Maintaining healthy, beautiful, glowing skin should be the first step in everyone's beauty regimen. The skin is the largest organ in the body, and the most visible. It is also very easily and noticeably damaged over time. The effects of aging and sun damage are the most evident on your skin. To understand the aging process you must first understand the structure of your skin.
The skin is made up of 3 main layers: the epidermis, dermis, and subcutaneous. The skin becomes damaged and shows signs of aging in each of the 3 layers.
Epidermis: Skin's outer and thinnest layer. Wrinkles commonly develop from environmental damage, and repeated mechanical facial movements (aka laugh lines).
Dermis: Skin's middle and thickest layer. Retains moisture, and contains meshwork of collagen and elastin fibers. When damaged and over time, skin's "backbone" begins to sag and droop, with loss of collagen, elastin, and moisture.
Subcutaneous: Mostly made up of lipids, with decreased fat content as skin ages.
Aging of the skin occurs in two ways: 10% intrinsic aging which is due to genetic factors and 90% extrinsic aging which is due to environmental and mechanical factors. This means that prevention from harsh environmental and habitual skin damage can do wonders to help slow down the aging process. Healthy habits starting in your youth are essential to maintaining healthy skin. Some major bad habits to avoid are smoking, unprotected UV exposure, and repeated habitual muscular movements. Yet damage due to general wear, exposure to pollution, unhealthy diet, not drinking enough water, genetic factors, and not having a good skin-care regimen will all eventually cause skin to sag, wrinkle, and discolor. Let's face the ugly truth- sun exposure, gravity, and time will start to take a toll on your skin no matter what. Good habits can delay unsightly effects of aging, but not forever.
As your skin ages, it changes in fundamental ways. The skin becomes thinner and weaker, and veins become more visible. Your face and body begin to lose their youthful tightness and as years of sun damage and gravity take effect sagging begins to pull and skin becomes flabby and droopy, especially in facial areas. Skin becomes much drier during the aging process as your body naturally begin to produce less oils, reduced levels of elastin and collagen, decreased hormone production levels, and decreased fat or lipid storage deep in the skin. Dry skin can lead to a cracked, uneven, flaky appearance and aid in the production and deepening of wrinkles. The skin becomes discolored and age spots or sunspots appear on areas that have received a lot of UV exposure over the years. These spots often appear in clusters on the face, shoulders, or hands as brown, grey, or black spots. Another unfortunate sign of ageing, and one of the most unpleasant is wrinkles. Wrinkles can occur all over the body and are especially bothersome on the face. Typically wrinkles appear deepest and most pronounced around the eyes, mouth, neck, and forehead.
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