Aging is inevitable for all of us. Even those who buy thousand dollar creams, Botox, hormone pills, and plastic surgery age. But there are things that you can do now to prevent future aging signs. Fighting the signs of aging is something that can and should be done from our teen years. Yes a 15 year old may look young but by the time you hit your thirties your skin will have already suffered damaging rays from sun, harsh weather conditions, and the effects of poor diet and unhealthy lifestyle. When we age our skin basically forgets how to do its job and collagen production slows down causing wrinkles (annoyingly men have 25% more collagen then women do, that’s why they age so well). So what can we do now to fight future aging?
First sunscreen, sunburns aren’t the only down side to unprotected fun in the sun. Even if you don’t get burned or tanned the sun is damaging your skin. Wearing sunscreen everyday will protect your skin from those harmful aging rays and prevent wrinkles and dark spots. I use Neutrogena Healthy skin SPF 15 facial lotion.
Routine is my second recommendation. Proper skin care is all about routine. Taking off all of your make up every night before bed, washing your face properly, and moisturizing daily. These are all parts of a proper skin care routine that will help you to fight aging every day. Sleeping with make up can not only cause immediate problems like acne but also cause skin to become more sensitive to the sun and causes premature aging also it’s very drying to your skin.
Don’t forget your neck! Your neck will show your age as much as if not more then your face. And what’s the point of a youthful face with a wrinkly sagging neck? So apply not only moisturizers to your neck but also sunscreen.
Moving in the right direction when applying products to your face can affect your future appearance. Avoid pulling on your skin instead be as gentle as you can. Apply products in an upward motion instead of tugging down on your face. It may sound a bit silly but imagine that if you wash your face once a day every day for 10 years that’s 3,650 tugs on your skin, that’s a lot of abuse for your skin.
The skin around your eyes is thinner and more delicate then the rest of your face. And because it’s so delicate it requires extra care. Using a good eye cream will help care for this delicate skin. You can even get eye creams with SPF for daytime. To apply cream to the delicate eye area pat on product instead of rubbing, again to avoid tugging skin. Also apply eye cream from the eyelid to about an inch away from your eye at night, while you sleep the cream will move so you want to make sure the entire eye area is covered.
And lastly lifestyle will affect the way you age. Of course smoking can increase wrinkling (and yellow your teeth and cause cancer and all of that) but also heavy drinking and drug use can cause premature aging. But even if your not leading an 80’s rock star life by doing things like not drinking enough water, missing sleep, and not eating a balanced diet you can increase the signs of aging.
Lastly, serums are the big trend in skin care right now for a good reason. They are vitamin packed which helps repair and nourish skin. If you choose to use a serum use it nightly before applying your night cream. For layering products the rule of thumb is to go from thinnest to thickest, meaning your heavy night cream comes last.
And lastly, don’t stress about aging because annoyingly enough stress can cause premature aging. Just stick to your routine and try and lead a healthy life and remember, everyone ages the goal is to age gracefully.
