Ejal 40 for dehydrated skin: the booster for when the heating goes on

Cold air outside and dry air inside pull water out of the skin faster than it can hold on to it. A moisturiser helps the surface. It does nothing for the water content of the layers underneath, which is where the tightness and the dull, papery look come from.

What Ejal 40 is

A hyaluronic acid gel, lighter and more fluid than Profhilo, injected in a series of small points across the face. It holds water in the skin for months and encourages the skin to organise its own collagen more tidily. The result is a plumper, calmer surface that reflects light again.

Ejal 40 or Profhilo

• Ejal 40: hydration first. Gentler, less expensive, a good first booster, and the better choice for younger or thinner skin.
• Profhilo: hydration with more firming. The choice when laxity is part of the picture.
• Many people start with Ejal 40 and move to Profhilo a season later, or alternate the two.

What the appointment involves

Numbing cream for fifteen minutes, then a series of very small injections across the face, closer together than Profhilo’s ten points, so the lighter gel spreads evenly through the skin rather than from a few centres. About twenty minutes. Small raised bumps at each point flatten within a day, and there is little else to see. Two sessions, three to four weeks apart, then a single session every four to six months to keep the skin where the course left it.

What to do at home while it works

• Moisturiser on damp skin, morning and night, so the water the booster holds is not lost from the surface.
• A creamy cleanser rather than anything that foams, and no scrubs or acids for the first week.
• Sun protection every day; ultraviolet light breaks down hyaluronic acid.
• Water and sleep, which sound trite and are not.

Who it suits particularly well

Skin in its twenties and thirties that has become dehydrated by heating, travel or a long winter, and does not need or want firming. Thin, fine skin that Profhilo would be a heavy first step for. And anyone new to injectable treatments who wants a result they can feel before they see, because comfort arrives within days and the look follows a few weeks later. For skin that has lost firmness as well as water, Profhilo is the better answer, and the scan tells the two apart.

Ejal 40 through the year

Two sessions in October carry the skin through to spring. A single session in April, once the heating goes off and the sun returns, keeps the water in through summer, when air conditioning and sun do to skin what radiators did in winter. That is three sessions a year for most people, and a scan in each season shows the hydration reading holding where the course put it. For skin that also needs firming, the spring session is often the moment to move to Profhilo, and the consultation will say when.

• Autumn: the course of two, a month apart.
• Spring: one session, or the move to Profhilo if the scan asks for firmness.
• All year: moisturiser on damp skin and sun protection every day.

People who start with Ejal 40 in their twenties or thirties tend to keep it as the treatment that makes everything else unnecessary for a while, which is the best thing a booster can be.

If you are not sure whether your skin is dehydrated or simply dry, the scan tells the difference in a minute, and the two need different things.