Surprising Facts About Wrinkles You May Not Have Known

Think you know all about wrinkles, what causes them, how to prevent them, and how to treat them? You may be surprised to find out that there’s a lot more to wrinkles than meets the eye.

Our team of aestheticians at Pure Touch Skin Center are wrinkle experts, and they have a large and varied arsenal to ward off the development of those dreaded lines and creases. From injectables to neurotoxins to microneedling to intense pulsed light (IPL), they can help you achieve a wrinkle-free face.

There’s one other thing they do well — educate their patients about the “whys” of lines and creases and how you can help keep them at bay. To that end, here are a number of facts about wrinkles you may not have known.

Surprising facts about wrinkles

Wrinkles are a deep topic; some of the causes lie in the deepest layers of the skin, making them more difficult to treat, but not impossible. Here are some surprising facts about those wrinkles you may not know.

1. Being in your car counts as outdoor sun exposure

Although you might think being in a car would shield you from the sun’s ultraviolet rays, if you spend an appreciable amount of time each day driving, those rays, especially the UVA rays that cause the most wrinkles, have plenty of time to get in through the windows and photoage your face, even if it isn’t sunny out. Make sure you’re wearing sunscreen with an SPF of at least 30 whenever you go outside, and that includes being in your car.

2. Sleeping on your side creates facial wrinkles

When you’re young, you have plentiful supplies of collagen and elastin, which give your skin its smooth appearance and resilient tone. As you age, though, collagen production decreases, and the connective tissue in your face weakens. That means when you sleep on the same side of your face every night, the skin repeatedly crunches up against the pillow, and it won't spring back as quickly as it did when you were young.

If you vary your position, you can reverse the wrinkling. And if you want to prevent it altogether, try to get used to sleeping on your back.

3. Frown lines may mean vision problems

Frown lines are the creases that develop between the eyes. However, instead of indicating advancing age or sun damage, these lines might be telling you you’re overdue for an eye exam. Some people try to compensate for vision problems by squinting their eyes, which contracts the muscles in the forehead between the brows. And doing this repeatedly over time may increase the appearance of lines and creases on the upper third of your face. 

Addressing the vision issues in their early stages can soften the appearance of the forehead lines since the muscles don’t have to work as hard, and the skin can relax.

4. Proper hydration mitigates wrinkles

You know you’re supposed to drink enough H2O every day to stay hydrated, but there’s more to it. Hydration is key to keeping your skin soft and supple, which resists the development of lines and wrinkles. When the skin dries out, it looks flat and dull, accentuating the creases. Water also flushes toxins out of the body, so if you don’t get enough hydration, they can build up in your skin, causing lines to develop.

5. Encouraging collagen production

As we’ve said, collagen is a major building block of the skin that keeps it firm and elastic, but its levels decrease as you age. When you force the cells to turn over, though, new collagen is produced, and the skin becomes rejuvenated.

You can use topical lotions that include ingredients such as vitamin C, peptides, alpha hydroxy acids, and retinoids to help increase cell turnover, but this only works to a limited extent. An in-office radiofrequency procedure (like Forma) heats the skin to cause inflammation, and the body responds by creating new collagen to refresh the cells.

Want to learn more about wrinkles and what you can do to prevent or delay them? Pure Touch Skin Center can help. To set up a consultation with one of our aestheticians, call or send us a message online today.