How to Choose an In-Office Treatment

the questions you probably aren't asking, but should

Welcome readers, old and new!

Please hit the ❤️ above to let fellow HNTFUYF-ers know you’re happy to be here among other beauty-curious, open-hearted people.

Are you as overwhelmed as I am with news, opinions, and the overall avalanche of stories, factual and fictive, raining down from the vast information highway above? I’ve been thinking about how to best serve you, which has been on my mind because as the HNTFUYF community grows and grows, I feel increasingly responsible to give you helpful, maybe even entertaining stuff to read. But there is already so much to read and I don’t want to add to your burden. So my goal is to answer your questions in the most straightforward and easily digestible way.

With, of course, occasional updates from my five-year-old granddaughter, M.

I knew I was burned out the other night when on FaceTime, M, who was recovering from a nasty flu, asked me to sing a story with her. She belts out an aria (I love to sing loud! I ran up the hill to chase the squirrels! All the little children followed me and ate chocolate and we had a picnic!) and then opens her hands to me and warbles, “Over to youuuu,” at which point it’s my turn to continue the story, operatically. (I don’t know where she learned this.)

But when M offered me the story, I could think of nothing to sing. I was running on empty. So I looked at my computer and started to sing the words from the boring email I’d been reading when M called. What a scam. The point is, I was disengaged—and M knew it.

When I finally sang “Over to youuuu,” she didn’t respond. “Hey Baby,” I sang again, “over to youuuu!” And in the way a partner of 40 years might respond to something you’ve said a million times, M said distractedly, “Oh, sorry, didn’t hear you.” Maybe her ears were clogged from congestion. But I don’t think so. This is what happens when we’re not present with each other and (one of us is) overwhelmed.

Anyway, I’m going to try to give you helpful information succinctly. Two readers have asked about various skin tightening devices, of which there are so many it’s impossible to tell you what might be right for you. So I asked HNTFUYF DermDiva, Heidi Waldorf, for her best advice.

The beauty Q&A in this post is available only to paid subscribers. For full access to all posts—and if you value reader-supported work—please become a paid subscriber at the currently discounted rate of $40/year. If you can’t afford a subscription, email me at valeriemonroe.substack.com and I’ll comp you one, no questions asked. 🙏🏼