There’s been a lot of buzz recently about the Judy Murray face treatment which saw her wrinkles and ‘turkey neck’ virtually vanish in a matter of months. Officially known as Morpheus8, the treatment is a non-surgical face lift that uses needles and radio frequency to boost collagen.
It’s the same treatment that Amanda Holden was raving about on her Instagram page last year, and – if Google search data is anything to go by – is becoming a popular choice across the country.
However, unsurprisingly, the Morpheus8 treatment is not cheap. Reports suggest the Judy Murray face treatment cost a total of £4,500.
With this in mind, we wanted to look at the science of the treatment to reveal how Morpheus8 works and whether it could work for you.
The inspiration behind the Judy Murray face treatment
In an interview with the 61-year-old tennis coach, and Andy Murray’s Mum, the catalyst for the Judy Murray face treatment was when her sons started teasing her for having a ‘turkey neck.’
As you can read in our Best neck cream guide, as well as our How your skin changes in each decade of your life – and what to do about it guide, the skin on our necks is thinner and contains fewer oil glands than elsewhere on our bodies.
Many of us who use anti-ageing creams likely concentrate on our face but treating our necks is just as important – if not more so – if you want to maintain a youthful-looking appearance.
To treat the sagging skin on her neck, as well as lift and tighten the skin on her face to get rid of her wrinkles and age spots, Judy Murray enlisted the help of cosmetic doctor, Dr Judy Todd who practices at the Synergy Skin Clinic in Glasgow and the Taktouk Clinic in London.
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“Before, I was never interested in beauty treatments or how I looked – I’m a sports person,” Murray said in an interview with Dr Todd. “But I’m in the public eye and I often have to do speeches in front of big audiences at conferences or coaching and, as I was getting older, I wanted to still look good when I appeared in public.
“I spent most of my life working outside and a significant number of years following my kids on the tennis circuit and sitting in the sun scowling with the pressure of watching them perform. So I’ve got lovely scowl lines – and I’ve got a lot of laughter lines, too.”
The treatment can also help reduce scars and sun damage.
What is Morpheus8?
Morpheus8, marketed by InMode (which may explain why in some places it’s described as InMode Morpheus8) was the first and only technology that was cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to penetrate subdermal tissue, which is the innermost layer of your skin as deep as 8mm.
It uses up to 40 gold-coated pins, each measuring 7mm, to penetrate the skin and deliver thermal radio-frequency (RF) energy up to 8mm deep. The number of pins depends on which configuration is used, and for what treatments. To put this into perspective, traditionally radio-frequency (RF) devices penetrate at around 4mm which targets the higher levels of dermal tissue.
For instance, the Prime configuration, which is used for delicate areas, uses 24 pins, the Resurfacing and Morpheus8 configuration use 24 pins, while the Body one uses 40. The latter being so that the treatment can be administered over a larger area.
You can read more about Morpheus8 and its use in clinical research here. The technology also appeared on Netflix’s Skin Decision.
How does radio-frequency tighten skin?
When delivered into the skin, RF energy gently heats up the dermis and subcutaneous layers to around 40-42 degrees.
This creates what’s known as thermal trauma, and while the word trauma doesn’t exactly fill us with confidence, it’s perfectly safe.
The thermal trauma stimulates the fibroblast cells, which in turn help synthesise new collagen and elastin. In particular, it causes collagen fibres to contract, which produces more.
THE GEL THAT PROMISES TO GET RID OF SCARS
Morpheus8 claims to get rid of scars and dark spots but there may be a cheaper, less painful way – silicone gel from Kelo-Cote.
Kelo-Cote promises to reduce scars that as much as four years old and is particularly effective on surgery scars, C-section scars and similar skin trauma.
Prices start at £19 and you can get it from Amazon and Boots.
You can think of it in the same way the top layers of your skin heal themselves when they’re cut. The trauma causes the lower levels and cells to similarly rebuild. Over time, this can also encourage more proteins to be produced naturally.
Fibroblasts are found in the connective tissue of all animals – including humans – and they’re effectively the structure, or scaffolding, on which collagen and other enzymes and proteins are supported.
As we age, this scaffolding becomes weak and breaks down, at the same time collagen production decreases and it’s this combination of changes that causes the skin to sag, wrinkle, and look old. You can read more in our guide to Fibroblast plasma skin tightening treatment.
Using heat also increases blood flow through vasodilation, which is the widening of blood vessels.
This increased circulation brings more oxygen and nutrients to the cells, removes waste products, such as carbon dioxide, and this speeds up your cells’ metabolism.
The majority of RF devices on the market deliver this electromagnetic energy via LEDs but Morpheus8 (as well as some other professional devices) get deeper into the skin using pins. This is a process called micro-needling.
What did the Morpheus8 Judy Murray face treatment involve?
InMode 
