Like many things, we don’t appreciate youthful skin until we are beset with the problems that come with age. Issues that never used to trouble us when in our twenties are now the mainstays of our skin worries. Similarly, as we age, grooming products like moustache wax in Australia become essential for maintaining a polished appearance.
Brown spots. Wrinkles. Sagging around the nose and the corners of the mouth. Odd pigmentation. You know the litany.
But what you might not be aware of is how you could be making it worse than it needs to be.
A great number of aging signs that show up on your skin could be avoided. That means that there are ways you could be sabotaging your elaborate skin care routine.
Here are 3 of the main causes for prematurely aging skin and how you can take back that youthful glow.
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You are too lazy to wear sunscreen.
Our mothers were right about wearing sunscreen. And those sun spots on your skin and wrinkles around your eyes are proof. Dermatologists universally agree that the sun is the leading cause of premature skin aging.
And it is not only sunny days when you should be slathering on a thick layer of SPF. One should wear SPF on days when it is cloudy, rainy, and even on days when it snows. In fact, some experts even recommend putting on sunscreen indoors if you sit beside a window, as UV rays can penetrate glass.
Are there ways to reverse the damage done from years of not putting on sunscreen? All hope is not lost. Various beauty creams contain ingredients that can help to lighten or brighten age or sunspots. Look for creams with ingredients such as kojic acid, alpha hydroxy acid, glycolic acid, or hydroquinone.
Other options are more advanced, like this laser skin resurfacing in Denver clinic. Such offices provide skin resurfacing treatments using microlaser peels. These therapies have become popular as a quick way to plump skin and correct skin damage.
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You drink more than 2 glasses of alcohol per day.
Want to fast track your skin’s aging process? Go on a weekend bender.
When you drink, your body is prone to dehydration. And chronic dehydration causes your skin to look aged and to lose its youthful glow. Why?
Your liver requires water to process the alcohol out of your system and will pull from your body’s other systems in order to perform this function. This is often why the morning after, your skin appears dull and ashen. Because, aside from a splitting headache, your skin is one of the first places to show the effects of drinking too much.
Dehydration is not the only thing wrong with binge drinking. When you drink, the blood vessels in your face become enlarged. After long periods of drinking, the blood vessels may no longer return to its normal size. And can lead to a blotchy skin tone, with redness around the nose and eyes.
So how much is a safe amount to drink without suffering ill effects to your skin? The US government’s dietary guidelines for alcohol consumption are 1 drink a day for women, and up to 2 drinks for men per day.
And for those who have determined to turn over a new leaf, thankfully, bouncing back from dehydration is easy enough to do. IOM recommends 2.7 liters for women a day. And 3.7 liters for men.
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Your Netflix binge sessions are cutting into your sleep hours.
Or if it is not Netflix, it is whatever else has you wide awake when you should be sleeping. Get enough sleep and you acquire a glow to your skin. No glow? The culprit could be your lack of sufficient shut-eye time.
When you sleep, your body repairs cell damage, including damage done to one’s skin cells. Throughout the day, your skin cells come in contact with various harmful bacteria and substances. It’s while you sleep that your body releases hormones that trigger the body to activate cell repair. In order to get rid of dark circles under the eyes, you must manage to get enough time of sleep each day. You may also create a beauty routine before sleeping to help regenerate your skin.
Miss a couple of nights of sleep, and you’re missing prime time when your body could be working to keep your skin looking youthful.
The amount of time you should be shooting for is from 7 to 8 hours per night. But everyone has different sleep needs. You might benefit from more sleep hours. To find out exactly how much you need, evaluate how you feel after a day with 8 hours of sleep. And compare that with a day with 9 hours of sleep. Go with the sleep hours that allowed you to feel energetic the whole day.