Interactive

Ageing

You can prevent some aspects of ageing like the lines and liver spots caused by sun damage, horrendously ageing cigarette smoke and stress,that can cause premature lines. Genetics plays a part in the way you age, too, but this isn't in your control.

There are two types of skin ageing, one is the unavoidable natural process of biological ageing, where skin and muscles lose elasticity and tone over time and which is mainly down to genetics. The other is largely avoidable and is caused by factors such as sun exposure, stress and smoking.

Sun damage
No matter how much better you may look or feel with a tan, the long and the short of it is that a tan is a visible manifestation of skin damage and will speed the ageing process. While genetics will play a major role in when your skin starts to age and wrinkle, there is no question that unprotected exposure to the sun will cause premature wrinkles and possibly skin cancer too!

You should always protect your skin against the sun with a sun screen of at least SPF 15 (sun protection factor). This is not just important when you are on holidays or sunbathing, even your daily moisturiser should contain SPF 15 protection.

Smoking
Aside from the obvious damage to your overall health and the increased risk of cancer, smoking is also terrible for your complexion. Heavy smokers inevitably have sallow, lifeless looking skin caused by poor circulation. They also have premature wrinkles around their eyes from squinting and deeper lines around the mouth from pursing their lips to inhale. As they get older they develop lots of small lines running perpendicular to the lips, causing lipstick to bleed and giving a prematurely aged appearance.