Essential Skincare for Your Forties, Part II

In the first episode of Skincare for Your Forties, I discussed ongoing prevention of premature photo aging. I also explained how to prevent lines and wrinkles from unnecessary facial expressions.

Today, I’ll discuss first, the importance of exfoliation, which in your 40’s is to correct age-caused texture problems and sun induced discoloration…

And second, improving unflattering contours with fillers and laser treatments.

So first…

As a teenager, your skin is smooth and radiant because the normal layer of surface dead cells is even and flat so it brilliantly reflects light. But by your 40’s, from both sun damage and age, it becomes uneven with lots of mounds of dead cells creating a stucco-like surface.

That scatters light instead of reflecting it evenly, causing your skin to appear dull and matte. Also, decades of incomplete sun protection have allowed the sun to damage your pigment cells causing them to make too much brown color causing age spots and blotches.

Exfoliation removes the abnormal mounds of dead cells and the dead cells that hold onto the extra brown pigment. So exfoliation restores luster, brightness and reduce the unwanted browns, all so important for younger, more beautiful and healthier looking skin.

In addition to dull skin and discoloration, by your 40’s, you also start to develop lines, wrinkles and other contours that come from loss of collagen and elastic tissue… whether from sun exposure, tobacco habits, or from repeated facial expressions. They cause lines and wrinkles by literally breaking your collagen and over stretching your elastic tissues. This can be treated by fillers and lasers.

Fillers, like collagen, hyaluronic acid, lactic acid, and others, are injected into your skin to fill out lines by restoring the lost volume and laxity that broken collagen and elastic fibers cause. The improvement from most fillers lasts months, with retreatment needed about twice a year. To learn more, see the various DermTV episodes on fillers.

Next, lasers and other medical devices are used to both tighten loose, sagging skin and also to cause your skin to make new collagen internally to replace your lost and broken collagen. So this way your lines and wrinkle are filled out with your own collagen instead of manufactured fillers. Improvements in both wrinkles and sagging lasts years and it’s really great.