3 ways you’re giving yourself wrinkles

Wrinkles…they will catch up with all of us one day, but I’d prefer if that day was further into the future than my early thirties.  There are renowned commitments to anti-ageing, like wearing sunscreen daily, cutting out cigarettes and laying off the booze; but small daily habits can contribute to folds and furrows far more than you realise.

Similar to the way our daily eating or exercise habits impact our weight and health far more than one crazy weekend (Electric Picnickers, you can breathe a sigh of relief when that hangover finally wears off), your day-to-day routine packs more of a punch as the years roll on than that one Saturday night you smoked 3 packets of cigarettes and stumbled out of the Black Door at 6 am (not that I would advise that either).

Sleeping on your side – or even worse on your front!
I am so guilty of this one.  Especially if I’m tired – face plant and curl up into the pillow. Unfortunately, this is one of the worst nightly sins!  We all tend to have a pattern of sleeping in the same position.  I can usually can tell which side a patient sleeps on because the skin is more dehydrated and in a poorer condition than the side that gets to breathe overnight, and there tends to be more volume loss and sagging.  Combine this with the “sleep folds” – the nasiolabial folds are always deeper on the side you sleep on – and you’ll soon be joining me in my (so far pitiful) attempts to sleep on my back.

In the meantime, investing in a silk pillowcase can help reduce some of the effects, most notably dehydration. The tightly woven smooth fibres of silk help keep moisture close to the skin, and help prevent wrinkles.
*Bonus: Silk is also more gentle on your hair and, while I’m not promising a tangle free mane, it can reduce breakage and split ends.

Leaning on your hand with your face
Thankfully my day job makes this impossible (saliva covered glove anyone? thought not) but I do catch myself leaning towards the computer screen as if my life depended on it in the evenings.  Not only do we tend to lean on the same side and in the same position – causing similar problems to “sleep folds” – but we’re also exposing our faces to all the bacteria etc on our hands, increasing the risk of blemishes.  Breaking this habit requires persistence, and I find wrapping a hairband like the one below around my palm makes it a bit easier.

Rubbing your eyes in the morning
I don’t know about you, but when my alarm goes off in the morning my eyelids are usually glued together and it takes a serious effort to clear my eyes of sleep (stunningly attractive image, I know).  The skin around the eyes is so sensitive it must be avoided for most face masks and treatments like dermabrasion,  so rubbing it  vigorously is hardly the best start to the day.  I use a cleansing oil from Dermalogica first thing in the morning, and have found this is sufficient to free my eyes from the land of nod without dragging this delicate skin all over the place.

This list is not exhaustive, as there are many things we all do daily that speed up the hands of time, but none of the above are particularly fun pastimes (unlike said Saturday night on Harcourt Street).  Can you think of anything you do everyday that could be advancing any furrows or folds?