Care of Aging Skin

What are the signs of aging skin?

As we age, our skin becomes drier. This can result in flaky and itchy skin, especially in cold, dry, windy climates. It can also result in lines and wrinkles, brown freckles, and yellowing of the skin.

How can I treat aging skin?

A natural active moisturizer is the first treatment you should try. When skin ages it loses its natural elasticity. Active moisturizers have a healing fraction as well as a moisturizing fraction. The healing fraction restores elasticity. We particularly recommend shea butter because it has the highest healing fraction of all of the active moisturizers.

Be sure to avoid petroleum-based products. Petroleum-based moisturizers have no healing effect. They simply trap moisture on the surface of the skin, and they keep the skin from breathing and thus can accelerate the aging process.

When you wash, be sure to use a mild soap since harsh soaps dry the skin. Soaps made from shea, hemp or palm oils make a mild, smooth, creamy lather, have good cleansing properties, and they dry the skin the least.

How long will it take to see results

If you apply an active moisturizer to your skin two or three times a day, you are likely to begin to see an improvement within a week.

If dry skin continues to be a problem, you may want to consult a skin care specialist. Severe flaky, itchy and cracked skin may be a sign of a more serious problem.

What causes skin to show signs of age?

As skin becomes less elastic, it becomes drier. Underlying tissue padding begins to disappear. With loss of underlying support by tissue padding, the skin begins to sag. It looks less supple, and wrinkles form. The skin may be itchy with increased dryness. A cut may heal more slowly.

Aging is accelerated in those areas exposed to sunlight (ultraviolet radiation). This is particularly apparent on the face, and occurs at an early age in fair skinned people who have spent much time outdoors. Photoaging is the effect of chronic and excessive sun exposure on the skin. Photoaging interacts with chronologic aging and may appear to hasten the process of chronologic aging. In fact, photoaging may be responsible for the majority of age-associated changes in the skin’s appearance: mottled pigmentation, surface roughness, fine wrinkles that disappear when stretched, "age" or "liver" spots (lentigines) on the hands, and dilated blood vessels.

Cigarette smoking also contributes to aging effects by the biochemical changes it brings about in skin tissues.