Why does your body age differently from your face?
How to deal with your skin's aging features
Published Feb 23, 2026 10:09 pm
At A Glance
- By your 40s and 50s, your skin has lost a significant portion of its internal support.
You have been taking care of your face. Good skincare, maybe some treatments, your skin is in good shape. But then you catch yourself in the mirror—arms out, or in a swimsuit—and something feels off. Your face says one thing. Your body says another.
There’s a clinical term for this: aesthetic dissonance. It’s one of the most common concerns I hear in my clinic, from women in their 30s onward. The face looks good. The body feels like it got left behind.
That’s not just about weight or genetics. A large part of it is collagen loss. And that’s something we can address.
What is collagen?
The word itself tells the story. Collagen comes from the Greek "kolla," which means “glue.” It’s the protein that holds your skin’s structure together, keeping it firm and tight. Starting around age 30, your body loses about one percent of its collagen every year. By your 40s and 50s, your skin has lost a significant portion of its internal support.
In Filipino, we have precise words for what follows: lawlaw (sagging) and kulubot (wrinkling). These aren’t just cosmetic concerns, they reflect a real breakdown in the skin’s structural framework.
The goal of body treatment is to rebuild that structure. The treatment that does this most directly is called Sculptra.
What is Sculptra and how is it different?
Most people think of injectables as fillers, something injected to puff an area up immediately. Sculptra works differently. It doesn’t add volume from the outside. It signals your own body to produce new collagen from within.
The active ingredient is poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA), a biodegradable material used in medicine for over 30 years, including in dissolvable stitches. When injected under the skin, it triggers a response from fibroblasts, which are the cells responsible for making collagen.
Here is the sequence: PLLA particles are injected, the immune system responds, fibroblasts move to the area and begin producing collagen around each particle. Over the following months, the PLLA dissolves—converted by the body into carbon dioxide and water—while the collagen it triggered stays behind. The skin becomes measurably thicker and firmer. Studies using skin ultrasound show dermal thickness increasing by 151 percent at one year, continuing to 196 percent at two years.
The results are gradual. That’s the point. They look natural because they are natural—your own collagen, rebuilt by your own cells.
Where can it be used on the body?
Research has now confirmed Sculptra’s effectiveness across several body areas.
The neck and chest, where skin becomes thin and crepe-y over time, not just loose. Higher dilution is used here for even distribution across a wider surface area.
The arms, particularly inner arm laxity. The whole circumference is treated for a consistent result.
The abdomen, for skin looseness after weight loss or post-liposuction irregularities. Product is injected in a pattern around the navel, just above the deeper fascial layer.
The knees, a 2020 randomized, split-body, placebo-controlled trial showed significant improvement in upper knee skin at six months post-treatment. Blinded physicians could identify the treated knee in the majority of patients. This is a hard area to treat, and Sculptra is one of the few treatments with controlled trial data behind it here.
The buttocks and thighs, for skin quality, cellulite-related laxity, and gentle contouring.
What to expect?
This is not a single-session treatment. Most patients need two to four sessions, four to six weeks apart. Results build over three to six months. You won’t see a change after the first session, the biology takes time.
One rule is non-negotiable: the 5-5-5 massage protocol. Five minutes of massage, five times a day, for five days after each session. This distributes the product so it doesn’t concentrate in one area. Without it, the risk of small lumps under the skin increases.
One practical update worth knowing: Since 2021, Sculptra can be prepared immediately before your appointment. Previously, it required a 72-hour preparation window. A 2024 multicenter study of 274 treatment sessions confirmed that immediately prepared Sculptra is identical in safety and effectiveness to the three-day version. Same-day treatment is now standard.
The broader shift
The conversation around Filipino skin is moving away from just whitening toward something more substantive—strengthening, rebuilding. The question is no longer only “how do I cover this?” but “can I get my skin to function properly again?”
Sculptra addresses that at the biological level. The result doesn’t look like a procedure. It looks like you—with your skin’s structure restored.