“Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art”. We want to remind all our patients that it’s really not about getting older; it’s all about taking good care of ourselves and adopting a healthy mindset, lifestyle and habits that will allow us to age gracefully. So, this is why we wanted to share with you 5 simple yet highly effective antiaging habits that we should start today:
1. Pamper your hands, because it could reveal your age.
Aside from our face and neck, our hands are usually the most exposed to the sun, especially if we drive on a regular basis. Without proper protection, UV damage will eventually lead to sun spots as well as fine lines and wrinkles on the hands. Therefore, at GMA, we suggest to make sunscreen application on hands a part of our regular skincare routine. After application of sunscreen on your face and neck, always apply on your hands so there’s no reason to forget.
Over the last 2 years, many of us have been washing our hands much more often and this may strip away the skin’s natural barrier (which by the way also makes our skin more prone to hyperpigmentation) and lead to moisture loss and premature skin aging. A simple habit that will help with this is to apply a hand cream or ointment immediately after handwashing to keep the skin nourished. Also, where possible, wear gloves so it is the gloves that we are washing (or disposing) and not always our precious hands.
2. Start preventative Botox early, because prevention is always easier than correction and cure.
As soon as we hit our 20’s, our collagen level starts to decrease about 1% per year and that, amongst other things, eventually leads to fine lines and wrinkles. This is where preventative Botox can help. Botox is a medication that can be injected into and relax the muscles that cause expression wrinkles such as forehead lines, frown lines and crow’s feet. A good age to introduce preventative Botox is in our mid to late 20s and early 30s. Starting early enough will prevent the earliest expression lines from deepening and becoming permanent full-blown wrinkles, which become much harder to treat.
3. Be generous with your daily sunscreen application, use enough so that it can shield your skin from UV damage.
It appears like many of us are using sunscreen regularly nowadays, which is great. But the question is, are we using enough of it? To ensure we get sufficient protection from harmful UV rays, we recommend to adopt the “two-finger rule” for applying sunscreen on one section of the body; the face and neck would be considered a single section. This technique involves squeezing the product in two separate lines along our index and middle fingers and lathering it generously on our face and neck. To ensure maximum coverage, use a sunscreen with an SPF of 30 or higher. If your skin will be exposed to the sun throughout the day (this includes driving and sitting by the window), reapply sunscreen every 2 hours.
4. Give your skin a good massage as you are applying your daily skincare, as this is exercise to help keep the skin nice and fit.
From cleansing to applying serums, moisturiser and sunscreen on the face and neck, massage the products in the skin in upward and outward motions; the idea is to go against gravity to help maintain firmer, more lifted skin. For the eyes, use your ring fingers to do a light patting motion to press the product gently into the eye area. The massage not only helps with skincare penetration but relaxes our facial muscles and releases tension, reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Daily facial massage also enhances blood circulation and waste excretion and supports cellular regeneration for healthier, more resilient skin.
5. Beauty always starts from within, so let’s work the skin from the inside out.
To get the most out of your skincare and medical aesthetic treatments and achieve the most desirable results – adopt a healthy lifestyle and mindset. This includes proper diet full of nutrients and antioxidants, sufficient water intake and regular exercise. It is important to remember that stress also causes aging so let’s try our best to relax ourselves and stay positive!
Interested in learning more about antiaging and targeting your unique skin concerns? Please contact us to book a complimentary consultation with one of our GMA skin experts.
