How to Reduce Wrinkles: Top Tips and Treatments

With a 62.7% growth in the past years, wrinkle treatments are among the highly sought treatments in the anti-aging category. This means that there is a rising concern about wrinkles, which form when the skin is unable to retain suppleness and hydration.

After turning 20, your skin starts producing less collagen and elastin, losing its youthfulness. Collagen is the structural protein holding the skin, while elastin is the protein that gives the skin its plasticity and stretch.

When these proteins aren’t produced in plenty, your skin will form ridges, folds, and creases. At this point, it’s important to know how to reduce wrinkles to bring back your youthful look.

Wrinkles tend to form on the face in parts where your skin folds when making facial expressions. You may have them as the skin gets less elastic and thinner over time. Here’s how to reduce wrinkles for vibrant and youthful-looking skin.

What are the Causes of Wrinkles?

It’s common for wrinkles to appear on your skin as you get older. During the aging process, your skin becomes less elastic, drier, and thinner. It also can’t withstand damage, leading to lines, creases, and wrinkles on the skin.

Wrinkles and fine lines may develop on your face at a young age due to facial expressions such as squinting, frowning, and smiling. The lines can deepen as you age, giving you an older look.

When you’re young, your skin can spring back. But as you get older, the skin will lose its flexibility and fail to spring back, leading to permanent grooves.

Also, due to the functional and structural differences in the skin, wrinkles tend to affect different skin tones uniquely. However, dehydration, smoking, sun exposure, and some medications can increase your risk of getting wrinkles.

UV light from outdoor sports, tanning booths, and sunbathing, in particular, is known to break down elastin and collagen fibers in the skin. And when these fibers break down, your skin will become less flexible and weaker, resulting in wrinkles and drooping.

Where Do Wrinkles Form?

Though wrinkles can appear on any body part, they are likely to form on the face. This is because the face has 42 individual muscles that are easy targets for sun damage. With that said, here are the specific places wrinkles tend to form.

Around the Eyes

Women are more likely to notice crow’s feet around the eyes as a sign of aging. Wrinkles appear around the eyes because the surrounding muscle is the thinnest of all body parts. Also, since there’s a low concentration of elastin and collagen in this area, it’s likely to develop wrinkles.

However, not all cases of crow’s feet are bad. They may be expressive or used to convey emotions facially.

Between the Eyebrows

You may have wrinkles between your eyebrows in the form of “elevens” (also known as glabellar lines). These lines look like the number 11. They usually appear when you furrow the brows or due to collagen and elastin loss on the face.

Outer Corners of the Mouth

As the skin on the outer corners of the month sag, you will likely have laugh lines. These lines are more visible even when you’re not smiling or laughing as you age. They extend from the nose all the way to the outer corners of your mouth.

Forehead

Wrinkles can appear across the forehead as horizontal lines when you raise your eyebrows repeatedly. You may have more of them due to sun damage or generics.

How to Reduce Wrinkles with At-Home Solutions

You can reduce the appearance of wrinkles over time with certain home remedies. The wrinkle prevention remedies include the following:

Retinoids

Retinoids are a group of over-the-counter and prescription products derived from vitamin A. They help improve the production of collagen and stimulate cell growth, reducing wrinkles. You can find them as prescription (Retin-A) or over-the-counter products (retinol).

Besides reducing wrinkles, retinoids can fade dark spots, even out skin texture, and soften the skin. However, you should use the product only twice a week at night to avoid irritation. Following it with a moisturizer will also help combat the negative effects.

Antioxidants

Antioxidants like resveratrol, niacinamide, or vitamin C help neutralize free radicals that cause damage to the skin. Free radicals are known to reduce collagen production and cause wrinkles.

For the most protection, consider cleansing your skin before applying a serum packed with antioxidants. Wait for five minutes before wearing sunscreen to avoid diluting the serum.

Sunscreen

Sunscreen can help you fight premature wrinkles brought by exposure to UV rays. Wear it daily to maintain a youthful complexion.

Alpha Hydroxy Acids

Alpha hydroxy acids such as lactic, citric, and glycolic acid boost cell growth and collagen production. As a result, they reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles on the skin.

You can find these alpha hydroxy acids in lower concentrations in over-the-counter peels or cleansers. High concentrations of these acids are present in dermatologist-administered chemical peels.

Moisturizers

A moisturizer can help fight wrinkles brought by skin dehydration, which is common in aging skin. Go for moisturizers with humectants and emollients as active ingredients since they are known to soften and hydrate the skin.

You can also use serums and moisturizers containing hyaluronic acid to draw water to your skin, resulting in a plumping appearance.

Using Medical Treatments to Get Rid of Wrinkles

With a lot of misinformation on medical treatments for wrinkles, weighing your options can be confusing. In this section, you’ll learn more about tried-and-true remedies for wrinkles. However, take time to consult with a dermatologist to know what’s best for your case.

Non-Ablative Resurfacing Lasers

Non-ablative resurfacing lasers heat up the deep layers of the skin to improve wrinkles and other signs of aging at once. Instead of damaging the skin, the laser stimulates collagen production to keep the skin firm. And besides reducing fine lines, non-ablative resurfacing lasers improve the overall skin tone, texture, dark spots, and pores.

Botox Injections

Botox (or botulinum toxin Type A) is a neurotoxic protein that blocks chemical signals known to sag skin muscles. As a remedy for wrinkles, it is usually injected into targeted muscles to flatten the skin. The result is a smoother and less wrinkled appearance.

Botox can help reduce forehead lines, crow’s feet around the eye corners, and frown lines between the eyes. Results appear after a few days and last for 3 to 4 months, promoting repeat injections.

Fillers

You can have soft tissue fillers such as fat, hyaluronic acid, or collagen injected into your skin to get rid of wrinkles. These fillers soften the skin and give it more volume to appear more youthful.

Common side effects of fillers include bruising and swelling on the treated areas. Since the results are short-term, repeated treatments are needed for favorable outcomes.

Microneedling

In a microneedling treatment, the treatment will puncture your skin with very thin, sterilized needles creating wounds. The procedure helps increase collagen production and reduce fine lines and wrinkles. Microneedling helps improve skin texture while leaving no marks and having zero side effects.

Find Effective and Safe Treatment for How to Reduce Wrinkles

Wrinkles are undeniably a normal part of the human aging process. However, they also appear due to sun damage, forgoing moisturizer and sunscreen use, and smoking. We hope this guide was resourceful if you want to know how to reduce wrinkles.

Count on Zero Gravity for a wide range of wellness and cosmetic services in Cincinnati. Our treatments include permanent makeup, hair removal, facials, dermal fillers, and wrinkle reducers.