Everything You Need To Know About Aging Skin

Written by Vilma Lulu Musuku

Your skin is the largest organ of the body, it protects all the other organs from the outside environment and water loss. Your skin helps to reveal certain things such as your emotions and age. Indeed, one of the most visible signs of your aging is often revealed through the condition of your skin. The goal of this post is to help you understand your aging skin.

WHAT IS SKIN AGING? Your skin begins to age as soon as you are born but progressive signs come out later in your early 20’s. This process affects the layers of your skin, but more especially your dermis which is the layer right underneath the outer most layer of your skin (epidermis). Your dermis is made up of structural and functional components of the skin such as collagen and elastin and the sebaceous glands. These components are required to provide strength, elasticity and hydration to your skin thereby making you look youthful and plump. As you age your dermis becomes weaker, thinner and loses its elasticity. These changes contribute to the appearance of aging on your skin.

WHAT CAN CAUSE YOUR SKIN TO AGE? There are two main factors that contribute towards aging of your skin. These are intrinsic (internal) and extrinsic (external) factors with the extrinsic factors being the ones contributing the most.

Intrinsic factors

Intrinsic aging is the type of aging that occurs naturally. For this type of aging, the most remarkable changes occur in your epidermis. Production of cells in this layer is reduced making it thinner as the years go by. The rate at which collagen and elastin are produced is lowered contributing to the formation of wrinkles. This is because the connection between your dermis and your epidermis is weakened. The production of sebum which helps with moisturising your skin is gradually reduced and this can cause it to appear dry and wrinkly.

Signs of intrinsic aging include sagging, development of expression lines, smile lines and crow’s feet around your eyes. Later on, cartilage in the ears and nose begins to grow making them appear larger. When you become much older say in your 60’s, the layer of fats in your skin especially your face starts thinning and this gives it a bony appearance.

Extrinsic factors

Extrinsic factors accelerate your skins aging process; the main contributor of this is free radicals, and these are created from air pollution, smoking, poor nutrition and sun exposure. The sun’s exposure (also known as UV light) leads to something known as photo aging and this is responsible for most of the extrinsic aging, (about 80% of facial aging). UV light increases DNA damage and mutation leading to premature aging skin. It also leads to the increase in the breaking down of your collagen molecules if you are consistently exposed to the UV light. These factors are generally controllable and avoidable, and this means that extrinsic aging is preventable – lucky you.

Signs of extrinsic aging include facial expression lines, criss-cross wrinkling, severe skin sagging, multiple discolourations and hyperpigmentation. A visibly rough textured appearance, swollen capillaries, skin growths and cancer as well.

HOW CAN YOU TREAT AND PREVENT YOUR SKIN FROM AGING PREMATURELY? To treat your prematurely aging skin, it is important for you to make sure that you protect, nourish, hydrate, revitalise, and stimulate your skin. There is no single ingredient or product that can accomplish all this and so, you have to have a skin care routine that contains at least some of the following products listed below:

Sunscreen When it comes to skin aging, prevention is indeed better than cure. A sunscreen superficially remains the most vital anti-aging element. Use a broad sunscreen with a Sun Protection Factor (SPF) of at least 15, every day. The sunscreen will be able to block out both the UVA and the UVB rays whilst also supplementing the moisturiser. You can also use lotions, creams and make up products that contain sunscreen to broaden your protection from the sun’s rays. Note that even with the sunscreen, you cannot block all the sun’s rays and so it is important to stay indoors or under the shade during the time when the sun is at its peak (that is usually between 10:00AM – 16:00PM).

Antioxidants

Antioxidants compounds that can be found in skin care (as well as food) products that can stop or delay damage to your skin cells. Antioxidants work by blocking damages caused by free radicals and this prevents them from damaging your skin cells. Some antioxidants to make sure your skin care products contain include, ingredients such as vitamin C, vitamin E, green tea and grape seed.

Retinoids

These are vitamin A derivatives which are topically applied and have continuously been proven to improve aging skin. They help to minimise the appearance of wrinkles, increase the skin cell turn over, stimulate the production of collagen and fade pigmentation's and age spots. However, they are extremely sensitive to ultraviolet radiation and so the best time to use them is at night. If you are using them during the day, they have to be used with sunscreen (SPF of at least 30).

You can easily find retinoids in cosmetic products such as lotions, creams and cleansers. Simply having a look at the back of the product in the ingredient’s part will show you if it has retinoids or not.

Botanicals

Botanicals are herbal based products such as lotions, creams, oils and soaps in the cosmetic skin care field. These products are usually labelled as ‘natural’, containing ‘natural oils’ or coming from ‘natural plant-based sources.’ Common botanicals used in anti-aging products are lipids which come in form of vegetable oils such as coffee, oats, soybean, almond, olive, castor oil. Fats and waxes such as cocoa, coconut, shea butter, beeswax, jojoba and lanolin. These ingredients improve the skins elasticity, reduce the appearance of expression lines and reduce puffiness.

Exfoliators

Exfoliators help to increase the rate of your skin cell renewal. They do this by removing the dead skin cells on top of the skin leaving room for new cells to appear. The two types of exfoliators are physical exfoliators and chemical exfoliators. Physical exfoliators such as scrubs manually slough off the dead cells from the skin. Chemical exfoliators such as AHAs (alpha hydroxy acids) work by breaking down the oils that stick the dead cells together on top of the skin. Regular use of chemical exfoliators helps to brighten the skin, smoothen it and superficially reduce the appearance of wrinkles. They may be added to some products such as lotions and soaps but also come in solutions known as chemical peels.

IS IT EVER TOO LATE TO PREVENT OR IMPROVE THE AGING SIGNS OF YOUR SKIN?

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with one single step.” It is never too late to start taking care of your skin but the earlier you start the better chances of you having a youthful and radiant skin even in your old ages. All you have to do is let go of certain habits such as sun bathing under extreme sunshine or moving around without any form of sun protection. It also entails properly cleansing your face before going to bed every night and coming up with a skin care routine that will improve the appearance of your skin and prevent premature aging signs. The routines intensity should depend on the condition of the skin but if it is really severe, you should seeks advice from a dermatologist or aesthetician who will advise you adequately and monitor your skin’s progression as well.