We’re a few weeks into spring, but the weather in New York City still feels like winter. Actress Salma Hayek is wearing a cropped leather jacket, one with a funnel neck to “show off her neck results,” she tells me while sprawled on a couch at the Carlyle Hotel. Her neck is the result of her most recent procedure, Ultherapy PRIME, a noninvasive skin-tightening and lifting treatment that uses ultrasound to stimulate the body’s natural production of collagen (and for which she is also an ambassador).
The actress has always been vocal about her natural approach to aging. She embraces wrinkles and doesn’t believe in freezing her face. “I’m an actress, a mother, and a wife; I want my expressions to be authentic. I want my kids to look at my face and it’s very clear when I’m proud of them and clear when I’m not happy. I’m also an actress — I need the expressions on my face,” she says. She’s 58 years old, and throughout her career she has consistently been using only energy and frequency treatments. Still, a little over a year ago, she says, she hit a plateau and felt she’d started to “look like a turkey,” with her neck skin sagging more than she’d like, and it started to seem as though her only solution would be to go under the knife, something she’s terrified of. In the middle of her search, she discovered Ultherapy PRIME.
The treatment takes at least three months to show results, but this can vary from patient to patient. For Hayek, she knew it was working when Victoria Beckham asked if she had done something different. For a moment, Hayek forgot she’d had the treatment done a few weeks prior. Beckham immediately told her she could tell she’d done something. “I was pleased,” Hayak says.
You’re known for your unique approach to aging — naturally allowing yourself to do so and embracing it all. When it comes to choosing aesthetic treatments, what’s your process for choosing what’s best? And what is usually your end goal?
I’ve been very consistent and very simple. I didn’t go into any of the beauty trends, not in my 30s, not in my 40s, and not in my 50s, but the only thing I’ve been using consistently is radio-frequency treatments. They worked for me until I hit a plateau. I told myself, It’s time. It was time to look for something else. I was doing research and talking to doctors and specialists, and it was starting to look like the real solution was going to be the knife, which I’m terrified of. I really didn’t want to go there. In the middle of my desperate search, I got a call to try the newest of the newest, Ultherapy PRIME. I had not even tried the regular Ultherapy before, but it was similar to what I was doing because I was already doing ultrasound.
I learned more about it and was open to trying it before becoming an ambassador and seeing if it worked. It felt really safe because the process can look at your skin’s own collagen. I was very excited that I still had collagen. “You have a lot of collagen for your age,” I remember the doctor telling me. I did it and waited for my results.
You’ve always said how important it is for you to naturally age. When you look at your wrinkles and your gray hair, what story do they tell?
In a life that is really complicated, they represent smart choices. But I don’t mind them. I actually like them. It’s something different. If I dye my hair to hide the color, the texture of my hair is awful. I cannot just walk out of the shower. It starts getting frizzy in a strange way, and it’s not healthy and doesn’t look good. I do show these things and the imperfections and then I also put on a bikini and show that too, so that’s all of me. Well, that’s not all of me, but at least it’s more sides of me.
In a recent interview, you said there was a time you were a “sexy girl,” but with age you’re able to expand to other territories. What other territories are those?
I stopped dumbing myself down because the industry thought I was just sexy. If they thought I was smart, they would’ve never let me in. But once I’m in, it’s just about stopping to dumb myself down. For some people, it’s telling themselves that they’re dumb, so they have to turn it on into sexy. Women are not dumb. God gave us the task of creating a new life inside of you; there can be nothing dumb about you. You just have to change the perspective of yourself and of other things. I am doing a lot more production, creating new companies. I’m continuing to expand in other directions. I’m a Mexican Lebanese mother — my last kid is going out of the house soon, and it is so painful, the last one that’s going to college. I have compensated for all the things I didn’t do because I was so focused on the family. My husband knew, we’ve been talking about it for years, that when we were done with that job, the job of being parents, that I was going to really explore my potential to the max. And he’s excited about it.
When do you feel your sexiest these days?
I feel the sexiest when I’m with my husband. I automatically turn in and out of this character. It’s the way he looks at me. We’ve been together for 19 years. I still see the love in his eyes and this great sensation like, You’re mine, I’ve got you. But it’s also that look that really motivates me to keep looking good. When you’re in love, it’s a lot easier, I think, than when you just like somebody.
Outside of treatments, what are the go-to wellness and self-care rituals you swear by?
Meditation, to me, is the key to everything. When it comes to wellness, dancing is my ritual. I dance every day. When was the last time I danced? When they were doing my makeup. They played Bad Bunny, and I said, “Sorry, I need to take a break.” I listen to my body; it’s not a robot. I listen, and I pay attention. Sometimes, I put on music when I take off my makeup at night. It’s all about pleasure. It’s all about looking for joy in everything we do. That’s part of self-care: allowing yourself to be you and be present.
I don’t wash my face in the morning because why would it get dirty while I’m sleeping? Enjoy putting the cream on, massaging your face, and putting the cream on your body. I try to exercise while I’m putting on my cream. Stretch the muscles, it’s an organic way of working out. That’s what my rituals look like, non-robotic.
