When you think of skin aging, you might automatically think of wrinkles. And you wouldn’t be wrong, but wrinkles only account for a small part of what makes skin appear older. In fact, the first sign of skin aging can start in your early twenties, well before you create those fine lines and wrinkles. That’s because the real reason your skin looks older than it should is because it’s losing its smooth texture. So let’s break down why you’re losing your smooth skin, why rough texture makes your skin look like it's aging quicker, and how to get back your smooth, youthful glow.
Why Your Skin Is No Longer Smooth
You are always accumulating mounds of clogging, dulling, dead cells on your skin. But as you age, even as early as your twenties, your skin is unable to get rid of those dead cells as consistently. Some of those cells stay on longer as some continue to fall off, leaving you with an uneven surface. These uneven mounds of dead cells create a rough, discolored texture in your skin and account for 95% of why your skin looks older.
Smooth Skin Equals Youthful-Looking Skin
So why do these mounds of skin, which cause your skin to become rough, prevent you from the youthful-looking skin you crave? Because smooth surfaces are better able to reflect light, they create a bright, smooth texture that decreases the older appearance of your skin. As Dr. Schultz says, “the most important determinant of younger-looking skin is how smooth it is. The smoother your skin, the younger it looks.”
Dr. Schulz explains further, “Imagine yourself bouncing a ball. When you bounce it on a smooth sidewalk, it comes right back up to you. But if it hits a crack in the sidewalk or a pebble, it veers off in a random direction. Light rays behave the same way. When light rays hit a smooth surface, they all reflect in a predictable single focused beam (like the ball) so your eye sees all the rays, making the surface looks brighter. So when skin is smooth, light reflects brightly and glows. But when skin is rough, it can’t glow. The light hits the mounds of dead cells on your skin, becomes scattered in thousands of different directions and your eyes end up seeing only a fraction of the light. The surface looks dull, and in the case of your skin, tired-looking and older.”
How to Bring Back Smooth, Youthful-Looking Skin
The bad news may be that we lose smooth (and therefore younger-looking skin) as we age, but the good news is, there’s an easy solution for it. Dr. Schultz says, “The most effective way to recapture smooth, glowing, younger-looking skin after your twenties is with glycolic exfoliation.” Using daily glycolic exfoliation effectively removes the mounds of dirt, debris, and dead cells building up on your skin’s surface. Ridding yourself of these mounds with a daily glycolic exfoliant quickly creates a smooth surface so light can be reflected off your skin, giving you that youthful glow you want. It also helps treat uneven skin tone, dullness, and the tired look of your skin, thereby treating 95% of skin aging causes.
Armed with a little bit of information and science, you can make a swift, easy change in bringing back your youthful-looking skin. Remember — wrinkles are only a small part of skin aging. Smooth out the surface of your skin and you’ll look soon be looking years younger.
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