Asking Skin Sign#5: Crows Feet

Very few women need to be told what crows feet are.  These tiny lines that radiate at the outside corners of the eye, are often  the first wrinkles to appear.  They are not so much a sign of aging, but of life.  Every time you ope n or close your eyes, smile, squint or laugh, these areas  are stretched and pulled.  As early as age 30 the skin starts to weary and these little lines appear.  In sunny states such as Arizona and Texas, crow’s feet can develop by age 15 due to constant squinting in bright sunlight.  Several great treatment options can erase crow’s feet  in  less than an hour.  Much easier to treat then under eye circles.

Aging Skin Sign#6: Under Eye Circles

Dark  under eye shadows that make us look tired, old and sometimes sad.  Three different factors can cause under-eye circles and its possible to  have all three problems working at one.  Increased melanin production is the most frequent culprit– and one of the easist  to treat.  There are a wide range of  skin lightening agents with varying degrees of effectivness.  Under eye shadows  can also be due to leakage of  very tiny blood vessels under the very thin under-eye tissues.  The hemoglobin in the blood appears as  dusky blue shadow.  Treatment options look at shrinking these blood vessels, and/or dissolving these accumulations of hemoglobin.   Happily  some skin brighteners that work on melanin also  work on  hemoglobin.  Finally dark circles can appear  as another sign of fat pad loss.  This time, the fat pad loss under the eye, hollows out the  area, creating physical shadows.  Best way to tell  what is causing shadows is to pull gently  the under eye skin out a bit.  If the skin still looks darker, then its melanin or  hemoglobin, rather than fat pad loss, causing the problems. 

I’m not going  to  lie to you, dark circles are not that easy  to deal with.  There  is a roomful of products that promise to beighten the area, but just don’t work.  There are prescription products that take a while to  work, but they are not always successful.  Laser treatments can  vaporize darkened tissue, but  I find that kind of scary.  Injectable fillers  can be injected into the shadows  to plump  up shadowy hollows. The bottom line is that  dark circles can be treated but they take time, patience and sometimes a bit of money. 

Aging Sign#7: Facial Hair

Along with wisdom and maturity, age  can bring facial hair, primarily on the upper lip and chin.  Sprouting hair after 40 is due to age – related changes that also cause skin dryness and - in the the nobody said that life is fair category - hair loss on the head and eyebrows. 

Darker facial hair is more obvious, but  a heavy blonde peach fuzz  is not a turn-on either.  Permanent hir removal  has come a long way. In addition to laser treatments, there is a cream called Vaniqua.   Lasers can dramatically reduce and eventually eliminate hair growth.  Vaniqua needs  six to eight weeks to work and must be continued  to keep hair growth under control

Aging Skin Sign #8: Sagging Skin

Loose skin can happen  to so  many parts of the face.  Its often starts as a softening of the jaw line– always an instant ager.  Skin also sags around the cheeks,under the eyes, and under the chin.  This problem is just another sign of the one-two punch of weakened collagen and fat pad loss.  In the past, droopy  skin could only be repaired with a full face lift.  Not only was this invasive and expensive ($15,000)  the results were not that appealing.  While pulling up skin makes the face look smoother and tighter, it did not  restore a youthful shape. The net result was an oddly tight severe look.  Today there are  medical treatments at a fraction of the cost of surgery, which  give prettier, more  natural results.  

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