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In order to prevent and treat facial wrinkles, it’s worth understanding why they form. This post takes a look at five of the main causes of facial wrinkles, and how you can fight back against wrinkles.
Age
Collagen in a protein found in our skin which helps to keep it smooth and stretchy. Beyond the age of 30, our skin stops producing as much collagen and starts to lose its elasticity. Our skin also stops producing as many natural oils, causing it to become dryer. On top of this, years of gravity start to pull our skin down and cause it to sag.
This all contributes to the production of wrinkles as we get older. Certain habits like moisturizing the skin to introduce new oils and sleeping on your back to reduce gravity at night may help to delay wrinkles caused by age. However, unfortunately, these types of wrinkles are something that often just need to be accepted, as they are largely unavoidable - certainly once you get past the age of 60.
Of course, premature wrinkles do have other causes, which you can often do something to prevent…
Facial expressions
Many wrinkles are caused by years of facial expressions. Smiling, frowning, squinting and raising our eyebrows all cause creases to form in the skin. These creases can turn into permanent wrinkles with age as the skin loses its elasticity.
If you are quite an expressive person, you may find that wrinkles form earlier. Of course, some facial expressions are worth limiting if you can. People who squint a lot typically do so because they can’t see properly - by getting into a habit of wearing sunglasses in sunny weather or reading at night under a light, you could reduce the amount of time spent squinting and delay production of ‘crow’s feet’ wrinkles. ‘Frown lines’ on the forehead can meanwhile be reduced by frowning less - which typically involves reducing stress in our life (more about this later).
Wrinkles caused by facial expressions can often be temporarily reduced via Botox treatment. What does Botox do? This injectable substance works by relaxing muscles in the face, preventing the creases that cause wrinkles from forming. Botox can be successfully used to eradicate forehead wrinkles, frown lines, crow’s feet, smile lines and lip wrinkles.
Smoking
Smoking is terrible for our skin. Chemicals found in cigarettes can speed up collagen loss in our skin so that we age quicker. In fact, smoking 30 cigarettes a day could speed up wrinkle development by as much as 14 years.
Smoking also increases the likelihood of developing certain wrinkles on the face. Many of us squint while smoking, which can lead to faster development of crow’s feet. Meanwhile, the puckering of our lips when sucking on a cigarette can lead to lip wrinkles, which are sometimes known as ‘smoker’s lines’. Non-smokers are less likely to develop these lip wrinkles.
All in all, if you want to prevent premature wrinkles, quitting smoking is one of the best ways to do this. Studies show that collagen levels in your skin can return to normal in a matter of days.
Sun exposure
Too much sun exposure is another cause of premature wrinkles. Like smoking, sun damage can reduce our skin’s ability to produce collagen. However, while smoking thins out the skin, sun damage can harden the skin and make it more leathery. This can lead to deeper wrinkles.
By remembering to wear sun lotion or sunscreen like Riemann P20, you can limit the amount of UV rays that penetrate your skin in order to prevent sun damage. This in turn could ward off wrinkles. Wearing sun lotion is particularly important if you live in a sunny region and spend a lot of time outdoors as you are likely to be more at risk of regular sun damage (which can increase the risk of not just wrinkles but skin cancer too).
Wrinkles caused by sun damage are best treated using procedures like chemical peels or laser resurfacing. These are effective against wrinkled hard skin and work by removing the top layers, exposing the fresh smooth skin beneath.
Stress
High levels of the stress hormone, cortisol, can disrupt our body’s ability to produce collagen. Like smoking and sun damage, this can lead to premature wrinkles.
Reducing daily stress could be another way to save your skin. While we cannot always avoid stress triggers, we can reduce chronic stress by finding ways to de-stress such as practicing meditation, taking a long hot bath at the end of a stressful day, listening to music or diffusing stress with laughter.
