Q: How Your Face Ages?
A: How well you cared for your skin from a young age and, more importantly, how much you limited sun exposure before age 20 can make a difference in wrinkle formation.
You begin to lose the ‘baby fat’ and look more womanly. But also the start of facial aging. The very early signs of ‘motor wrinkles’ — lines and creases related to movement — first appear.
: Avoid the sun and wear sunscreen. What you do in your 20s will reflect how you look in your 40s, 50s, and beyond — and wearing sunscreen is key. And it is at this time that you should begin using moisturizers regularly but choose a “light” product that is gel-based and oil free.
This is the decade when you may notice your skin looks ‘tired’ and less radiant. Wrinkles around the eyes and smile lines begin to look deeper.
: Stop using oil-free moisturizers and foundations and switch to richer ones. This is the decade you need to get serious about using moisturizers. You may consider starting professional treatment like chemical peel and laser for pigmentation, botox and filler for wrinkles.
You will see more wrinkles in your forehead and crow’s feet around your eyes plus a deepening of the smile lines.
: Moisturizers need to be richer and thicker and if you haven’t already started, this is the decade to use a night cream. This is also the decade when you may benefit most from using an antioxidant skin care product.
If you’ve minimized sun exposure and used sunscreen, you can expect to glide into your 50s and 60s with your skin looking pretty good. If not, you’ll likely be facing the cumulative effects of sun damage and age, which include not only a deepening of lines and wrinkles but also a massive breakdown of collagen and elastin fibers, the support structures that hold up skin. This usually results in a drooping of the face, and skin gets loose.
: Increase the use of rich moisturizers, start using a gentle nondrying cleanser on your face and neck. It’s also the best time to consider skin-tightening treatments like Thermage or HIFU.
If you haven’t done a skin-tightening treatment by the time you are 60, then most of the time it’s too late. You won’t get the desired effect, and the only other option will be a facelift.
But while facelifts are an option, they do require major surgery, including the use of anesthesia, plus they are costly procedures that come with weeks of downtime. You can only have one or two lifts in a lifetime. So it’s best to hold off as long as you can, using other, nonsurgical options to buy more time.
We’re all living longer, so the earlier you start professional care, the younger you’ll look as the years advance.
Equally important is not trying to cut corners by getting treatments in nonmedical facilities. Instead, always seek out the care and advice of a certified aesthetic doctor before embarking on any professional anti-aging treatments.
