Wrinkles and fine lines are inevitable. I know that’s probably not what you wanted to hear from me, but it’s true. As we age our skins collagen production naturally slows down, our hormones shift and all the damage from all that careless sun exposure of our youth makes itself quite comfortable on our faces. Those three factors all contribute to creating a skin matrix that is weakened and susceptible to wrinkles.

Our skin is made up of several elements that all come together to create a kind of scaffolding or intricate matrix. Collagen, elastin and hyaluronic acid are elements that you are probably familiar with. As we age our dermal layer thins and less collagen is produced. These changes in the scaffolding of our skin cause it to loose laxity and texture. Then when we make our normal human facial expressions and are continued to be exposed to gravity (weird, right??), lines form.

Glycation is also at play: this happens when the glucose in your blood stream attaches to proteins (like collagen) and degrade collagen and elastin fibers in the dermis by making them link. This results in weakened scaffolding and the weak tissue folds in on itself.

OK OK OK but what can we do about it?????

First of all, embrace it babe! It is 100% natural and normal for you to start to have fine lines and wrinkles. But, here are some tips for encouraging healthy collagen production within your own body to help maintain that youthful glow as you age gracefully:

Use topical antioxidants to help repair environmental damage and help prevent future damage.
Apply SPF everyday. Every. Day. EVERYDAY!
Include a variety of antioxidants in your daily nutrition.
Add supplements that boost your body’s ability to create collagen instead of supplements that claim to have collagen added to them. I’m not convinced that our digestive tract can see that collagen and move it to our skin like it’s implied…
Limit the amount of sugar you put in (and on) your body. (Glycation happens even when a topical treatment has glucose so that’s why I prefer salt scrubs vs sugar scrubs for body exfoliation)
Incorporate Vit C, A & E into your daily routine. Adding retinol and/or bakuchoil are good ingredients to look for as well. You can check out our recommended treatment serums here
Invest in our skin tightening, collagen forming Plasma Fibroblast treatment. This topical procedure not only smooths out the surface of the skin but it also stimulates the production of your own natural collagen! That means that over the course of 3 months post treatment, new collagen moves up to the surface of the skin to strengthen the skins scaffolding again! for more info about this treatment, click here

As always if you have any questions or would like to book an appointment don’t hesitate to reach out to us!! We love hearing from you.

xoxo,

Chelsea