Sooner or later, it happens to us all. Genetics, health, and lifestyle factors like wearing sunscreen all play a role. But ultimately, time will catch up to you. UV light is the primary factor behind most age-related skin changes. You can’t hide from the sun forever. Ultimately, it causes the skin’s elasticity to deteriorate, causing wrinkles, fine lines, and sagging skin.
The skin also becomes less resilient with age. So a night out drinking, a sleepless night, and an illness can all affect your skin more profoundly than they once did. No one leads a perfectly healthy, stress-free lifestyle all the time. So aging means your skin spends progressively more time looking haggard, dry, and less resilient.
Age robs the skin of fat. You might fight fat on other areas of your body, but fat under your skin is a good thing. It gives the skin a naturally plump and youthful appearance. As your face loses fat, the skin begins to take on a sunken appearance, looks less resilient, and appears to thin. If you notice that you look younger in photos from five years ago, but can’t quite put your finger on why, the fat under your skin is likely the secret to your youthful appearance.
Many of us hope to age “gracefully,” believing that a few lines or wrinkles won’t change much about the way we look. The sad reality is that aging can actually change the shape of your face, making it less symmetrical, saggier, and less like the you whom you once saw in the mirror. As these changes accumulate, you may begin to realize that there’s nothing graceful about a face that makes you unhappy—and nothing ungraceful about doing something to stop the aging process in its tracks.