseter muscles so they don’t clamp down as hard, which leads to reduced muscle tightness and thus reduces pain, without the need to wear a night guard. The treatment can also soften a prominent jawline, providing a softer, rounded face, so is sometimes used for purely cosmetic reasons too – although this does tend to require more toxin to be injected.
The Spaceman Suit – aka lymphatic drainage massage
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Best for: treating heavy legs post-flight
These inflatable trousers look majorly space-age (and rather odd!), but they are actually the favoured body-contouring treatment of multiple celebrities, including Jennifer Aniston and Hailey Bieber – and the experience is really rather relaxing. A completely non-invasive way to get ‘red-carpet ready’, the trousers deliver a gentle compression-based massage (it feels like being gently and rhythmically squeezed), which is brilliant for lymphatic drainage, without the need for a therapist to manually massage you. In case you aren’t familiar, our lymphatic system is our body’s ‘waste system’ and, by stimulating it, experts suggest you can decrease bloating, improve digestion, boost immunity and even increase your metabolism. It works for relieving post-flight leg heaviness too. Many clinics now offer the treatment alongside facials (to maximise head-to-toe results and to supercharge relaxation). Look out for the two leading brands in compression massage: Body Ballancer (the one loved by Jennifer Aniston) and SLIMYONIK® AIR Bodystyler (which also focuses on helping with body tone).
The ‘Happy’ Chair – aka non-invasive pelvic floor tightening
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Best for: pelvic floor health
‘Can a chair give you an orgasm?!’ That’s one of the most famous headlines surrounding the Emsella or ‘Happy Chair’, but this female-health targeting technology is actually seriously impressive for improving pelvic floor strength too, which can be life-changing if you struggle with leaks post-children, for example. Without the need for invasive prodding and probing – in fact, you can sit on the chair-like device fully clothed, the technology uses HIFEM (High Intensity Focused ElectroMagnetic Energy) to contract your pelvic floor muscles in a way similar to Kegel exercises, but without the conscious effort. This, in turn, can then improve stress urinary incontinence (while also enhancing sexual satisfaction). It’s no surprise then, that while it may sound a little unusual – and look quite unassuming – it’s being celebrated as a real step forward in helping those who previously had to ‘grin and bear’ postpartum pelvic floor symptoms.
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