If you’re over 40, you’ve probably had the nasty experience of looking in the mirror and seeing a face that looks considerably different from the face you had in your 20s. It’s probably no surprise that, just as your muscles and skin start to sag in other areas of your body (Butt, we’re looking at you!), similar changes occur in your face – sometimes even more dramatically, thanks to years of sun and wind exposure.
Still, not everyone ages the same way, and lots of factors can play a role in how “well” you age, including familiar factors like your skincare routine, your lifetime sun exposure, your diet, and yes, even your genes. Understanding how your face ages – the underlying physiological changes that cause skin to droop, sag and furrow – is vitally important for making sure you take the necessary steps to help your face look more youthful, more energized and more attractive at any age.
Facial Physiology
When you’re young, your skin is firm and resilient; as you get older, your skin loses both of these essential characteristics, largely as a result of reduced amounts of collagen, elastin and hyaluronic acid. These three components occur naturally in the skin, but as we get older, we produce less of all three.
Collagen and elastin form a special “matrix” or “scaffold” for your skin, supporting it and helping it “bounce back” and maintain its elasticity and firmness. Hyaluronic acid keeps skin plump and hydrated, giving it a fullness that aids in keeping fine lines and wrinkles at bay.
To make matters worse, aging also causes a natural decline in your skin’s natural oil production. Even if you suffered from a perpetually shiny nose and chin in your teens and 20s, you can still develop dry skin in your 40s and beyond. What’s more, you lose natural facial fat and even bone as you get older, especially around your mouth and jaw line and in your cheeks.
That means the shape of your face can change ever-so-subtly, exacerbating sagging in your jowls and lower face while giving your cheeks a hollowed-out appearance that can make you look tired and haggard. Plus, years of sun and environmental damage and a lifetime of chronic stress, illnesses, and even bad habits like poor diet result in uneven skin tone and texture while making it lots easier for lines and wrinkles to take hold.
Yes, that’s a lot of factors to consider when you’re trying to stave off age-related changes in your face. But don’t get discouraged — it’s actually easier than you think to manage all these age-related changes so you can continue to look your best, even as you get older.
Science to the rescue
During the past decades, huge strides have been made in skincare technology, with an emphasis on techniques aimed at helping women and men tackle age-related changes — not just by filling in lines and wrinkles, but by promoting collagen and elastin development so the skin’s structure is improved.
At Evolve, we offer the most advanced, cutting-edge solutions to help women and men turn back the clock and restore the firm, resilient skin of their youth. More good news: These techniques can be combined in unique ways to focus on your needs and goals and provide you with a beautiful, natural-looking result.
Anti-wrinkle injections and dermal fillers
Both anti-wrinkle injections and dermal fillers work to correct the appearance of wrinkles, but there are some key differences in how they “work”:
Anti-wrinkle injections is used for dynamic wrinkles, those lines and creases that form as a result of facial expressions like smiling or frowning. Once injected, anti-wrinkle injections goes to work to block the signals from the facial muscles to the brain so those pesky lines and wrinkles can’t form.
Dermal fillers are used special products to “fill in” static wrinkles caused by sun, genetics, and other issues, plus, they’re used to plump up lips, and restore natural fullness to the cheeks and other areas of the face.
Together, anti-wrinkle injections and dermal fillers can address all types of facial lines, wrinkles and depressions so your skin looks smoother, firmer and more youthful.
And there’s another benefit for today’s dermal fillers: They contain special formulas that can ramp-up collagen and elastin production and even supplement your skin’s natural hyaluronic acid to help improve the structure of your skin from the inside.
Laser Genesis
Laser Genesis uses specialized laser technology to gently treat wrinkles and lines by penetrating the upper layers of your skin noninvasively – without the need for anesthesia. Laser Genesis lifts away the uppermost layers of skin, diminishing fine lines, scars, enlarged pores and redness so your skin looks fresh and clear. Plus, the laser energy heats up the deeper layers of skin, stimulating the production of collagen and elastin for long-lasting effects.
Dermapen
Microneedling uses a series of tiny, super-thin, surgical-grade needles to induce “controlled damage” in the skin, stimulating natural repair processes to spur collagen production and help the skin repair and rejuvenate itself. The Dermapen uses advanced microneedling technology to help your skin naturally repair scars and fine lines while also improving skin’s texture and firmness over time.
But what about aging gracefully?
There’s nothing wrong with aging gracefully — in fact, it’s something we should all strive for. But being graceful as you get older doesn’t mean sitting by while your skin becomes lax and wrinkled or feeling self-conscious or even unattractive about your appearance. What it does mean is taking those steps that allow you to be more proactive in caring for your skin and addressing age-related changes as they occur.
Your skin, after all, is an organ, and just as you make dietary changes or maybe ramp up your physical activity to keep your heart and other organs healthy as you get older, you need to make changes and take steps to keep your skin in its best shape too.
Using techniques like laser skin treatments, microneedling, dermal fillers and anti-wrinkle injections lets you correct issues as they occur, for subtle alterations that can help you look and feel your best. That means you can feel more attractive, more self-confident, and happier. Plus, many treatments stimulate the production of collagen and elastin or hold in essential moisture with hyaluronic acid to actually improve your skin’s structure.
