The aging of the skin is a natural process with several factors involved. While some of these factors we have no control over, there are some that we can control.
The key factor happens to be the actual aging process which makes the skin thinner and drier, which is called intrinsic aging. On the other hand, controllable factors include lifestyle choices and environment, which causes extrinsic aging.
For intrinsic aging, a solid skincare routine and procedures like Laser Resurfacing Treatment can do wonders to reduce the visible signs of aging. Skincare treatment can improve your skin’s texture, tone, and volume. As a result, you get clear, radiant, and thick skin that looks young. These treatments are great for when your skin is maturing naturally.
As for extrinsic aging, these are the factors that are completely within your control. In fact, by changing some lifestyle choices and forming healthy habits, you can ensure your skin doesn’t look mature beyond its age. Moreover, some of these habits are as simple as getting enough sleep. So, let’s take a look at some of the best habits that will stop your skin from aging prematurely.
Don’t Skimp on Sleep
This is one of the most basic rules to take care of your overall health, especially skincare. A night of good sleep is essential for energy, concentration, and complexion. According to experts, your skin goes into a state of renewal at night, and not getting enough sleep means you are disrupting the skin renewal cycle. This is the reason why not getting enough sleep often shows up on the face over time.
A study conducted in the past experimented with 60 women sleeping for five hours or less. The results showed that the lack of sleep causes poor skin barrier function, increased aging, and lower satisfaction when it comes to skin health. To maintain a good skin renewal cycle, stick to a set sleep cycle, eat two or three hours before bed, and limit the amount of caffeine consumed.
Stop Stressing
Stress is bad for your health and it affects every part of your body including your skin. People who are chronically stressed or worried have constant stress hormone release in their bodies, which causes premature aging of the skin.
To be more specific, the major stress hormone called cortisol is known to break down collagen, which maintains skin health. This results in skin inflammation, sagging, and wrinkles.
Simple lifestyle choices can reduce stress levels a lot and thus prevent any damage to your skin. Make healthy lifestyle choices including ample sleep, a good diet, and meditation, to see an improvement in your skin health. You need to figure out what relaxes you. Doing that regularly stops chronic stress and premature aging of your skin.
Use a Good Sunscreen
Studies have proven that UV rays present in the sunlight are one of the major contributors to visible aging signs like pigmentation and wrinkles. Thus, a good sunscreen is the best when it comes to preventing premature skin aging. But when we say sunscreen we mean an actual SPF and not makeup containing sunscreen.
SPF makeups do protect you against sun rays but only partially as they block UVB rays and not UVA rays. The latter causes skin damage like enlarged pores, fine lines, and brown spots, among others. Moreover, to get the sunscreen benefit from makeup, you’ll have to slather on tons of makeup, which is neither ideal nor healthy for your skin.
Get a Hydrating Cleanser
As your skin ages, it loses its ability to retain moisture and appears drier. And any kind of harsh cleanser or soap will dry it out further. Moreover, no two skin types are the same and you will need to pick a suitable cleanser to suit your skin type. As you age, it’s better to make a shift to a creamy cleanser instead of a foamy one to protect your skin from drying out.
The normal bar of soap is known to contain harsh chemicals that strip the skin of natural oils and make the fine lines more noticeable. Moreover, dry skin loses its ability to fight allergies, viruses, and bacterias.
Use products that contain hydrating ingredients and are labeled gentle or moisturizing. Also, don’t forget to follow cleansing with moisturizing using a product containing ingredients like glycerine, hyaluronic acid, and vitamin C.
Be Gentle on Your Skin
Simple habits that don’t seem harmful at all also cause serious damage to the skin like causing more wrinkles. One of the most common habits is rubbing your eyes, which can cause inflammation in the area, wrinkles, and dark circles. This is because the area around your eyes has delicate skin and rubbing or tugging at it causes damage.
Additionally, sipping from a straw also causes wrinkles around your lips, which indicates skin aging. Since you’re activating the muscles around your lips to sip from a straw, the more you sip from a straw the more likely you are to get wrinkles around your mouth. The same logic applies to smokers as well. Therefore, try to avoid straws as much as possible and stop smoking.
The bottom line here is to treat your skin like a baby and prevent anything that can damage it. Excessive rubbing, tugging, pulling, exposure to sunlight, harsh chemicals, and stress is a big no-no.