At what age do you get wrinkles?

–fashion designer Coco Chanel

At what age do you get wrinkles? Most women (and men) will chime in and say ?Way too soon!? Of course there are those lucky (few) who have porcelain skin up until the day that they die but they are the exception to the rules.

Some people may detect crow?s feet in their twenties. In fact, crow?s feet are usually the first wrinkle that a person notices. Crow’s feet are the lines that splay out from the corners of the eyes.  If you squint a lot, you are going to acquire them faster. Wear sunglasses so you don?t squint.

As a person ages, he loses melanin (pigment) in his skin and this causes the skin to become paler and more susceptible to the damaging rays of the sun. Every decade, humans lose six to eight percent of the melanin that they once had.

By the time you reach 40, the inner layer of the skin is starting to shrink about the same time the collagen that is in the dermis (middle layer) of skin, and which provides the supporting structure for the skin, starts decreasing.

Elastin fibers that maintain skin flexibility also start to decline at this time. Production of new skin cells in the outer layer (epidermis) slows down. Skin starts getting thin and isn?t as sinuous as it was before

By the time a person reaches the age of 50, wrinkles become more prominent and deeper. The cheeks begin to sag and blood vessels near the surface of the skin may become more apparent creating red lines that are call telangiectasia. The skin has less oil in it so it because drier. Dry skin wrinkles faster and worse than lubricated skin or naturally oily skin.

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When a person is in his sixties and seventies his skin is thinner than ever, there are more wrinkles and the skin is parched and pale.

Wrinkles are part of aging. Granted, some people get them sooner than others. Some people have more than their counterparts. The appearance of two people the same age can vary greatly depending on numerous factors.

SUN EXPOSURE

Exposure to sun leads to wrinkling so the more time you?ve spent in the sun the more wrinkled you ultimately will be. You will probably see evidence of the wrinkles earlier than your hat-wearing, sun avoiding friends.

If you spend a lot of time in the sun and aren?t wearing high SPF sunscreen, sunglasses and a hat, the collagen fibers that are located under the skin start to break down. When this happens, wrinkles appear.

If you show up at your 20 year high school class reunion and discover that you are far more wrinkled than your counterparts, it is probably due in large part to excessive sun exposure, although other factors are at play.

Smoking causes wrinkles so don’t smoke or try to stop. Those with expressive faces are going to wrinkle earlier than their stone-faced, expressionless friends. Gaining and losing large amounts of weight can cause wrinkles as well as saggy skin.

WOMEN VS. MEN

Women tend to wrinkle easier than men because females have fewer sebaceous and sweat glands, as well as a different muscle structure and fewer blood vessels than men. This may also be due to the fact that men have hair follicles in their face which gives their face more structure. The follicles grant protection to the face.

A man’s face also tends to be greasier than a woman’s, which is a safeguard against wrinkling. It is also believed that high levels of testosterone are a deterrent to wrinkling.

Some women maintain that their wrinkling didn?t start in earnest until they became menopausal (the change of life.) At this time, a woman has very little estrogen in her body. Estrogen is a female sex hormone that is responsible for a whole bunch of stuff including the health of skin and hair. When it’s gone, a woman’s body pays the price.

DARK SKIN VS FAIR SKIN

Dark skinned people, regardless of their age, aren?t going to wrinkle as soon or as severely as fair skinned people because they have a lot of melanin, which is pigment, in their skin, which doesn?t allow as much sun to get to the skin.

GENETICS

Genetics plays a part in wrinkling. Look at your parents. This gives you a clue as to how you are going to look when you are their age. However, you can make lifestyle choices that give your skin an advantage. Don’t smoke. Don’t bake your skin in the sun. Eat well. Exercise.