You’re 30 and you want a facelift? The Facts on Collagen.
I feel like sometimes I am the most annoying person in the world always lecturing my clients, friends, and family about wearing sun protection. I find myself screaming “PUT ON SUNBLOCK” at my boyfriend across the house before we go outside ... again, the most annoying person in the world. But on the flip side, I am constantly hearing from my clients, family, and friends;
“I am starting to notice wrinkles” “I feel like my face is sagging” or “I just want a mini facelift”. A mini facelift?! At 30 years old?!!… No. No, No, No, NO!
I tell myself constantly there HAS to be a better, and more holistic way to combat the signs of aging, without injections, without fillers, without botox, and definitely without facelift surgery!! No disrespect to the talent that injectors and plastic surgeons around the world have spent their lives dedicated to perfecting the art of, but I have some news for you that might be hard to swallow; Aging is inevitable folks, YEP sorry to tell you but there is no known treatment to stop yourself from aging. Quite honestly though, who would want that?! Sure being young is fun and you don’t have a lot of worries but aging comes with sophistication, intelligence, and experience, and who doesn’t love all of those things.
But anyway, just because you are getting older DOESN’T MEAN you have to let the signs of aging show on your face! How do I know this? Research and development y’all.
Now one of the first things you are going to have to accept when you are delving into the world of anti-aging is the influence of social media. Don’t let yourself get caught up in filtered and enhanced images and start thinking “this is what I should look like to look young” it’s just not true, and the fact of the matter is if you start filling your face with injectables and getting plastic surgeries and your skin isn’t healthy, it is going to look totally wack!!! You know when you see the girl who has spent more money injecting her lips than she has on her skincare, and it is not cute. Well, what is the point of getting plastic surgery if your skin isn’t optimally healthy? It just isn’t going to work!
So the bottom line is, we need to find ways to increase and build the HEALTH of our skin, the IMMUNITY of our skin, and the BALANCE of our skin. Naturally when I first thought of skin health and aging the first topic I wanted to cover, was COLLAGEN.
What is Collagen?
There are many skincare ingredients I can tell you to look for. There are many at-home and in-clinic treatments, I can tell you to do and of course, wearing sun protection will all help combat the signs of aging. But I wanted to dive into addressing collagen specifically because it is and has been a hot topic of conversation. ADDITIONALLY, our skin’s collagen contributes greatly to our skin’s appearance and loss of collagen/ less collagen production can contribute to some signs in the skin that we associate with aging. COLLAGEN is a naturally occurring fiber protein in the human body and forms the connective and conjunctive tissue of the body’s largest organ, our SKIN.
70% of human skin is made of collagen, which works to ensure that the skin does not wrinkle when facial muscles are activated. As we age, collagen production decreases pretty drastically. During childhood, our body is producing tons of collagen, and then by our mid-20’s the levels start to decline at about a 1% decline per year by the time we are 25.
In addition, certain lifestyle factors can drive collagen production down like:
- Smoking
- Hormonal Imbalances
- Sun exposure
- Stress
As the body ages and produces less collagen, the skin begins to appear thinner, drier, and less elastic. Hyaluronic Acid, collagen, and elastin are what give our skin that dewy, young plumpness that we envy in babies. As we age the levels of hyaluronic acid, collagen, and elastin in our skin weaken based on a number of intrinsic and extrinsic effects on our health. UV exposure, pollution, and poor eating habits can all speed up the degradation of collagen and subsequently, the signs of aging.
Reducing the Signs of Aging
Now, it isn’t like collagen just all disappears overnight, it takes years to break down so naturally, it takes years to build it back up! This is why we need to shift our mentality from the “quick fixes” of plastic surgery, fillers, etc. Just be patient, and follow holistic treatments and skincare routines that will naturally decrease the signs of aging by slowing down the degradation of collagen and stimulating your skin to produce new collagen. You can still appear outwardly youthful without having to spend tons of money on painful/long recovery surgeries, and injections like fillers and botox, but you HAVE to have patience and dedication to your skincare to see results.
Anti-aging skincare products can be costly and if you aren’t using the right ones in combination with the right treatments for your skin type/ condition, you could be wasting your money. It is important to always consult with a trusted skincare professional about which products are right for you to be using at home AND which services you are receiving in the treatment room. A licensed esthetician, like me :) can help you figure out which products you should be using and which treatments you should be receiving to help give you the BEST results from an age-defying skincare program!
Because skincare products only penetrate the epidermis (the outermost layer of our skin), I highly recommend synergistically combining home care products and professional treatments to see the most drastic change in your skin.
When treating the visible signs of aging, professional treatments to look for involve red light therapy, PRP, and Microneedling. I am licensed to perform Microneedling and have seen amazing results from treatments when treating fine lines and moderately deep wrinkles, texture, scarring, tone, and hyperpigmentation. Best results are seen from Microneedling in a treatment series of 3-6 sessions.
As far as attempting to enhance our skin’s collagen topically, the fibers of collagen are too large to permeate the acid mantle of the skin, however, PEPTIDES can take this place. PEPTIDES are amino acids that are the building blocks of proteins needed by the skin, like COLLAGEN and ELAS|TIN. PEPTIDES are also small enough to permeate the skin, so adding products that contain peptides to your skincare routine can lead to firmer, younger-looking skin.
What about Collagen Supplements?
Collagen supplements are VERY popular these days and are commonly seen in vitamin capsules, drink mixes, gummies, and more. But does ingesting collagen supplements orally do anything for the appearance of your skin?
Collagen supplements are backed by research that supports their improvement of joint health, but the question of whether collagen can make it through the digestive system and create cellular change in the skin remains unsupported. There has also been concern expressed by medical researchers about the presence of heavy metals in some collagen supplements. So as always, do your research, check all “facts” and question everything!
So to sum up my personal thoughts on collagen in regards to defying the signs of aging, lifestyle choices have a BIG IMPACT on our body's collagen production. To encourage healthy levels of collagen production and in turn look younger, make sure you pay attention to:
- Getting enough sleep
- Getting enough exercise
- Eating a healthy and well-rounded diet
- Avoiding toxins
In combination with living a healthier and more intentional lifestyle, seeing a skin care professional for a monthly treatment and having them help you choose the right home care products will keep your skin looking young, plump, and always ready to GLOW.
Contact me today for a FREE virtual consultation to see what the right age-defying treatment plan is for you.
See you in the clinic!
Xoxo
Ida