Have you noticed fine lines and sagging skin when you face in front of the mirror? These are some telltale signs of ageing skin.
Ageing skin is something that a lot of people dread happening. However, to some degree, it’s inevitable as we grow older. “Accepting that it is a natural part of ageing eases the process.” That way, rather than concerning yourself about the already visible signs, you are more determined to find solutions for your skin issue. Yes, this is the common way of phrasing things whenever ageing skin has been touched on. As cliche as it sounds, but this is the truth!
Before you can find a solution, it helps you better to know which signs of ageing skin you are experiencing right now.
Signs of Ageing Skin
Wrinkles and Sagging Skin
Wrinkles and sagging skin are the most evident signs of ageing skin, making it a primary concern of many women and men. Areas such as the face, neck, hands, and forearms are typical spots where the issue can be spotted.
As you age, your skin slows down its production of collagen and elastin. Collagen is the protein that gives the skin its shape. It’s composed of tightly constructed fibres that help your skin maintain its structure and firmness, resulting in a firm and plump complexion. On the other hand, elastin, as the name suggests, gives the skin elasticity. It allows the skin to bounce back when it is stretched.
It becomes easier for wrinkles and skin sagging to occur when there is lesser collagen and elastin in the skin. These signs become more apparent in areas commonly exposed to the sun, like the forehead and face.
Sunken Eyes and Cheeks
You may also notice how your face shape is slowly becoming hollow during the process of ageing skin. Over time, the area between the skin and bones loses its volume, making areas like the eyes and mouth more veiny, thin, and more prone to wrinkles. Moreover, your skin becomes thinner as you age, again due to loss of collagen.
The sunken look makes your face look older. The loss of volume also leads to sunken eyes. As you age, you may notice that your eyes become dark, sunken and hollow even if you get enough hours of sleep. Little folds and fine lines will start to appear under your eyes, adding onto the dark eye circles that make your eyes look even more tired. While sleep deprivation and dehydration may also cause the problem, ageing is a primary reason for sunken eyes. As it is one of the most delicate parts of the face, the skin under the eyes is a vulnerable area and once it loses volume, it will become thinner which makes your blood vessels more visible and therefore resulting in darker under eyes.
Timeline of Ageing Skin
Again, age is a primary factor when it comes to the formation of wrinkles, sunken eyes and cheeks. It happens to both men and women as they grow older. While some people embrace these changes, others fear that it will happen to them.
With that said, other factors can cause premature ageing skin. Unhealthy lifestyle choices like too much exposure to the sun without sunscreen applied, and even genetics may cause fine lines in your skin at a more rapid pace. The skincare choices you make as early as age 20 or younger will affect how your skin looks in the years to come.
To dispel some of the negative perceptions regarding ageing skin, it helps to know what happens to a person’s skin throughout their life. It will also help you adapt your routine based on your skincare needs at a specific age.
In your teens to young adulthood, you will notice how your face slowly becomes more mature. You begin to lose your ‘baby fat’, making your features more prominent. The changes may seem subtle, but it signifies your transformation from a child to an adult. During your teenage period, the type of skin problems faced are majority on puberty acnes, oily skin condition and other facial trouble areas. However, what you may not know is that it’s the start of the ageing skin process.
First signs of ageing skin can become apparent as early as your turn 25. Some of the very early signs that you may notice are ‘motor wrinkles’, which are lines and creases caused by frequent movement. It usually happens around the brows as it is generally used for various facial expressions. Also, if you spent a lot of time under the sun or squinting at a computer screen when you were younger, it’s more likely you’ll form ‘crow’s feet’ or the tiny lines around the eyes.
By the age of 30, you still retain a big part of your youthful-looking skin, especially when you keep up a good skincare regimen. However, you may also notice that your skin starts to look duller and less radiant. The ‘dreaded 11s’, dark eye circles with fine lines or the pair of lines between the brows, commonly begin to appear around this time. You also need to prepare yourself to notice the shadows forming along the T-zone between your nose and the corners of your mouth.
Lines referred to as ‘purse strings’ start to appear around your upper lip as you enter your 40s. The area around your mouth is vulnerable to sun damage. If you didn’t use sunscreen when you were younger, the more likely these lines form as you grow older. Also, if you smoke, it will speed up the process, with deeper lines forming. Existing lines in your face may also deepen at this time, while more wrinkles may appear on your forehead.
Signs of ageing skin become most prominent by age 50 and older. If you have been keeping up your healthy skincare treatment routine, your skin will probably be looking good considering your age, though there are still some noticeable lines. However, if you haven’t been paying attention to your skin, you may experience the extreme results of age and damage. You will notice the deepening of lines and wrinkles due to the massive breakdown of collagen and elastin fibres in your skin. Also, your face loses volume, and the skin gets loose, causing your face to look droopy. The dull color on your skin will be more obvious alongside the changes in hormones due to menopause that might affect the skin condition.
Common Prevention Of Ageing Skin
While you can’t turn back ageing skin, there are things you can do to slow down and minimize the process. A revamp of your current lifestyle to something healthier and cleaner helps to reduce wrinkles and fine lines. If you want to achieve youthful-looking skin as you grow old, you need to be more conscious about taking care of your skin as early as possible. Here are some ‘preventive measures’ you can take when it comes to ageing skin.
Avoiding Exposure to Sunlight
Exposure to ultraviolet lights is considered the Number 1 cause of wrinkles. As mentioned earlier, if you spend a large amount of time under the sun when you’re younger, the more likely wrinkles start to form at an earlier age. Not only does it result in premature ageing skin, but UV lights may also lead to skin cancer.
There are three types of UV light: UVA, UVB, and UVC.
UVA rays penetrate the middle layer of your skin. It leads to premature ageing skin, including wrinkle formation, skin texture changes, and uneven pigmentation. On the other hand, UVB rays mostly affect the outer layer of your skin. Exposure to too much UVB rays causes sunburn.
UVC has the highest energy portion in the UV spectrum. UVC rays from the sun do not reach the surface of earth as it’s blocked by the ozone layer. Exposure to UVC happens through radiation lamps and lasers, and overexposure to such may lead to severe burns and skin cancer.
Avoid going out during the sun’s peak hours (around 10 am to 2 pm) as much as possible. When going out, you may want to opt for garments that cover most of your skin, though it might be inconvenient as it can get too hot. So, make sure to apply sunscreen whenever you go out on a sunny day.
Make sure to purchase a sunscreen that is ‘broad-spectrum’. This type of sunscreen is designed to block both UVA and UVB light better than the typical SPF variants that only protects the skin from sunburn. SPF refers to the level of protection against UV rays. The higher the SPF, the more protection you have. Let’s take the lowest and highest SPF as an example. SPF 15 sunscreens filter about 93% of UVB rays, while SPF 100 filters about 99%.
Moreover, you tend to sweat due to the heat of the sun. No sunscreen is completely waterproof. To make sure your skin’s protected throughout the day, re-apply based on the hours stated on the SPF. Pairing it with a moisturizer also helps the skin radiate.
Reduce or Cut Out Smoking
Smoking definitely will negatively affect the functions of many organs in the body. Considering that the skin is the largest organ in the body, it is not surprising that smoking is linked to ageing skin. It speeds up the appearance of various signs of ageing skin, and the longer and more frequent you stay in the habit, the more likely for wrinkles to form.
Nicotine, along with other chemicals found in cigarettes, narrow your blood vessels. As a result, it reduces the flow of oxygen and nutrients to your skin. Cigarettes also release enzymes that break down essential skin components, such as collagen and elastin, creating damage to the skin structure necessary for skin elasticity and health.
Slowly reduce the habit of smoking until you are cut out from it entirely. Even if you are a non-smoker, avoid exposure to secondhand smoke as it also affects the quality of your skin.
Eat Less Sugar, Drink More Water
What you eat also plays a vital role in your ageing skin process. A diet consisting of foods high in sugars allows the formations of wrinkles and skin sagging. Our skin becomes drier, more fragile, and less elastic as we grow older. It is due to the decreased production of natural oils in the skin. Sugar sets off body glycation, where it produces advanced glycation end products (AGEs). AGEs accelerate the effects of ageing by breaking down the collagen in the skin.
Limit your sugar intake to only 10% of your daily calories. AGEs are also found in foods prepared by grilling or frying. So, aside from sugar, eliminate the number of oily foods in your diet. It not only helps you achieve younger-looking skin, but it also improves your overall health as it keeps your blood pressure steady and maintains low cholesterol levels.
As you reduce the amount of sugary and oily foods in your diet, amp up your daily water intake. Water keeps your skin hydrated and replenished. In addition, people who consume large amounts of water are less likely to form wrinkles as it increases and maintains the skin’s elasticity.
Consume at least eight glasses of water per day. To be more specific, women are recommended to consume 2.7 litres of water, while men should drink 3.7 litres a day. If the flavour of plain water is too unbearing for you, you can infuse it with lemon, cucumber, or fruits to add flavour and nutrients to your drink.
With that said, note that drinking large amounts of water does not fill the lines in your skin, but it helps in hydrating the skin and slowing down the process of ageing skin.
Dedicate to a Skincare Routine
Your skincare routine can be the make it or break it point when it comes to ageing skin. We have touched on the importance of using sunscreen. However, it is not enough if you want to maintain your youthful-looking skin. Adding a few products into your routine can immensely help your skin’s condition.
Washing your face is not enough. Cleansing is crucial to remove any impurities that may have accumulated throughout the day. It removes pollutants and bacteria, but it also cleanses any skincare product you’ve applied earlier the day. Use a gentle cleanser that preserves your skin barrier and doesn’t strip your skin’s natural oils, preventing dehydration. Furthermore, cleansers with a high pH can irritate your skin, so go with a lower pH level.
Due to ageing, the skin slows down in replenishing itself. It means that fresh skin cells aren’t replacing dead cells as quickly as before, making your skin dull and uneven. Exfoliation helps to get rid of dead cells on your skin. Exfoliants come as either physical or chemical. Avoid physical exfoliants like sugar scrubs and bead cleansers as it makes the skin more susceptible to sagging. Chemical exfoliants dissolves the bond between skin cells, allowing them to detach from the surface. Also, it’s suitable for any skin age.
Another step is using serums. Serums increase collagen in your skin and act as antioxidants that relieves dermal stress caused by skin ageing. Anti-ageing ingredients in serums to look for include vitamin A derivatives (retinol, tretinoin, and tazarotene) and vitamin C (L-ascorbic acid and magnesium ascorbyl phosphate).
Last, but not the least, moisturize. As you grow old, your skin produces less sebum, the natural oils that keep skin moisturized. It makes your skin drier and dehydrated, causing the formation of fine lines. Moisturizers are specifically designed to help skin ageing issues. Use moisturizers with water-binding humectants like glycerine and hyaluronic acid.
Remember that any amount of skincare cannot stop the process of skin ageing. Instead, it slows down and prevents immense skin damage. Also, results do not happen overnight. It takes effort and time to see consistent results.
Alternative Solution for Ageing Skin
Again, there’s no way to stop your skin from ageing. The tips above are some things you can do to slow down the ageing process and prevent further damage to your skin. If you want to embrace these changes in your skin, there’s nothing wrong with showing it off. However, if you are on the flip side and want to conceal them, there’s still hope for you.
In recent years, skincare has become a growing industry. Consequently, more products have popped up in the market as solutions for wrinkles and skin again, from creams to supplements. Both men and women have also become open to the idea of facial fillers, like Sunekos. It may have been somewhat a taboo in the past. Still, more people recognize that facial fillers are a viable option in keeping youthful-looking skin with the right medical professional and product.
Sunekos 200 & 1200
Sunekos is an injectable skincare treatment that stimulates collagen regeneration, leading to less wrinkle formation and ageing skin. It uses a unique patented formula consisting of six essential Amino Acids (Glycine, Proline, Lysine, Alanine, Valine, Leucine) with Hyaluronic Acid (HA + HY6AA). The combination of these ingredients can help in the natural regeneration of collagen, elastin and Type 4 collagen. Any slight change to the formula can give you a different effect or lead to a different outcome; that is why Sunekos uses a specific patented formula.
As mentioned, during ageing, the number of fibres and metabolic activities in your skin reduces, resulting in lower fibroblast activity in the Extracellular Matrix (ECM). The Amino Acids with Hyaluronic Acid formulation of Sunekos regenerates the ECM of your skin, stimulating the reproduction of collagen and elastin, the two main structural elements of the tissue. More specifically, it stimulates the production of hyaluronic acid, collagen fibres, and elastic fibres, including Type 4 collagen, which is the hardest to produce.
Sunekos can be applied to different problem areas in the body, such as the face, neck, hands, arms, and under-eye area. It also addresses various skin problems, including severe wrinkles, skin sagging, ageing, loss of hydration, sun damage, and dark circles.
Sunekos comes in two variants, Sunekos 200 and Sunekos 1200.
Sunekos 200 is a dermal filler containing low-density Hyaluronic Acid with HY6AA that stimulates collagen and elastin production. On the other hand, Sunekos 1200 is a booster particularly used in combination with Sunekos 200. It has antioxidant and ‘volumizing’ properties that reduce severe wrinkles and damaged skin.
It is best to talk with your medical professional regarding which injectable skincare option suits your skin goals.
Hopefully, after reading this article, ageing skin no longer sounds like such a nightmare. It is a natural part of growing old and is not something to be ashamed about. However, if you still second think whether you want those fine lines in your face, by all means, seek out possible treatments. Regardless, make sure to give focus not only to your skin but also on your overall health, so you don’t only look good but feel good too.
