What Is Collagen Banking (And Should You Be Doing It)?

Skin care is not immune from the constant flow of trends popping up and then fading away. But that doesn’t mean we should dismiss all of these trends as flashes in the pan because some of them can be legitimately helpful for your skin, whether they stay popular in the public eye or not. Collagen banking might be one of those trends that should stick around.

What Is Collagen Banking?

If you have some skin care knowledge, you might already know that collagen is basically anti-aging gold. It’s the main natural protein in your body that keeps your skin firmer, smoother, more lifted, and more youthful.

Collagen banking, essentially, involves doing procedures and skin care to build up collagen in your skin when you’re still young as a way to keep you looking younger for longer.

How Does Collagen Banking Work?

To understand collagen banking, you have to understand collagen and how aging and collagen loss happen. Collagen is a protein that your body naturally produces that basically gives skin all of its youthful features. Like anything else in your body, collagen is on a constant cycle – it’s constantly breaking down and your body is producing more to replace it.

Signs of aging happen because your body gradually slows down its collagen production, starting as early as 25 years old (way too early, I know). But as your body is producing less collagen, the collagen is still breaking down at the same rate and your body just isn’t keeping up with it. So as you get older, the amount and quality of collagen in your skin drops further and further, allowing things like lines, wrinkles, and sagging skin to show up.

With all that said, collagen banking is all about building up more, stronger collagen in your skin when you’re young, like in your 20s and early 30s. The theory is that if you’re starting with more collagen, it will take longer for it to deplete to the point where signs of aging start to show.

Does Collagen Banking Actually Work?

A lot of dermatologists and skin care professionals have weighed in on collagen banking, and they generally agree that yes, collagen banking works – to an extent.

Your skin doesn’t have an infinite bank account that can store collagen until you need it. You absolutely can build up stronger, more robust collagen in your skin while you’re young, and this will help to delay and reduce signs of aging. But you can only build up your collagen to a certain extent, so overdoing it on skin treatments in your 20s won’t keep you looking like a 20 something when you’re 50.

At the end of the day, this conclusion just emphasizes the importance of balance and being strategic in your skin care. There are absolutely effective ways to use collagen banking to minimize future signs of aging, but you shouldn’t feel pressured to go to extremes or to blow your savings on skin procedures because it will have diminishing returns.

How Do You Do Collagen Banking?

Essentially, anything that builds collagen in your skin can contribute to collagen banking. There are two main ways to do this: with professional skin treatments and with your skin care at home. Collagen banking often uses a combination of the two.

Collagen-Stimulating Procedures

There are so many different skin treatments available these days thanks to modern technology, and many of them do revolve around building collagen because anti-aging is such a popular aesthetic goal. There are a few that are particularly common for collagen banking:

· Nonsurgical Skin Tightening Procedures: Treatments like Ultherapy and similar options use targeted warmth to stimulate your natural collagen production.

· Microneedling: This treatment uses tiny needles to activate your body’s healing response which produces strong new collagen. You can benefit from either traditional microneedling or from heat-enhanced versions like RF microneedling.

· Chemical peels: Chemical peels vary based on the products used and how they’re applied but many will prompt your body to produce new collagen.

· LED Light Therapy: Light therapy uses very specific wavelengths of light to trigger your body’s collagen production.

Collagen-Stimulating Skin Care

If professional skin treatments aren’t in the budget, or if you want to enhance the collagen growth from your professional procedures, there’s plenty you can do with your skin care at home to build collagen too. Keep in mind that topical skin care doesn’t have as dramatic of results as in-office procedures, but it’s more of a slow-and-steady-wins-the-race situation.

· Peptides: Peptides are the building blocks that your body uses to create collagen, so using skin care products with peptides helps you build collagen efficiently.

· Retinol: Retinol is an A-lister in the anti-aging game. It stimulates collagen production and it also encourages cell turnover so damaged surface skin cells are replaces with healthy youthful cells.

· Sun Protection: This doesn’t actually build collagen, but it does play a major role in reducing your collagen loss. Sun damage breaks down your collagen significantly faster, so protecting your skin from this with sunscreen will help your collagen “bank” last longer.

Setting Up Your Skin Care for Collagen Banking

If you want to start collecting collagen and setting up your skin for long-lasting success, we’ve got you! Skin Elite has all the products you need to make your skin younger, stronger, and healthier.