Dermatologists Reveal The Best Advice To Keep Skin Looking Young And Wrinkle-Free
Face it: wrinkles, spots, and other signs of aging are inevitable, but not totally irreversible - and even preventable to some degree. Tips on how to prevent skin from aging, from double cleansing to slathering questionable ingredients on your face, might leave you confused about the best way to maintain a baby-smooth look. The sheer number of products and procedures available that promise wrinkle removal, spot reduction, and more might leave you wishing skin care simply involved soap, water, and a washcloth.
Dermatologists can simplify your search for eternal youth, offering skin care tips that are relatively easy and, more important, endorsed by doctors and medical science rather than a beauty-brand campaign. The dermatologists whose tips are included here offered their advice via Reddit and Quora.
Use A Skin Cream That Irritates Your Skin
From Quora user Charles Bollmann:
The best cream for wrinkles is Retin-A. But it does have side effects, which can be ameliorated by using other products in addition. Most good skin care programs have these.
Retinol is also good, depending on the strength used. Advantages are this is much less irritating than Retin-A and can be purchased over-the-counter without a prescription.
To remove wrinkles, irritation is somewhat necessary. Those creams that are not irritating are not turning the skin over and most likely are not doing anything except making your pocketbook lighter.
Wear Sunscreen
From Redditor /u/TonyYounMD:
Skin care at 30 is still more about prevention of aging than reversal of aging.
Therefore the most important thing to consider at 30 is sunscreen every morning, an antioxidant every morning, and a treatment like retinol in the evening...
[Wear sunscreen even in a car or on a cloudy day.] Car windows will block typically only UVB rays, which cause you to burn, but not UVA rays, which cause you to age. Also, the UV radiation from the sun can penetrate the clouds up to 60% even on a cloudy day.
Avoid Sugar
From Redditor /u/TonyYounMD:
Number one for preventing premature aging is to avoid sugar of all kinds. Sugar is the number one dietary cause of premature aging. And it's not just the sugar of desserts and sweets. It's pervasive in our diets, as refined carbs. So limit your intake of white bread, bagels, white pasta, and white rice. Try to switch to whole wheat or whole grain instead. It digests slower and you have less sugar spikes, and hence, less inflammation.
If you do have to eat sugar, combine it with protein or fat, since that will slow down its digestion. So add some olive oil to your pasta sauce and some peanuts to the handful of candy you grab from the office candy jar.
Don't Use A Tanning Bed
From Redditor /u/TonyYounMD:
[Tanning beds] are the devil in the form of fancy lights and attractive, golden-brown employees. Self-tanner is good. Tanning damages your skin and makes you age prematurely more than any other external factor. It also predisposes you to skin cancer down the line.
I like to get some sun myself when on vacation... but to expose yourself to these harmful rays and not get the benefit of sitting on a beach sipping a cold drink and listening to the waves lap on the shore? No way!
Use Prescription Retinoids
From Quora user Tsippora Shainhouse:
Topical retinoids do promote maturation of the epidermal cells so that older cells slough off, bringing newer, healthier cells to the skin surface. They also promote the regeneration of collagen over time, which can make fine lines appear softer and minimized.
Prescription retinoids are stronger and will work faster, but all retinoids will have a positive, anti-aging effect over time.
Use An Anti-Wrinkle Cream Based On Your Skin Type
From Quora user Surbhi Mahajan:
Here are few tips to choose your anti-wrinkle cream based on your skin type:
People with oily skin types should use [an] anti-wrinkle formula that contains retinoids in [a] lotion or serum base.
For dry skin types, peptide-based anti-wrinkle creams (rather than lotions or serums) help in reduction of wrinkles; additional hyaluronic acid might help in moisturizing the skin. Also, glycolic acid-based peels and creams aid in exfoliation and hydration of dry skin.
People with sensitive skin should also use peptide-based anti-wrinkle formulas, in a cream base if their skin is dry, and in a lotion or serum base if their skin is oily. For exfoliation, they should use gentle alpha-hydroxyl acids like mandelic acid. They should avoid retinoids, [and] salicylic and glycolic acids.