Every girl tries to carefully care for her facial skin. Various masks, creams, toners and tonics, scrubs, peelings - all this is in the arsenal of modern beauties. Some people are lucky with their skin and just need some light home care. And some people have capricious skin and require careful care. Salon and home procedures are very expensive. Therefore, it is easier for girls to prevent a problem than to solve it. Most often, difficulties arise with the T-zone. Where is it located, and how to properly care for it? Let's look at these questions in the article.
Where is the T zone on the face?
Photo: Social networks
Zone-t is the forehead, nose and chin. If you draw a line on the forehead, and then from the center of the forehead draw a line along the nose to the chin, you will get a clear letter T.
This is our problem area - the face. This is where some strange pimples, blackheads, and flaking of the skin most often occur. According to statistics, 90% of facial skin problems occur in this area.
Possible side effects
Basically, complications arise not so much due to rupture of a venous vessel, but due to interruption of arterial blood flow due to compression or when the drug is administered into the lumen of the vessel with subsequent embolization of the terminal branches with small fragments [Fig. 3].
Rice. 3. Reasons for the development of skin necrosis. Intravasal injection (top), vessel compression (bottom).
What could happen next? Stopping arterial flow leads to necrosis and tissue death in the blood supply zone of a given vessel. Cases of necrosis of the skin of the wing and tip of the nose, lip tissue and glabella area have been described [Fig. 4–5].
Rice. 4. Necrosis of the tip or wing of the nose.
Rice. 5. Zones of necrosis.
An even more serious risk factor is associated with the fact that the facial artery represents the communication between the external and internal carotid arteries. Its terminal branch, the angular artery, anastomoses with the ophthalmic artery, a branch of the internal carotid artery. It is this connection between the vessels that can lead to embolization of the ophthalmic artery with small fragments of filler and further penetration into the central retinal artery with a possible decrease in vision up to blindness [Fig. 6–7].
Rice. 6. Iatrogenic retinal artery occlusion caused by the injection of fillers.
Rice. 7. Microembolism of the ophthalmic artery: etiopathogenesis.
Causes of T-zone problems
With dry and normal skin, there are no problems or difficulties in caring for the skin of the T-zone. But if your skin type is oily or combination, zone T really causes a lot of inconvenience.
It is in the T zone that the activity of the sebaceous glands, which produce excess sebum, is increased. Excess sebum is the main cause of pimples, blackheads, and redness. The problem area is enlarged and contaminated pores, an accumulation of “blackheads”.
The T-zone is a special place where the skin requires a different approach to daily care.
Sebum (sebum) and its meaning
Sebum (sebum), produced in the sebaceous glands by sebocytes on the surface of the skin, is mixed with the secretion of the sweat glands and emulsified, forming a thin water-fat emulsion film - a hydrolipid mantle, which, together with the epidermis, protects the skin from fungi, bacteria and viruses, as well as prevents skin from drying out.
As the skin is constantly in contact with an aggressive environment, the hydrolipid mantle can be disrupted, the skin becomes more sensitive and begins to produce more cells to protect itself.
How to care for the zone
There is an unspoken rule among cosmetologists that says that healthy skin is, first of all, clean skin. Any skin care should begin with cleansing it of dust and dirt.
The skin in the T-zone is relatively rough and covered with a sebaceous coating, so using plain water cannot achieve high-quality cleansing of the skin. It is best to use neutral toilet soap or gel for washing.
If the skin reacts poorly to soap or other cosmetics, you can use simple kefir or whey to wash your face.
✔ Fermented milk products have a unique ability to increase the acid barrier of the skin. After cleansing the skin with kefir or whey, microbes stop spreading.
✔ In the morning, apply kefir to the zone-t using a cotton pad, leave for five minutes, then rinse with warm water.
✔ Daily washing with vinegar water does a good job of removing excess sebum and increasing skin acidity. To prepare the solution, add one tablespoon of vinegar to one liter of water. You can simply wash your face with this water, or you can soak a cotton swab in it and wipe problem areas: forehead, bridge of the nose, wings of the nose, chin.
Of course, washing alone is not enough for complete care. Zone T is quite capricious and, unfortunately, a universal cosmetic product for its care has not yet been produced. But home care remedies are quite enough.
How to prevent the appearance of blackheads?
In order to never encounter this unpleasant problem that spoils the appearance of your skin, you need to learn a few rules and follow them unquestioningly. So, what do you need to know to avoid blackheads in your T-zone ?
- The body requires cleansing from the inside. Therefore, do not forget the importance of maintaining water balance. Every person should drink at least 2 liters of water per day. If you can’t handle this amount of water, then you can replace it with freshly brewed tea or herbal decoction.
- Your skin, just like your body, needs to rest at night. In order for the pores to breathe and not become clogged with a mixture of cosmetics and sebaceous glands secreted by the skin, it is necessary to wash off the cosmetics before going to bed.
- Oddly enough, lack of sleep and constant fatigue also play a role in the appearance of your skin. Therefore, if you do not want your skin to be dotted with blackheads, try to go to bed early.
- Don't ignore the use of scrubs and face masks. Scrub particles will help remove dead skin flakes. A moisturizing mask will make your face cleaner by clearing the pores of dirt.
- As we wrote earlier, a lot also depends on nutrition. When you eat fried potatoes with hot sauce, you expose your skin to blackheads with every sip. Therefore, do not forget about the importance of proper nutrition, rich in vitamins.
The appearance of blackheads in the T-zone
Home remedies for deep skin cleansing
At home, peelings, scrubs and clay masks can be used to deep cleanse the T-zone.
Skin peeling
Before starting these home treatments, you need to wipe your face with a cosmetic tonic, then you need to steam the skin with a hot towel.
As soon as the skin has steamed and the skin pores become elastic, apply a face peeling cream or scrub to the area with a cotton pad. Give a short massage and rinse off the cleanser with cool water.
Deep cleansing with clay
Dilute one teaspoon of cosmetic clay with a few drops of water to a thick mass. Add a little lemon juice and a few drops of vodka. Mix the mass well.
Apply the resulting mixture to the area with a cotton pad and leave for 20 minutes. Then rinse with warm water.
Zone-t responds well to deep cleansing, but these procedures can be considered aggressive on the skin. Therefore, deep cleansing of the T-zone should be performed no more than once or twice a week.
Tips for caring for the area
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✔ Steam baths with infusions of medicinal herbs, such as chamomile, are very useful. Steam expands the pores and they are freed from dust, dirt, and excess sebum.
✔ Our skin loves both warmth and cold, it needs them equally. To narrow the pores of the skin, it is useful to wipe the area with pieces of ice several times a week before going to bed.
✔ Use drying and antibacterial lotions and tonics with zinc oxide or salicylic acid for daily care.
✔ 10 minutes before washing it is useful to wipe the area with cabbage juice.
✔ Pamper your facial skin with toning treatments several times a week and the problem area will thank you. Add the juice of one aloe leaf to a glass of mineral water and stir. Wipe with this product not only the t-zone, but also your cheeks and neck. This is a very good product for any skin type.
✔ Never squeeze pimples. A squeezed pimple will not go away and the inflammation will only drag on. A simple infusion of orange and tangerine peel will help fight acne in the T-zone. Brew some citrus peels with boiling water and let it brew. The infusion can be used for washing in the morning and wiping inflamed areas of the skin. This infusion can even be used for lotions.
✔ If the T-zone is very oily, do not go to the solarium, these procedures will only harm you.
Daily care lotion
You can prepare your own rescue lotion for the T-zone; to prepare it you will need benzoic acid, menthol, camphor alcohol, chamomile, sage, vodka and food grade acetic acid.
Dissolve 2 ml of benzoic acid, 0.25 grams of menthol in 30 ml of camphor alcohol. Add 2 tablespoons of chamomile or sage flowers, a glass of vodka, 200 ml of water and 5 ml of acetic acid. Mix the ingredients.
Use the lotion twice a day to wipe problem areas of the skin. The lotion should be stored in the refrigerator.
Masks for zone-t
Photo: Pixabay
Zona-t responds well to additional care. Masks can be performed once or twice a week. Before the procedure, the skin of the face must be cleansed with toner so that dirt is not absorbed into the skin along with the beneficial ingredients of the mask. The mask should not be applied to the eye area.
Tea mask
Mix one teaspoon of dry green tea, 4 drops of tea tree essential oil. Close the container and leave for a day. Then pour a glass of boiling water over the mixture and strain after 40 minutes. Add one tablespoon of lemon juice and ground rolled oats to the infusion until a thick mixture is formed. Apply the mask for 20 minutes, rinse with tea.
Egg mask
✔ Beat one egg white, add ground rolled oats and 3 drops of tea tree essential oil. Apply the mask to your face, wait until it dries and rinse with cool water.
✔ Grate one apple, add whipped egg white. Apply the mask to your face, leave for 15 minutes, then rinse with warm water.
✔ Soften strawberries or wild strawberries, add whipped egg white. Apply the mask to your face in several layers. After 15 minutes, rinse with cool water.
✔ Beat 1 egg white, add one teaspoon of cranberry juice and one teaspoon of starch. Apply the mask on your face for 15 minutes, rinse with warm water.
Kefir mask
Grind 5 tablespoons of green tea and add 3 tablespoons of kefir. Mix the mixture and apply to your face. Rinse off after 15 minutes with warm water.
Honey mask
Mix 1 teaspoon each of honey, potato starch, warm milk and salt. Apply the mixture in several layers, rinse with warm water after 25 minutes. Then rinse with cool water and lemon juice.
Cucumber mask
Grate the cucumber, add boric acid. Apply the mixture to your face and leave for 15 minutes. Then rinse with warm water.
Creamy mask
Steam your face first. Grind the plum fruits and add rolled oats flour. Apply the resulting paste in a thick layer to the skin of the face and neck. Leave the mask on for 15 minutes, rinse with warm water.
The T-zone will no longer be a problem if you take care of it especially carefully. There is no skin problem that cannot be dealt with.
If home remedies do not give a positive effect, then something is being done incorrectly. A consultation with a cosmetologist will help you find out and understand skin problems, and traditional medicine recipes will never be superfluous.
Facial areas, signs of aging and their correction
We all look better flushed from the frost. But is it younger? A general indefinite improvement is provided by a change in complexion (the competence of a cosmetologist-skin specialist) and its expression (your competence). As for surgical rejuvenation, these are very specific relief shifts, the opposite of age-related relief changes in the soft tissues of the face. Both of them can be accurately listed, indicated in photographs or on yourself. We will look at these changes for each of the 4 zones of the face. Division into zones is convenient for targeted diagnosis of each of the signs of aging and for simulating surgically achievable correction. However, believe me, the basis for this division is not this applied interest, but a modern understanding of surgical anatomy, facial embryology and the mechanisms of aging.
Three zones - upper, middle and lower - are separated by two horizontal lines passing through the eyebrows and nostrils. The fourth zone is the periorbital zone, superimposed on the upper and middle zone, like glasses. In further reasoning, it will be very helpful if you divide half of the face into the lateral (lateral) and central (medial) parts with a conventional vertical line. The paradox is that almost all signs of aging are concentrated in the medial part, while lateral skin tightening smoothes and flattens relief changes only in the lower and lateral parts of the face.
Let's start from the bottom. Signs of aging of the neck and lower third of the face:
- Horizontal folds on the neck
- Increased cervical-mental angle
- Vertical folds downwards from the corners of the mouth (marionette lines - remember Pierrot from the Commedia dell'Arte)
- Distortion of the contour of the lower jaw. Patients often call this sign jowls or bulldogs.
Let's simulate surgical rejuvenation of this zone. Let's grit our teeth and feel the dense chewing muscle on the edge of the lower jaw. Press the skin of this place with your fingers and pull it towards the ear. We will see the disappearance or reduction of all four of these signs:
- Those folds of the neck that the surgeon “passed” with subcutaneous dissection will straighten out. The remaining folds will show the lower limit of the surgical skin detachment.
- The cervical-mental angle will become sharper even from a simple skin tightening, but to enhance the effect, you can add neck liposuction and/or platysmaplasty.
- The lines of the puppet will not disappear at all, but they will become less prominent and will take on an inclined position rather than a vertical one.
- The contour of the lower jaw will be smoothed out immediately, but for how long depends on the depth of the lifting. The more radical the dissection of the SMAS, the more the soft tissues of the cheek can be moved upward, and these are the very tissues whose subsidence forms the “jowls”. All of the above effects are achievable through an incision around the ear. Their depth and durability depend on the width and depth of tissue separation, which means that the operation can last from 2 hours under local anesthesia to 4 hours under general anesthesia. Accordingly, recovery after surgery will take from three to four days to 2 weeks. Here's what you should think about when choosing one or another lower zone rejuvenation surgery.
Let us note, by the way, that by simulating a tightening of the lower zone on yourself, you will not see almost any rejuvenation of the middle zone, especially the infraorbital region. This is a fundamental limitation of cutaneous or even lateral SMAS lifting. That is why these most common facelift methods are often complemented by lower blepharoplasty. That is, they perform a second small operation so that the changes are noticeable not in one, but in two zones.
Signs of aging in the midface:
- The tear trough is a sharp, raised border between the lower eyelid and the cheek.
- Increase in the height of the lower eyelid. In profile, this is the distance from the ciliary edge to the tear groove.
- The zygomatic sac is another age-related relief just below and to the side of the tear trough.
- Nasolabial fold is an overhang of the skin of the cheek on the side of the nose and upper lip.
To see for yourself what a mid-zone lift gives, first repeat the simulation of the lower lateral lift (move the skin above the nodules of the masseter muscle towards the ears). Make sure that none of the signs of age in the middle zone have disappeared. Maybe the very bottom part of the nasolabial fold has smoothed out slightly and that’s all. Then place your middle fingers on the most prominent point of the cheekbone - this is the widest part of the face - and move the skin vertically upward. At the same time, use your index fingers to slightly pull the skin of the lower eyelid to the sides to smooth out the folds that are gathering on the lower eyelid. You will see the disappearance of all the listed signs of aging in the middle zone.
Please note that the overall effect of facial rejuvenation is no less, but rather even greater, than from a lower zone lift. This is probably true around the age of 40, because the middle zone “ages” earlier than the others. At an older age, changes in the lower zone can catch up with the middle one. In addition, you will not see folds of skin near the ears that were collected when simulating a lower zone lift and which the surgeon is forced to excise, leaving scars around the ear. This means that the excess skin in the lateral (see above) part of the face is not true, but is technologically created by the surgeon when he pulls the skin of the entire face towards the ears (laterally). If this is not done, then there will be no excess skin, which means there will be no incisions near the ear. Where are the cuts then, you ask?
Look in the mirror at how the skin folds on the lower eyelid when simulating a vertical mid-zone lift. This is the skin that has been stretched for years, carried downwards by the descending tissues of the cheek. If you return the cheek tissue to the top, then this skin becomes redundant and can be removed by making an incision under the eyelashes of the lower eyelid, that is, the same access used for conventional lower blepharoplasty. There remain, however, less pronounced folds on the sides of the orbit. They cannot be excised - the scars are noticeable. They are either surgically straightened by tightening the skin of the temporal region (see below), or they straighten themselves over time... unfortunately.
Unfortunately, because the straightening of these folds means nothing more than a partial re-lowering of the skin of the middle zone in the first months after the operation. This is inevitable, because the middle zone is the facial muscles. Its activity will inevitably relax the tension that the surgeon created, and gravity uses this relaxation, moving the skin down. It follows from this, firstly, that the surgeon must “pull” the tissues of the middle zone upward, making hypercorrection in anticipation of subsequent “shrinkage”. Secondly, “shrinkage” means that you should not expect that the dramatic changes you see in the first days after surgery will remain for life. No, the effect of hypercorrection, sometimes pretentious, will disappear within a couple of months, the face will normalize and, according to the age scale, will take an average position between what it was before the operation and what you observed in the first week after it.
Therefore, the longer the normalization of the appearance, the more radical the tightening of the middle zone, the sharper the initial hypercorrection. This may seem like a disadvantage to some. The second “disadvantage” of a vertical midzone lift is that it requires special training and above-average skill of a surgeon (any plastic surgeon will perform a lateral skin lift). This is understandable, because the work is in the midst of facial muscles, dissection must be carried out by peeling off some muscles from others or even from the skull, the understanding of complex anatomical relationships must be absolute, and the actions must be impeccable.
So, a minimal tightening (of only one facial muscle - the orbicularis oculi muscle) will take 1.5-2 hours and is possible under local anesthesia. Total deep tightening of all tissues of the middle zone - up to 3 hours under anesthesia. The “recovery” that interests everyone will last up to 1 week (stitches, bruises and other attributes of the operation), and the “normalization” of the face, i.e. smoothing of hypercorrection - up to 2 months.
Access to the tissues of the middle zone is also possible from the side and is advisable when combined. lifting the middle zone with lifting the lower one, which requires incisions around the ear. From the side of the ear, the path to the facial muscles of the middle zone is longer; extended dissection of the SMAS is required. Such an operation requires anesthesia, will last 5 hours (there are too many thin stitches around the ear), “recovery” and “normalization” after it will also take a little longer.
Let's move on to the upper area of the face. Signs of her aging:
- Downward displacement of the lateral extremity (tail) of the eyebrow, on which signs 2 and 3 depend.
- The appearance of excess skin of the upper eyelid.
- The orientation of the lateral canthus is downward.
- An independent sign is transverse folds of the skin of the forehead and longitudinal folds above the bridge of the nose.
Let's simulate the effects of anti-aging surgery. Using your index fingers placed at the highest point of the eyebrow or just above it, straighten the eyebrows up and to the sides. We will see how the appearance of the eye socket has improved and the excess skin of the upper eyelid has sharply decreased. Additionally, use your middle fingers to slightly pull the lateral corners of your eyes. The eyes take on an almond-shaped, slightly slanted shape - this effect is not necessary. If you don’t want to, let go of your middle fingers - the rejuvenation of both the eye sockets and the forehead is still clearly visible from just raising the eyebrows.
A sign that remains independent of the position of the eyebrows is skin folds. Folds are excess, and their elimination means removing excess skin, suturing the edges of the remaining skin and forming a surgical scar. More often, the scar can be hidden in the hair above the hair growth line. However, this means stretching the entire “hairless” skin of the forehead, i.e. increase in forehead height. It is cosmetically acceptable to increase the height of the forehead, if in the end it does not exceed 5 cm. If you are the owner of a Socratic forehead, then, you will agree, the aesthetic canons of a woman’s face require making your wide forehead narrower. Then the incision will pass exactly along the front border of hair growth, which therefore will not go upward, but will remain in place or even move slightly downward due to the traction of the forehead skin stretched and stitched to it.
Thanks to different surgical tricks (oblique tilt, sawtooth pattern), the forehead incision heals almost imperceptibly. However, cutting the entire scalp from ear to ear is not a complete procedure. In the early postoperative period there are swelling and bruises, in the long-term there are disturbances in the sensitivity of the skin posterior to the incision. Therefore, endoscopic division of the deep tissues of the forehead and fixation of them after tension without removing a strip of skin are becoming increasingly popular. Excess skin is collected with a roller on the scalp. The roller smoothes out over time. Of course, raising the hairline, i.e. An increase in forehead height is inevitable. There are other limitations of the endoscopic forehead lift technique, due to which we refuse it for those patients who require a complete set of radical front lift with long-term results. We consider men as good candidates, as well as those younger women for whom even an incomplete effect will be sufficient. There are surrogates for a forehead lift - detachment of only the skin or no detachment at all. We discussed them in the dictionary.
An isolated forehead lift will take up to 2 hours and is possible under local anesthesia. But access through the forehead opens up such rich opportunities for rejuvenation of the orbit, the middle, and even the lower parts of the face that frontlifting in an isolated form is like a cannon. By exposing the bones of the skull, we get the opportunity to smooth out the protruding upper edge of the orbit, the hump of the nose, and, on the contrary, fill the zygomatic areas. The combination with lifting the middle zone of the face is also beneficial in that it immediately eliminates those folds on the temples, into which excess skin of the middle zone would accumulate during an isolated lift. This combination is all the more logical since both the middle and upper zones require the same tension vector. By the way, this optimal vector of movement can be given to the skin of the lower zone; it is enough to peel it off through the same upper access; then an incision around the ear is not needed.
In this extended version - essentially a lift of all areas of the face - the operation will take 5 hours under anesthesia. It is better to spend not one, but two nights in the clinic afterward; your face will retain a frightening appearance for your loved ones for 4-5 days. The bruises will last up to two weeks; the last fixing sutures (or rather, titanium screws that firmly secure the achieved shift directly to the bones of the skull) will be removed after 20 days.
The fourth zone is the orbit. Signs of aging of the lower eyelid belong to the middle, and the upper - to the upper zone of the face. We will not repeat them, but note that the eye socket seems to focus the most striking signs of facial aging. Its rejuvenation is indicated for almost everyone who seeks facial rejuvenating procedures for the first time. In reoperated patients, blepharoplasty has almost always already been done previously. Since not everyone who applies is ready morally and financially for a radical rejuvenating operation, work on the eyelids remains that small, but unmistakably reliable surgical reserve, or, if you like, a compromise. That is why we distinguish the orbit into an independent (fourth) surgical zone. There are no anatomical or physiological reasons for such a distinction, unlike the three previous zones. That is, blepharoplasty in an isolated form is an operation forced, in a certain sense, by non-medical circumstances
Let’s combine all four zones for those “beautiful and determined” who require the maximum. First of all, we will check their determination, scientifically - motivation. To do this, the computer archive contains enough frightening views that capture both the scale of the operation of multi-level and multi-vector tightening of all zones, and early postoperative distortions. Their peak occurs on the 4th day, when we photograph these “horror stories”. But the marks are visible even after 2 weeks. The operation is possible only under general anesthesia and lasts up to 6 hours. The patient is required to be in good health, and we are required to have special medical care, mainly first-class anesthesiology. From these patients I ask for photographs from 20 years ago or their children and do not leave the operating room until I achieve a close likeness. A kind of game of “mother and daughter”. After a smooth decrease in the features of surgical hypercorrection within 2 months, the “normalized” person remains for life many years younger than the passport age. It is important that such rejuvenation is “harmonious”, i.e. maintains an individual balance of appearance features that was characteristic of a person 10-15 years ago. No one has ever applied for repeated lifts after such procedures, whereas such cases do occur after working in isolated areas. And here we touch on a very important issue arising from our division of the face and signs of aging into 4 zones.
Division means separation, and separate consideration of zones seems logical, doesn’t it? And surgical logic also pushes for such isolation of zones - their rejuvenation requires independent techniques, often independent of each other. This begs the question: therefore, it is possible to operate separately - some will like the effects of rejuvenation on the bottom and on the neck, some - only the forehead, some - only the middle zone...? Why go through all these frightening difficulties of simultaneously lifting all areas of the face, if the signs of aging each have their own specific registration? By the way, what most of my colleagues call a facelift is actually a tightening of the lower zone, i.e. For the lower zone and neck, the practice of isolated rejuvenation has long been “historically established.”
For other zones, the tactics of isolated rejuvenation are used in a number of cases by me, but this is a small number of carefully selected cases. The fact is, no matter how radical the rejuvenation of, say, the middle zone, for the entire face as a whole it will be only partial, in science - partial. A patient going for surgery, by this very fact, shows that he is picky about his appearance and is irreconcilable with age-related changes. After partial rejuvenation of one zone, the edge of this pickiness will very likely spread to the neighboring one, where the changes were not so noticeable before, they were overshadowed by the zone that has already been corrected. This is the second most common reason for dissatisfaction with the results of the most common operation in our country - tightening the lower zone (which, I repeat, is considered a facelift as such in our country). The first reason is the non-radicality and short duration of the effect inherent in skin tightening, but we have already talked about this. It is the fear of getting an unsatisfied patient that forces you to “measure seven times” before going for partial rejuvenation. For this I need particularly high intelligence and cooperation (readiness to cooperate and overcome any problems with me) of the patient. It is best if these qualities have already been verified by previous operations, not necessarily rejuvenating ones. But even in these cases (and with years of practice, their proportion, fortunately, increases), from time to time women come, who were partially rejuvenated by me 2-5 years ago and at that time were absolutely satisfied with the results, with a request to treat other areas. Whereas (I return 2 paragraphs above, to the formulation of this question) after a multi-level multi-vector lifting of all zones, no one has yet applied for repeated anti-aging operations on the face in 10 years of performing such operations. All that remains is to repeat again - the choice is yours.
