Dress up like a boxer in bed to avoid wrinkles

THOSE who want to avoid wrinkles should dress up like amateur boxers - at least in bed, according to a French inventor, writes Charles Arthur.

While beauty companies may say that wrinkle trouble starts with skin losing its youthful elasticity as the collagen that holds it together starts to fail, Michael Ionescu thinks there is a simpler cause: sleeping on the face. This causes blocks the airways, accelerating the skin's ageing process, he contends.

While the beauty industry's cure is expensive, mysterious lotions, Mr Ionescu has been granted a patent for an "anatomic antiwrinkle biocap" which most resembles a boxer's headguard. The nose and mouth cannot touch the pillow, thus ensuring safely that the airways remain open and guaranteeing the body's oxygen supply.