Vampire Facials: Beauty is blood deep

28 July 2014 - 02:00 By Penelope Mashego
subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now

Depending on how you feel about needles, the new cosmetic craze will either horrify you, or appeal to your desire to be forever young.

Over and above sticking needles into your face for your fix of Botox, you can have a vampire facelift, which ostensibly fights ageing and hair loss.

The treatment's popularity has surged in recent months, both locally and internationally.

The vampire facial, or plasma skin rejuvenation, involves extracting a couple of dessert-spoons of a patient's blood from their arm and spinning it in a centrifuge to separate the plasma from the red and white blood cells. The concentrated plasma, which is rich in platelets - the part of the blood with growth factors - is then injected into the face. Some practitioners combine it with dermal fillers to further plump up problem areas, such as under the eye.

The basic treatment has been used for almost 20 years to accelerate the healing of wounds and burns. It is also used to help athletes - including, reportedly, tennis ace Rafael Nadal - recover from injury.

Alabama, US, doctor Charles Runels trademarked the name "Vampire Facelift" in 2010, at the height of the craze for The Vampire Diaries and Twilight, and the A-listers fell in line.

The godmother of vampire facials is socialite Kim Kardashian, who posts gory pictures of herself on Instagram. Sweet-faced Anna Friel, super model Bar Rafaeli and English actor Rupert Everett also vouch for their effectiveness.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Everett said: "I'd advise you to inject the whole of your face with blood - it will make it look radiant."

He said he has the procedure done every four months.

Riekie Smit owns Vivacite Spa in Pretoria, which offers the treatment locally. "The prepared solution is injected into your face skin at different depths of your skin," she said.

The procedure, which costs between R2500 and R5000, can only be performed by medical doctors and is growing in popularity, Smit said.

Moria Sewald, a presenter on KykNET's Maatband, tried plasma rejuvenation in February.

"I really felt that my skin looked beautiful, and after two weeks it had a wonderful glow," she said.

On a pain scale of one to 10 Sewald said it was a four - a topical anaesthetic is administered.

Additional reporting from © The Daily Telegraph

subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now