Loss of Firmness

It might happen slowly but it can feel like it happens overnight…one morning you just wake up and look in the mirror and you notice your skin seems to wiggle more than it used to or you spot some sagging or the start of jowls. It’s natural, sure, but it’s not a part of getting older that anyone looks forward to. It doesn’t have to be here to stay, though, because there are plenty of skin care products that can help to firm up your skin and give you back a bit of your youth.

Why Does My Skin Lose Firmness with Age?

Loss of firmness is a natural part of aging. Here’s how it works: your skin has a particular protein in it called collagen. Your skin is going through a constant cycle of replacing collagen as it breaks down. When you’re young, your body is producing enough collagen to keep up with the breakdown, so your skin stays firm and smooth. But as you get older your collagen production slows down, eventually leading you to have less and less collagen. That makes your skin thinner and less firm.

What Factors Contribute to Loss of Firmness?

Losing skin firmness is a natural part of aging, but certain factors and habits can actually make it worse because they make the collagen in your skin break down faster. These include things like:

• Smoking and tobacco use
• Excess sun exposure
• Too much sugar and refined carbs
• Some autoimmune conditions like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus

You can’t control whether you have an immune condition, of course. But following simple healthy habits like avoiding tobacco, keeping sugar and refined carbs in moderation, and wearing sunscreen when you’re going out in the sun can help you keep collagen as intact as possible.

What Can I Do to Make My Skin Firmer?

If you’re starting to see some sagging and looseness, there’s hope and it’s not limited to a surgical facelift. Some topical skin care products can help to stimulate your collagen production for a naturally firmer look. Look for products with any of these collagen-boosting ingredients:

• Retinol
• Peptides
• Alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs)
• Vitamin C

Pro Tip: Choose Prevention Over Correction

It’s much easier to prevent your skin from losing firmness than it is to restore firmness after it has dropped, so prevention is the name of the game. You can keep your skin’s firmness as much as possible by:

• Wearing sunscreen when you’ll be spending time out in the sun
• Avoiding tobacco
• Keeping sugar and refined carbs in moderation
• Following healthy habits like minimizing alcohol and eating a healthy, balanced diet
• Getting plenty of sleep
• Using good skin hygiene like cleansing and moisturizing your skin twice a day
• Starting to use collagen-boosting skin care products before you have visible wrinkles and sagging

It’s never too late to start using prevention strategies to put a halt on future collagen loss, and all of these are things you can start doing today.