When rom-com queen Nora Ephron wrote a book entitled I Feel Bad About My Neck, I, and millions of other women, identified.

The old trope that the neck gives away our age, when contrasted with a more cared for and thus less wrinkled face, feels both retrogressive and true.

Nora was 65 when she wrote that memoir and confessed she was bothered by her ‘wattle’ and how her skin there had turned into ‘soft canyons, mounds and valleys’.

I’m now in my early 50s and also somewhat concerned. I’m noticing the arrival of necklace lines, and my skin started to get a crepey quality pretty much overnight a few years ago. One minute it was bouncy and firm, the next almost entirely slack.

If you are feeling similarly despondent, I have a solution for you. It’s ouchy and expensive but it 100 per cent works.

‘I’m noticing the arrival of necklace lines, and my skin started to get a crepey quality pretty much overnight a few years ago,’ writes Rosie Green, pictured before her treatment

Dr Vicky Dondos, pictured with Rosie, suggests skin booster. These are an injectable treatment based on hyaluronic acid and promise to improve elasticity, firmness and texture 

But before we get to that I need to tell you this isn’t the first time I’ve felt bad about my neck. That was in my mid-20s, when I was invited to a fancy dinner where there were lots of earls and viscounts and a man called Peregrine. It was hosted by Cartier and it offered to loan me a necklace. I went to the store to try the jewellery on and, quelle horreur, the snooty saleswoman told me some of the sparklers were off limits because they were too small. I instantly added ‘thick neck’ to my list of body insecurities. I was a bull in the presence of swans. (This story’s relevance will become clear later, I promise).

But back to my fifty-something situation.

When I bemoan my neck ageing to Dr Vicky Dondos, my trusted injector, she suggests skin boosters. These are an injectable treatment based on hyaluronic acid and promise to improve elasticity, firmness and texture. She reassures me they do not increase volume. Essential because, as necklace gate shows, I don’t need any more thickness in this area, do I?

There are many different brands of skin boosters and they all offer slightly different results and effects. The one she picks for my neck is Profhilo. It stimulates collagen and elastin production, meaning laxity is reduced and skin is tightened and lifted.

Dr Dondos did 15 or so injections and each one felt like a sharp sting – not unbearable but not comfortable, either. There are a few seconds of pain then it dissipates to nothing. 

The injection sites immediately come up in bumps, like mosquito bites. They are red and raised and you look like you are afflicted by a Victorian ailment for about three hours afterwards. Under no circumstances make dinner plans, and be aware that you will scare small children. Even the dog gave me the side eye. 

The next morning the bumps are so small that only those very close to you would clock them, and after a day or so you can’t see them at all.

The injections Dr Dondas used during Rosie’s visit. She did 15 or so injections and each one felt like a sharp sting – not unbearable but not comfortable, either

The injection sites immediately come up in bumps and look like mosquito bites

Rosie pictured after her Profhilo treatment. Six weeks later, she says lines are smoothed and her skin is tightened – and her neck looks like it did ten years ago

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Skin boosters take a while to work. My neck did look better instantly thanks to a hit of hydration, but the real results appear a month or so after treatment thanks to that collagen production kicking in. You are then advised to have a second treatment which, full disclosure, I didn’t – though I know I should have done for even better effects.

Six weeks later, my neck is much, much improved. Lines are smoothed and my skin is tightened. It looks like it did ten years ago.

In short, it is Cartier necklace-worthy.

Any buyers?

Profhilo at Medicetics from £350, medicetics.com

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