The obvious signs of ageing – lines, wrinkles, sagging – are all too clear to see, but there are less obvious signs, the ones that creep up on you gradually over the years. You look in the mirror, and everything appears roughly the same, albeit for a few crow’s feet and frown lines, but something isn’t quite right. Your skin lacks a certain ‘je ne sais qois’, it feels drier than it used to, and well, a bit flat. You can’t pinpoint when it happened exactly, but it definitely lacks lustre. We know that as we get older our skin is not going to have the youthful, fresh faced look of a 21-year old, but why and how does it lose its glow?
According to Cosmetic Dermatologist, Dr Ravi Jain, Medical Director of the Riverbanks Clinic in Bedfordshire, the majority of lack lustre skin is caused by sun damage which reduces the skin’s ability to repair itself, resulting in loss of elasticity and volume. ‘If you wore SPF30 everyday from a youngster, you would have excellent skin, but nobody does that’, he explains. ‘For most of us, the damage has been done ten to fifteen years earlier, and by the time we reach our 40s, we have at least twenty years of sun abuse behind us’. So if the damage has been done, what should we be looking for, and when?
IN YOUR 30s
By the time we reach our 30s, cell turnover has slowed down, and environmental damage from the sun, pollution, and smoke starts to cause collagen fibres to loosen so that the skin begins to lose its tone and elasticity.
Fine lines and wrinkles start to appear, and the skin loses some of its youthfulness.
IN YOUR 40s
It’s during your 40s that the skin really begins to change. Collagen fibres start to decrease, stiffen and break apart, and the skin loses more elasticity and volume as a result. As you head for the menopause the skin dries out further, due to oestrogen levels declining. Research has also shown that at about 43, bone volume starts to decline – oestrogen helps build bones - resulting in thinner facial bones which cause the skin to start to hang off the face, and because it is not so elastic it doesn’t spring back.
IN YOUR 50s (and beyond)
According to a survey carried out by skincare company, Astral, 95% of women going through the menopause found that it affected their skin. Half suffered from dry skin, while 35% said that their face lacked lustre, and 30% saw a loss in suppleness and smoothness. Oestrogen levels deplete during the menopause, and it’s this hormone that is responsible for cell renewal, and so the skin will be become drier and drier.
So can anything be done to give dull, lack lustre skin its glow back? The answer is yes, and it doesn’t have to mean resorting to surgery. Facial peels and a host of other treatments will transform dry, dull and flaky skin into something soft and dewy. And you don’t have to be 21.
Next week : The Peel
