10 Ways to Maintain Youthful Skin

According to Facial Plastic Surgeon Dr. Chelsea Troiano, MD

There are certain skin care practices to age gracefully that we hear over and over again from friends, family and our favorite influencers that we attempt to implement into our own routines without thinking twice. We assume they are somewhat credible, but unfortunately that isn’t always the case. Luckily for us, we have Facial Plastic Surgeon Dr. Chelsea Troiano who went through all years of education and practice to give ‘us a little chat about the best ways in medicine to keep our skin looking youthful and radiant.

1. Start anti-aging while you’re young!

Dr. T recommends starting anti-aging treatments during our early 20s because it is easier to prevent aging, rather than to take drastic measures in the future to reverse aging. She encourages young adults to get low doses of neurotoxins (botox) to freeze the facial muscles to avoid forming wrinkles. Dr. Troiano started at 23-years-old. Now, her maintenance is a low dose every 6 months. She gave us a budget friendly tip, “You can try to train your face to not really use those muscles as much so you don’t need to get it every 3-4 months.” Start focusing on areas that first see signs of aging in areas such as between the eyes, forehead, outside of the eyes/ crows feet.

2. Stay out of the sun, use sunscreen religiously even when inside.

You still get UV sun rays through the windows. Even though it’s not direct, the rays still touch your skin. If you can block those rays all the time then you are one step above everyone else. Dr. Troiano emphasized that she uses SPF 50 or higher every single day. It is the best product to slow down the look of aging.

3. No smoking

She says people look decades older when they are smokers. “This includes vaping, for all the youngsters,” Dr. Troiano said. Scientifically, smoking ages us faster because you are depriving your skin of the nutrients. Not to mention the thousands of chemicals that are in cigarettes and vapes. When you combine those with the lack of circulation and oxygen that smoking causes, this leads to the breakdown of collagen and elastin in our skin. These are essential to the strength and hydration of our skin. When all of this is taken away, we, in turn, look older.

4. Staying hydrated

 Your skin is thirsty! This also means low alcohol intake. When we are dehydrated it causes damage to your body, and then your body can’t restore and keep all the cells and skin looking beautiful if it’s constantly repairing all the damage you are doing to it. So, do yourself a favor for your skin and for your overall health and drink lots of water!

5. Cleansing and moisturizing twice a day – minimum

 Sleeping with makeup on is a big no no. You don’t want to trap dirt on your skin as it leads to collagen destruction and in time, premature aging. Regardless of your skin type, it is important to wash your face everyday and remove ant dirt, make-up, oil and grime that has been built up on your skin throughout the day. Our skin is exposed to irritants and pollutants 24/7 — yes, even when we sleep. That is why twice-a-day cleansing is so crucial.

6. Eating a whole foods diet

Feed your skin, mind and soul right. Anything really colorful in fruits and veggies to get all the vitamins and minerals that are good for the skin. Topical products with vitamins are a little helpful but nowhere near as eating them and glowing within. Your skin’s purpose is to protect you from getting things inside, so topical things help a little bit but to get to the root of the problem, usually for skin health it is factored to what we put into our bodies.

7. Not overfilling your face

Dermal fillers can sometimes make you look older based on your age. In your 20-40s, minimal fillers are recommended to keep the natural structure of the face. It’s best to keep fillers minimal until older age when more volume is lost. When you don’t look natural, then people start to notice your age.

8. Sleeping

You need that rejuvinative time. While we are sleeping, our skin goes through restoration where it has the ability to retain moisture, protect and heal itself — especially in those deep stages of sleep. If we deprive ourselves of sleep, we are reducing the amount of time that our skin has to repair itself. It’s true what they say, we need our “beauty sleep.”

9. Keep stress levels down.

Stress increases cortozol, a stress hormone which increases damage all over the body including the skin. So take a break, ground yourself because it comes in full circle, the less wrinkles the less we stress and the less we stress the less wrinkles.

10. Consistency is key

All the things mentioned with consistency lead to compounding effects. You can tell a lot about a person through the biggest organ we humans have. Take care of your skin and your skin will take care of you. “That’s the goal, you don’t want anyone to know” that you had botox or filler. She understands that preserving natural beauty is what always looks best. “You just have a whole glow, it’s harmonious and that’s the goal.”