Anti-aging skin care isn’t exclusive to those with visible fine lines and wrinkles—and it isn’t something that should be considered useless once wrinkles appear or elasticity fades. Instead, anti-aging skin care is all about treating skin to a little TLC at any age, to boost its natural healing abilities and give it that extra helping hand when needed. In the first part of this anti-aging skin care series, we’re offering up tips for preventing premature signs of aging in your teens, 20s, and 30s for smoother, younger-looking skin in your 40s and beyond .
Anti-Aging Tips for Your Teens
An individual’s skin is as unique as their fingerprint. Lifestyle factors, daily habits, environmental elements, genetics, mental and physical wellness, and many other influential factors all play a role in skin health. Each of these factors can alter what the skin requires from an anti-aging skin care regimen, from specific formulas or ingredients to application techniques. However, there are still some overarching skin care tips you can follow beginning in your mid- to late teens.
At this age, generally speaking, skin hasn’t started to decline on a cellular level. This is an important age to start forming positive habits that will help to promote healthy skin for a lifetime. Wearing sunscreen 365 days of the year, regardless of skin tone or the weather forecast, is essential, and skip the natural tan—it’s really just a sign of sun damage. Skin may not show long-term signs of sun damage this early, but they’ll certainly pop up as the cumulative effects take their toll over time. In addition to sun safety, establish healthy sleep hygiene to allow skin to recover from the day’s stresses via beauty sleep and help promote healthy cell renewal and stress reduction. Likewise, regular exercise, a healthy diet, stress management, and avoiding picking and popping acne breakouts are all general healthy habits essential to a holistic anti-aging regimen.
Anti-Aging Tips for Your 20s
At this age, getting control of any lingering acne complications and getting ahead of free radical damage are the top anti-aging concerns. To get a handle on adult acne breakouts, skip intensive topical acne treatments that strip skin of its natural oils. These treatments often irritate skin, causing dryness and further breakouts, alongside a dull or ruddy complexion that can emphasize otherwise nearly invisible fine lines. If fine lines appear as a result of dry skin on the daily, resist plunging into complicated anti-aging skin care regimens. The skin doesn’t need all of that extra help at this age and, in fact, the irritation of switching up skin care products may simply make breakouts worse. Instead, treat acne with care and balance. Spot treatments are ideal paired with intense pulsed light (IPL) acne treatments to help reduce all-over inflammation while destroying acne-causing bacteria. This one-two punch helps minimize the appearance of current breakouts and prevent future ones for a clearer, healthier complexion and a lower risk of scarring.
To prevent free radical damage, favor neutralizing antioxidants. Free radicals are atoms that lack enough electrons to stabilize them. In an attempt to stabilize, these atoms bond with stable atoms, such as oxygen molecules, to swipe electrons. The result is more unstable atoms seeking out electrons in a process called oxidative stress, which leads to disease and premature signs of aging. More specifically, free radicals wreak havoc on skin’s collagen and elastin levels, causing a decline well before your skin’s natural peak in production. A healthy diet or gentle skin care products featuring plenty of antioxidants, such as vitamins B and E and probiotics, is ideal to neutralize free radicals in the body. Think fish, poultry, or chickpeas for vitamin B; wheat germ oil, sunflower seeds, or almonds for vitamin E; and kimchi, sauerkraut, or tempeh for probiotics. As for natural skin care products, aside from vitamins B and E, look for fermented ginkgo biloba nut or mushroom extract in the ingredients lists.
Anti-Aging Tips for Your 30s
As Scientific American reports, after age 25 our skin starts to produce an average of 1% less collagen each and every year. Cell turnover also starts to naturally decline in our 30s, leading to a duller complexion as expression lines (think laugh lines around the eyes) begin to form. Now is the time to start supporting skin’s collagen and elastin production levels via anti-aging skin care.
Start by gradually introducing retinoids (a vitamin A derivative) into your skin care routine. Products containing retinol (pure vitamin A) are easily available at most drug and beauty stores. While retinol is often available in higher concentrations, it’s not as potent as synthetic retinoids, like tretinoin, which is available via dermatologists or aesthetic clinics. While retinoids are effective in reaching the deeper layers of skin to boost cell renewal and collagen production, they can also dry out skin if too concentrated. For this reason, it’s best to start with a lower concentration or an over-the-counter retinol product, then gradually work up to a higher concentration or a tretinoin. To get it right for your skin, it may be best to speak to a dermatologist before diving into retinoids.
For those looking to stamp out any fine lines and wrinkles that have appeared so far, a customized non-invasive wrinkle reduction treatment plan may offer the perfect gentle boost your skin needs. Utilizing advanced radio frequency-based technology, quick treatment sessions deliver energy to heat skin deep below the surface, kickstarting its natural collagen production cycle and promoting healthy cell renewal for visibly smoother, firmer skin.
To learn more about anti-aging wrinkle reduction treatments, IPL acne treatments, or alternative non-invasive anti-aging treatments to give your younger skin an early leg up on premature signs of aging, contact a certified treatment professional near you using the search field below.
If you have a significant other who is 40 and over we have a helpful guide for them as well - just follow the link.
