Have you ever played with the "How Old" website? Created by Microsoft and still very much in testing mode, the website analyzes a photo you upload and gives you a guess of how old the person in the picture is. The app has made headlines for being dramatically wrong on many occasions.
While it can be very flattering when it thinks a 40-year-old is 25, the opposite is true when the app mistakes that same 40-year-old for a 50-year-old. Microsoft is keeping the secret of its not very accurate app under wraps, but there are a few features it probably looks at when guessing a person’s age.
Enlarged Pores
As you get old, your pores tend to become larger or at least to look larger, for a variety of reasons. Your skin is less elastic, so the pores can stretch out and stay stretched out. As you get older, cell turnover slows down, so you are more likely to have dead, dull skin cells collecting on the surface of the skin, which can mix with the oil produced by your pores and stretch the pores out.
While there’s no way to really shrink your pores, as pore size is determined by genes, if yours are stretched out and look big, there are ways to restore them to their natural size. Skin resurfacing treatments, such as laser skin resurfacing, chemical peels and intense pulsed light all exfoliate the surface of the skin, improving texture and improving the size of your pores.
Sun Damage
Sun damage shows up on your skin in several forms. It can cause discoloration or hyperpigmentation, it can make your skin red and blotchy, and can cause wrinkles. If you’re worried about the damage caused by time spent in the sun, the best thing to do is protect yourself from further exposure. You don’t have to keep vampire hours, but you should make a habit of wearing SPF 30 daily on all exposed areas and make a habit of staying out of the sun as much as possible when it’s at its most strong.
You can treat the signs of sun damage in several ways. Juvederm and other fillers can minimize the appearance of lines and wrinkles caused by sun damage. A chemical peel or IPL can help erase dark spots or redness.
Dark Circles
It’s not just changes in the skin that make you look older. Changes in the eye area can also add years to your look. For example, you might notice that dark circles beneath your eyes are a regular thing these, not something that only appears when you’re overly tired or congested.
As you age, the skin beneath the eyes becomes thinner. Tiny blood vessels just beneath the surface of the skin become more visible, creating the raccoon eye effect.
There are several ways to treat dark circles, beyond becoming handy with concealer. In some cases, fillers can be effective, as they add volume to the area, making the blood vessels less visible. Fraxel and other laser skin resurfacing treatments can also help make dark circles less visible, as they stimulate the production of collagen, increasing skin’s thickness.
Droopy Eyes and Brow
As you get older, your features can start to droop, particularly around the eyes and brows. Your eyelids might become softer and heavier, giving you a tired, aged look. Your brow can start to sag, too.
Blepharoplasty, or eyelid surgery, can give you a more wide eyed and youthful look by removing extra skin and fat from the eye area. The surgery can either focus on the upper or lower lids, or both, depending on your needs and preference.
Botox injections can be an option if you are dealing with aging changes in the brow area. The injections can help elevate a drooping brow on a temporary basis or can help reduce the appearance of lines between your eyebrows. Usually injections last about three months and you can repeat them if you’d like to maintain results.
Gaunt Features
Volume loss from the midface area is another change that adds years to your life. A thinner face can make people think you’re older than you are. There are several ways to restore lost volume to your face or to add volume that was never there.
Injectables such as Juvederm Voluma or Sculptra add volume to the cheek area temporarily. Usually, the injections last for about two years and can be repeated as needed. While Voluma provides instant results, Sculptra works more gradually and typically requires a series of treatments.
If you’ve ever had someone, human or computer, think you were years older than you really are, you probably wondered why. If their comment bothered you, it can help to know that you can do something about it. To learn more about what makes the face look older and to explore your treatment options, contact Dr. Jessica Kulak, an aging face specialist, today. Dr. Kulak sees patients at the Naderi Center in Virginia and Maryland. For an appointment in Virginia, call (703) 481-0002. For an appointment in Maryland, call (301) 222-2020 today.
The post What Makes You Look Older? appeared first on The Naderi Center.