For many people, November and December are the busiest months of the year, and they can also be the most stressful. After a holiday season packed with family gatherings, gift giving and receiving, and all the chaos that often comes with it, you deserve to treat yourself. And what better way to treat yourself this winter than with the gift of enhancing your beauty and confidence?
If you’ve been thinking about getting plastic surgery or a nonsurgical cosmetic treatment, here’s why January, February and March are the ideal months to do it.
Jumpstart Your New Year’s Resolutions
Most of our New Year’s resolutions are based on doing things to help ourselves look and feel better. If your goals include taking better care of your skin to look more youthful, injectables like Botox, Dysport and Juvéderm can fill wrinkles to start you off with a smooth complexion. If you’d like to be more toned, CoolTone uses pulses of magnetic waves to build muscles in your abs, butt and thighs, with noticeable results in just two to four weeks. For stubborn fat that can’t be targeted with specific exercises or a diet, CoolSculpting can spot-reduce trouble areas to give you a more slender physique.
It’s Motivation to Keep Your Weight Loss Resolutions
After a season of indulgence that may have included eating one too many cookies (or, let’s be honest, more like five too many cookies), we would all like to start the new year a little trimmer. You might resolve to lose your “muffin top” or “love handles” that have become more pronounced, but getting started with a workout routine or switching to lower-calorie foods can be difficult. And once you start exercising and eating better, it can be frustrating not to see any results for weeks. Unfortunately, this causes a lot of people to give up on their goals.
CoolSculpting offers a nonsurgical way to reduce unwanted fat, and it can help motivate you to live a healthier lifestyle. Although it can take a month to begin seeing results from this nonsurgical body contouring procedure, patients are typically driven to watch what they eat and work out during this time to see an even better outcome. And after your body eliminates the fat frozen by CoolSculpting, it’s vital to continue a healthy routine to prevent yourself from gaining weight so you don’t reverse your results.
You Can Recover During Your Break From Gatherings
The holidays are a time when people get together with their loved ones to celebrate. After so many gatherings with friends and family in November and December, you might have a lull from all the hustle and bustle in the coming months. An empty social calendar gives you time to recuperate at home after a surgical procedure like a facelift, eyelid surgery or nose surgery without worrying about pressures to go out or attend parties.
You Can Wear Cold-Weather Clothes to Conceal as You Heal
In the cooler winter weather, you’ll be able to bundle up and keep people from seeing any evidence of your plastic surgery if you need to go out of the house. Wearing beanies and scarves makes it easy to conceal any bruising, swelling or incisions you might have after a facial plastic surgery procedure like a neck lift or chin augmentation. But with this cooler weather, stay inside and enjoy some hot cocoa by the fire as you heal, and you’ll be ready to show off your new look before the snow melts.
Cooler Temperatures Help Reduce Swelling
When you apply an ice pack to an injured area, the cold temperature constricts your blood vessels to decrease circulation, reduce swelling and alleviate pain. In a similar way, the cooler winter weather can aid in reducing swelling and bruising after a plastic surgery procedure. If you have to venture out of the house during your recovery, doing so in the winter is best, as opposed to the warmer spring and summer months when higher temperatures can worsen any pain or inflammation you might experience.
A Lower UV Index Means a Reduced Risk of Sun Damage
Your skin will be more vulnerable to the sun’s UV rays after a cosmetic procedure, especially something like a chemical peel or laser treatment that affects the outer layer of your skin. Even when you’re inside, indirect sunlight can reach you through windows and glass doors and cause damage, making it difficult to protect your skin at all times.
The UV index is generally lower in winter, meaning the ultraviolet rays of the sun are less intense during this season. This makes winter the ideal time to get a procedure since there is less risk of sun damage and sunburns. (While a lower UV index means the sun’s rays are less powerful, they can still harm your skin and cause premature aging. Because of this, we recommend applying a broad-spectrum sunscreen of SPF 30 or higher every day to protect your skin. We can help you find a gentle mineral sunscreen that won’t irritate your sensitive, healing skin.)
Shorter Days Also Means a Lower Risk of Sun Damage
The sun sets earlier in the winter due to the Earth’s tilted axis, so there are fewer hours of sunlight during the day. That’s less time you need to worry about protecting your skin as it heals from a cosmetic procedure.
Take Advantage of Winter Plastic Surgery in St. Louis
With the winter weather in full effect in St. Louis, now is the perfect time to get plastic surgery and take advantage of all these benefits. Dr. Brock Ridenour is a board-certified facial plastic surgeon with over 25 years of experience, and he and his team at his St. Louis plastic surgery center can guide you to the ideal procedure for your needs.
To learn more about all of the nonsurgical cosmetic treatments and plastic surgery procedures we offer, contact Ridenour Plastic Surgery by calling (314) 878-8600 today.
