Here’s An Easy Way To Predict How Your Face Will Age
Clue: It has a lot to do with your facial expressions.
If you’re curious to know where your future lines and wrinkles will appear, we’ve got a quick trick to help you figure it out—no special tools or trendy apps required. All you have to do is to look in the mirror and try to simulate a normal conversation. Sounds crazy? Alternatively, you can also turn on your phone camera and just leave it on as you go about your usual activities.
The reason: It’s all about assessing your face’s pattern of expression. Simply put, we often tend to default into one type of facial expression regardless of what we’re doing. And this default expression can very well tell us how well or how badly we’ll age. Over time, the movements (“dynamic” action)—and non-movement (“static” state)—of our facial muscles leave their marks on the skin in the form of lines and wrinkles. Moreover, the loss of elasticity, collagen, and hyaluronic acid in the skin as you age makes it harder for your complexion to bounce back to its youthful state, and so the lines become more and more visible… and permanent.
Keen to know what your future holds based on your facial expressions? Read on:
If you’re a… SMILER or LAUGHER
Everyone loves a cheerful face, but alas, your constant smiling and grinning can lead to fine lines and wrinkles—or, more particularly, “laugh lines.” When we smile, our eyes tend to squint and crinkle, which makes us more prone to developing crow’s feet in the delicate skin around the eyes. Moreover, constant grinning can cause you to have more pronounced nasolabial folds, or those curves of skin that arc from the sides of your nose to the corners of your mouth.
That said, don’t take this as a reason to literally stop smiling. In fact, research has shown that those always sporting happy faces are perceived to be younger-looking than those in a perpetual frown. The trick is to take preventive action by using the right skin care products especially for the vulnerable areas.
Anti-Aging Tips:
- Keep skin moisturized. Fight off skin dehydration with a gentle moisturizer or cream for your skin type. Make sure to drink plenty of water, too, and avoid consuming too much caffeine or alcohol, which both have diuretic effects.
- Don’t neglect your sensitive eye area. A good eye cream can help maintain the youthfulness of the delicate skin around the eyes. Just remember to be extra gentle because too much tugging and rubbing—especially when applying or removing makeup—can only wreak more havoc on skin. Try Biologique Recherche Crème Contour Yeux et Levres Biofixine, a lifting and anti-wrinkle cream for both the lip and eye contour.
- Apply sunscreen regularly. Use a daily sunscreen with at least SPF 30 to ward off the signs of premature aging caused by sun damage. Try Biologique Recherche Protection UV SPF 50, which protects skin while also soothing with anti-aging actives.
Try these picks:
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If you’re a… Frowner
If you’ve always got your brows scrunched up and your lips pursed even when you’re not upset—or if you always appear to be in deep concentration—then you clearly fall into this category. Repeated frowning can cause you to develop a pair of visible vertical lines in between your brows, and makes you more prone to wrinkling on your forehead and eye area. Plus, if you tend to pull the corners of your mouth down, this can lead to marionette lines on either side of your lips.
The best remedy is to be conscious of your frowning tendencies: When you do catch yourself in a scowl, try to relax your facial muscles.
Anti-Aging Tips:
- Relax and de-stress. Your 24/7 frown may be stemming from stress or anxiety, so one of the first steps you can take is to relax your mind and body. Try calming activities such as yoga and meditation, or treat yourself to a spa experience.
- Add anti-aging ingredients to your routine. Upgrade your skin care to include antioxidants, structuring proteins (such as collagen and elastin), and other anti-aging extracts. One to try: The Biologique Recherche Crème Biofixine is a powerful youth-enhancing cream that’s been proven to have an immediate effect on forehead lines as well as smile lines. It also doesn’t hurt to add a retinol product at night to help skin recover while you sleep. Try the ZO Recovery Cream, which improves skin elasticity while also hydrating with ceramides. If you’re a Biologique Recherche P50 Lotion user, though, it is not recommended to mix it with a retinol product in your regimen.
- Shield from the sun. The forehead is one of the first areas to be hit by the sun when we step out, so make sure it’s well protected with a broad-spectrum sunscreen.
Try these picks:
Other facial expressions to consider:
Brow or forehead raising
Got a habit of raising your brows or forehead, like you’re always sporting a surprised or questioning look? Heads up: This makes you vulnerable to more horizontal creases on your forehead. The constant pulling on your eyes can take a toll on your eye area, too.
Squinting
Whether it’s because of an eye condition or purely out of habit, constant squinting subjects the skin in your eye area to regular crinkling, and also contributes to the deepening of the lines between the brows.
Scrunching up the chin
Regular flexing of the chin muscle can cause it to have an orange peel appearance, also called “peau d’orange.”
Here are more wrinkle-fighting picks:
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Dealing With Facial Aging
While it is true that repeated muscle contractions can lead to the development of wrinkles in the face, it is important to note that it is not the only factor. Your lifestyle, stress levels, sun exposure, as well as genetics also play a huge role in determining how your face will age. Weight changes and fat loss, soft tissue changes, bone changes, your sleeping position, as well as gravity can also affect your facial skin over time. That said, it’s best to have a holistic anti-aging plan—one that’s not just focused on your facial expressions.
Regardless if you’re a smiler, frowner, or what-not, you can never go wrong with regular moisturization, the use of antioxidant serums or creams, and religious sunscreen application. If you’re past the prevention stage, though, your dermatologist may suggest wrinkle treatments such as Botox or injectable fillers to smoothen and plump up skin instantly. Other options include the use of high-energy device treatments, platelet-rich plasma injections, mesotherapy, and of course, cosmetic surgery.
For customized skin care recommendations, you can book a virtual consultation with our resident dermatologist, Dr. Maximin Navarro, here.
On the flipside, there’s also absolutely nothing wrong with having a few lines here and there as you grow older and, hopefully, wiser. As Mark Twain says, ”Wrinkles merely indicate where smiles have been.”
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