DRACULA THERAPY!

Byline: by Leah Hardy

THE Ycallit'Dracula Therapy', and if that isn't enough to freak you out, it involves having your face injected with your own blood. But S3 Therapy is the hottest news in anti-ageing right now.

The name is short for Stimulated Self Serum skin therapy has come to Europe by French cosmetic doctor, Daneil Sister.

The idea is that a doctor draws vials of your own blood, then separates it into the red blood cells, the clear serum and the platelets.

Then, after vitamins and amino acids have been added, the enriched serum is injected back into your face. This stimulates DNA repair, heals scars and makes dry, wizened, wrinkled and lacklustre skin look and feel younger naturally, without the need for synthetic fillers or harsh and painful lasers or peels.

If S3 sounds weird, it has a surprisingly respectable medical pedigree.

For more than two decades, dentists have used patient's own 'serum' to make receding gums regenerate themselves. And in the U.S., several studies indic a t e t h a t injecting platelet-rich plasma into sports injuries can lead to faster recovery.

The secret? The serum is rich in growth factors, natural proteins that can supercharge healing and reverse damage in the body. Dr Sister says: 'I thought, if serum therapy was good enough for bones and soft tissue like gums, then it could do even better in the skin.' He decided to merge platelet-rich plasma therapy, which involves deep injections into damaged soft tissue, with the traditional French beauty treatment, mesotherapy, which involves dozens of tiny injections of vitamins and minerals into the superficial layers of the skin.

Plastic surgeons tend to sneer at mesotherapy, but studies have shown that trauma to the skin in the form of tiny puncture holes can dramatically increase natural collagen levels.

Dr Sister works in partnership with Dr Cyrille Blum, based in London. They are usually fully booked, but managed to squeeze me in at 8pm to try the new therapy.

I explained I'd like firmer skin and look generally more radiant and less tired. I'm also prone to spots.

S3 Therapy starts with Dr Blum taking blood from my arm -- four vials of it -- which are then put in a centrifuge to separate out the red cells.

After a few minutes the vials emerge, with thick red blood at the bottom and a yellowish clear liquid at the top, which he siphons off and mixes with vitamins and proteins. Then I start the process. So, does it hurt? Yes. It hurts quite a bit.

It didn't help that I was tired, hungry and stressed, but there are a lot of injections. I lost count. Dr Blum injected all over my face from hairline to jawline, crosshatching my face with tiny pinpricks. I felt like a voodoo doll, but everything was done in around ten minutes.

I expected my face to be a mass of little bleeding holes, but there was no blood, just a little mild redness. Then he started the deeper injections around my eyes, in my forehead, from nose to mouth, and between my eyebrows. I was dreading these, but they were fine, barely hurting at all. The treatment finishes with a nice lie-down under red and blue therapeutic lights, which are good at healing skin and destroying bacteria, including the bacteria that cause acne.

With the help of make-up, I could have gone to work if necessary. My face felt tender, but, exhausted, I slept well. The next day my skin looked fine, even good. The lines between nose and mouth and on my forehead had vanished. A Vesuvius of a spot on my chin was much reduced.

My husband thought I looked exactly the same, but my fouryear-old daughter said that I was 'even more beautiful'.

I will, apparently, see the real changes to my skin over the next few weeks as the magical growth factors turn back the clock.

While being needled, I vowed 'never again', but admiring my plumper, line-free face, I'd do it again in the recommended four-to-six monthly intervals. But only after a good lunch, and maybe a couple of Nurofen tablets.

S3 Therapy costs around e500, www.beautyworkswest.com.