Forget for a moment what you see when you look in the mirror and let's take a closer look at the health of your skin. Any problems that you can see on the surface have their roots set deeper in your skins anatomy and potentially in the health of your body. As a therapist, that's where I'm looking and the reason I ask so many questions before your facial. I'm interested in the cause of problems, not necessarily the effect they are having at that moment. Let me give you a prime example, Hyperpigmentation. If I don't know how long it's been there, when it arrived and how and what makes it worse or better, I can't achieve anything.
The health of your skin determines what treatments I can carry out and how effective they can be for you; the healthier your skin is, the better it looks on the surface and the more positively we can affect your skin for the future. The trick is to maintain optimum skin health for as long as you can while life conspires against it. Forget the 'fight' against aging,
We love aging !
especially when you consider the alternative... What we need to consider is the avoidance of Premature Aging.
" Smooth as a babies bum"
We've all done a 'coochie coo'on a beautiful, bouncing baby and the feel of that skin is incredible. Babies have the full complement of collagen and elastin, a perfect skin barrier with little or no T.E.W.L, a thick Epidermis (uppermost layer of your skin) and well formed Stratum Corneum. (outer later of your skin) Their skin is at its optimum health and looks and feels it.
How do we keep our skin healthy ?
There are 2 factors that directly affect the way your skin ages and it's overall health.
Intrinsic : Chronological and inevitable.
The genes we inherit from our ancestors that we can't control.
Extrinsic : Environmental influences and external agressors which we can control.
We have very little control over Intrinsic Aging apart from HRT or other hormonal medications and the use of anti-oxidants to protect our cells.
Extrinsic Aging is another story. This is all about the health of our skin and how well we care for and protect our skin.
Let's go back to babies skin to see why it's so healthy and how we can mimic that as we get older.
Cellular Turnover; Up to the age of 30 our skin is still doing a fairly good job of renewing itself every 28 days. As this slows down we start to see our skin become drier and dull or sallow. It may appear thinner and its capacity to heal is diminished. Pigmentation, red veins and uneven texture becomes more apparent.
The answer is Vitamin A, Retinol or Bakuchiol. These products will increase cell turnover and ensure the skin cells are healthy and action packed.
Sun Damage; Can you imagine the horror of seeing a small child with sunburn ? It's so rare that we do and for a very good reason. The parent won't be thinking about the long term effects of the burn but the short term effects are enough to make anyone cringe.
UVA affects the lower dermal layers, the layers in which your beautiful, bouncy and perfectly healthy skin cells are born.
UVB affects the upper layers of the skin causing the sunburn and blisters.
Working together as a supreme tagteam, these UV rays have the ability to destroy your skins capability to produce Collagen (the scaffolding that holds your skin up). They are able to cause direct cell injury and damage your DNA ! Add to that hyperpigmentation, lines, dullness and skin cancer, you can see why wearing an SPF every day is an absolute must.
Your Skin Barrier or Acid Mantle is your skins protection against external agressors and its shield to stop water loss.
A healthy Skin Barrier is a waterproof seal created by skin cells, free fatty acids, cholesterol and ceramides.
As moisture travels up with the newly created skin cells its should disperse into the epidermis to keep the travelling cells healthy. If your barrier is impaired it will shoot straight up and out the easiest way it can.
Anything that is applied to the skin can get straight through an impaired barrier and cause irritation. Irritation leads to a sensitized skin and may cause premature lines, pigmentation and redness.
Step back from Exfoliation and leave that barrier to rebuild. Simplify your skincare with professional advice and protect your skin with SPF.
A healthy skin will have lines and wrinkles, it will have uneven colour and texture and it will probably have a breakout every now and again but, if you are doing all you can to maintain that skin health then it's ok. We're individual and unfiltered, we are imperfect and absolutely perfect and most of the time, we're just doing our best.
Be healthy, move more, drink water, find smiles and remember to laugh as often as you can.
Love Beauty xx
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