The ONE Thing You Can Do to Prevent Premature Aging

amandargabbard
Mar 26
4 min read

Back in the day our mothers and our mothers mothers would lather themselves in baby oil, park it in a lawn chair, and prop up a mirror to maximize directing sun beams onto their faces. It was as if simply being outside in a bikini wasnt enough, they had to create their own makeshift tanning bed. It was the only way to do it, and it had to be done. Im not making this up, ask one of your more mature lady family members for confirmation.

woman sunbathing with baby oil and a mirror

Over time accessibility changed, options arose and during the ealry 2000's peak tanning bed season had arrived. You were only doing it right if you left the tanning salon with a little playboy bunny logo peaking out of your waist band (my personal go-to was the heart). There were loose regulations placed on how often one could partake so at the very least ONCE A DAY made the most sense. Give me all of the bronzing, boosting, tingling lotions. I wanted to smell like I had walked out of a Holister in Hawaii drinking pina colodas all day, and I wanted to glow like it too.

20 years later and the script has completely flipped, for good reason. I relish in teaching the young people of now about the most simple thing they can do to keep their skin HEALTHY (because thats what its really about). Yes, you can certainly prevent a lot of those fine lines and wrinkles that the more mature crowd are sporting- if thats your thing, but even more so you can help support the prevention of collagen and elastin breaking down faster than it has to. It's going to happen, but it doesnt have to happen at such a drastic rate.

What the sun is doing to your skin

Not to get too science-y on you, but here we go! Sun causes damage at a cellular level in both the epedermis (the outermost skin that is exposed to the world) and the dermis (deeper layers of the skin). It physically causes mutations to our DNA, and then impairs our bodies natural trash cleaning system of being able to rid ourselves of those damaged pieces of DNA. On top of that, the sun triggers inflammation which

further stresses our cells. And not in a hot way.

Im sure you hear a lot about collagen and elastin in the skin-care hemisphoere. To put it plainly, Collagen are the fibers that hold our skin in a plump poistion ( think scaffolding holding a building erect). Elastin is what gives our skin its rubberband feature- it allows our skin to stretch and bounce back into place. When the sun penetrates into our collagen and elastin fibers, there is damage. Why? Because

1) the sun causes our cells to produce an enzyme that physically chops up collagen. It literally hacks it away and

2) It stops new collagen from forming by essentially stoping the signal that tells your body to produce more.

The double hit this cummulatively causes results in fragmanted collagen which is unable to support your skin and thus how deep wrinkles are formed.

collagen and elastin breaking down from sun exposure

The sun effects Elastin a little differently than collagen. Instead of getting chopped up and dissapearing like its collagen cousin

1) UV exposure causes elastin to degrade and then reconnect into a disregulated, tangled mass. Real messy. Real cute. And

2) there are also enzymes being stimuated by the sun in a similar way as the collagen enzymes we spoke about earlier, and those enzymes, very efficiently, break down elastin fibers.

The resulting elastin material you're left with has no snap-back. No bend and flick. Instead you're left with bend, stay and sag.

What can I do about it?

Sunscreen. Sunscreen all day, every day. Whether youre going to be outside enjoying the random fake-spring weather we get here in Oregon, are just running errands, or even when youre indoors the whole time. Rain, snow, overcast= sunscreen. Ask yourself: Why do my houseplants grow (pretending we have a green thumb) even though they are inside 24/7? The answer: because they're still getting everythig they need to grow which includes high quality H2O, and you guessed it.. sun. Which means while we are indoors we are being exposed to the sun too.

Contrary to popular belief, mineral sunscreens dont simply "act as a mirror" to reflect the sun. Their efficacy is due to a sophisticated trio of physical and chemical (water is a considered chemical, dont come for me) mechanisms.

Mineral sunscreen reflects and scatters light in multiple directions, preventing it from hitting the living skin cells beneath its surface. SPF minerals also absorb UV energy and convert it into much smaller, managelable amounts of heat which is then dispersed from the skins surface. Lastly, mineral SPF protects against both UVA and UVB rays.

High quality mineral sunscreen boasts a few important necessities:

-It utilizes particles that are evenly dispersed so as not to let through any sneaky rays.

-Its minerals are large enough that they wont be absorbed by the blood stream yet small enough that they dont leave behind a white cast.

-They have photostability; meaning they wont break down once the sun hits them.

I tried it once and haven't used anything else

If you've been to see me for a skin treatment of any sort you know that I love me some Colorscience SPF. Ive used many different sunscreen lines during my career as an aesthetician including Obaji, Skin Script, Brush on Block, Face Reality, and Tizo. I enjoy all of these brands and support the use of every one. However, in my opinion, there isnt anything that comes close to Colorscience in technology, efficacy, myriad options, and support. They offer SPF in many different forms such as the viral "color changing" liquid in many different tones, no-show (feels more like a serum and doesnt leave a white cast behind), brush-on which is perfect for re-application, matte, concealer (one of my go-to's), colored balms, bronzer and glow versions, lip gloss, lightweight foundation and tinted pressed powder. I mean.. there really is something for everyone. I dont see myself straying from Colorscience in the near-future, nor the far-future for that matter.