It can be a shock to look in the mirror one day and realize wrinkles have crept in. It's an inevitable part of aging, but it can be surprising to feel like a teenager and look like someone much older. There are steps you can take, however, to reduce these signs of aging. Read on for some tips on how to look just as young as you feel.
Drink Water
Staying hydrated has tons of health benefits, but doing so also reduces the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines. Hydrated skin is plumped-up skin, so having plenty of water coursing through your system eliminates those fine lines. In that same vein, use a moisturizer you love in order to add moisture to the skin externally. Dry skin makes wrinkles more obvious, so use a moisturizer, with SPF for sun protection, daily.
Exfoliate
Choose an exfoliating cleanser you love and use it weekly. Scrubbing off that first layer of skin sends the message to middle layers that they should produce collagen. Collagen helps skin remain elastic, and skin with elasticity is skin without wrinkles.
Watch Your Diet
Sugar is bad for you. No news there. But not everyone knows that sugar can make collagen present in the skin get stiff, which can cause wrinkles. So, for beautiful, wrinkle-free skin, choose fruits and vegetables over candy bars. Your skin will thank you for the extra dose of vitamins and minerals.
Talk to Your Doctor
If your fine lines and wrinkles bother you a lot, talk to your doctor about dermal fillers. Dermal fillers are injected into the soft tissue of your skin to plump up and fill in lines and wrinkles. The dermal fillers eventually are absorbed by the body, so they're a temporary solution. Another injectable and temporary solution is Botox, a neurotoxin that smooths wrinkles by temporarily paralyzing facial muscles.
Prevention
If you don't have wrinkles yet but want to keep them from forming for as long as possible, there are some steps you can take. Try sleeping on your back. Side sleepers inadvertently squeeze the skin on the face, which can cause wrinkles. Use sunscreen daily, even in the winter and even if you don't plan to be outside. Sun streaming through windows can cause damage as easily as rays you pick up from being outside. Wear sunglasses and skip the straw. Squinting the eyes against bright sunlight and pursing lips around a straw can reduce oxygen flow to these areas of the body, and a reduction in oxygen flow can cause wrinkles.