What do wrinkles look like?
If you look at the palm of your hand, you have lines in your skin. As you age, lines like those in your palm will form on other parts of your body’s skin.
Symptoms of wrinkles include:
- Lines, creases or folds on your skin.
- Loose or droopy skin.
Wrinkles are apparent when you’re at rest, but they may become more noticeable when you move your facial muscles by smiling or frowning.
Where on my body will I have wrinkles?
Wrinkles can appear anywhere on your skin but are most common on your:
- Face.
- Hands.
- Neck.
- Arms.
- Legs.
What causes wrinkles?
Slow skin cell production, thinning skin layers and a lack of collagen proteins causes wrinkles to form on your skin.
Collagen is a protein within your body that gives your skin structure. It provides stretchiness or elasticity so you can move easily. Your skin is similar to a rubber band. If that rubber band stretches or moves too much, the rubber band becomes loose and loses its ability to snap back to its normal size and shape. When your body’s cells age, their ability to produce proteins slows down. This makes it more difficult for your rubber band to snap back to its original shape, which causes wrinkles.
There are several factors that cause your skin to wrinkle.
Aging
Wrinkles are a by-product of the aging process. As people age, skin cells divide more slowly, and the middle layer of your skin — the dermis — begins to thin. The dermis has a network of elastin and collagen fibers, which offer support and elasticity. As this network loosens and unravels with time, depressions form on your skin’s surface. Aging skin is also less able to retain moisture, less efficient in secreting oil and slower to heal. All of these factors contribute to the development of wrinkles.
Facial muscle contractions
Lines on your forehead, between your eyebrows (frown lines) and jutting from the corners of your eyes (crow's feet) develop because of small muscle contractions. Smiling, frowning, squinting and other habitual facial expressions cause wrinkles to become more prominent. Over time, these expressions coupled with gravity contribute to the formation of wrinkles.
Sun damage
Excessive exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun can result in premature aging of your skin, also known as photoaging. Exposure to UV light breaks down collagen fibers and leads to the production of abnormal elastin. When ultraviolet light damages skin tissue, your body produces an enzyme called metalloproteinase. This enzyme creates and reforms collagen. During the process, however, some healthy collagen fibers receive damage, resulting in solar elastosis — the disorganized formation of fibers. Wrinkles develop when the rebuilding process occurs over and over, less efficiently each time.
Smoking
Healthy skin constantly regenerates. Old collagen breaks down and removes itself from your body, which makes room for new collagen. Researchers found that smoking causes a reduction in the production of new collagen. Decreased collagen results in the development of wrinkles.
Environmental factors
Pollutants in the air in your environment can cause your body’s collagen to break down as pollution enters your pores. The most common pollutants in your environment that cause wrinkles include:
- Particulate matter: Particulate matter is a mixture of microscopic solids and liquids in the air which includes dirt, dust and smoke.
- Soot: Soot is a carbon-based microscopic, solid material that forms when something burns. Soot occurs in the environment from vehicle exhaust and manufacturing facilities.
- Nitrogen dioxide: Nitrogen dioxide is a gas that exists in the environment. It’s most common near vehicles, industrial manufacturing facilities, construction sites and in some lawn and garden equipment.
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Does makeup cause wrinkles?
If you don’t remove makeup, it can clog your pores, which restricts your body’s ability to produce collagen proteins. This could cause premature aging and wrinkles if you never remove your makeup. It’s important to remove makeup at the end of the day with a cleanser to make sure your pores are clean to prevent wrinkles. If you forget to take off your makeup a few times before you go to bed, it’s OK, but habitually leaving makeup on can damage your skin by clogging your pores.
Does caffeine cause wrinkles?
While research is still ongoing to understand more about how caffeine — including coffee — affects your skin, caffeine has some benefits to your skincare routine that are short term. This means that caffeine can temporarily change the appearance of wrinkles, but long-term use of caffeine products doesn’t cure wrinkles. Caffeine is an antioxidant, which can protect your skin from elements that damage the collagen in your skin that causes wrinkles.
