Very sad about skin at 26. How did you fix your skin?
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Mon Sep 19, 2016 10:29 am

Background:
26 year old female with rapid change in skin the past two years
Non smoker
Frequent drinker
6 hours of sleep, sometimes 9-10
Oily combination and maybe dehydrated??

struggling with OCD/depression the past 2 years

When I look at photos of me age 18-23, my face doesn't look much different aside from weight gain. Then suddenly around 24, my face started thinning out, and it seems my skin is damaged and finally showing.

I have genetically large pores, and recently I lost some weight and can now see the veins in my forehead. Along with this, my skin is now obviously lacking so much elasticity. I don't have any visible wrinkles (just fine lines under eyes), but when I pull on my forehead skin (which now has huge pores and looks bunched up, as well and pores making little lines) it looks crepey and makes many little lines. The skin no longer looks sheen and plump, instead looking like a raisin from expression, but no 11 lines or vertical lines. I've broken out up there too, and they take forever to heal and form dry crystal like scabs. When I get up close to the mirror, I can see very fine lines all over my upper lip. When I am this close and I move my head in the light, I can tell where I was sleeping because the skin seems to have ever so slightly formed in that shape.
I don't have visible lines at a regular mirror distance.
My face has no color anymore, it looks grey and dull. When I smile it makes track marks down my cheeks. My cheeks are sagging a bit from fat loss, but I have a weak bone structure. My skin is what I'm most worried about right now.

I've read some about adrenal fatigue, and it seems like I could possibly have dehydrated skin? It's been a stressful few years, but at 26 could this really be permanent? I would compare my skin to that of my friends in their early 30's.

What can I do? I've seen many posts of people saying that they managed to undo damage, and some saying they have better skin now than in their 20's. How did you do it?????

I'm considering microneedling treatments, at home derma roller. At home LED treatments. As well as starting to take yoga and meditation classes. I need to eat and sleep better, and get my mental illness under control. But is this aging really permanent already? Did any of you do anything that really made your skin visibly younger and in good shape?
How do you get rid of dehydrated skin? Sometimes I feel like water only makes me thirstier.

I'm already considering fat transfers, as it seems like this will only get worse the more subcutaneous fat I lose.

free skin care · Tue Oct 25, 2016 6:27 pm

Stress caused more.cortisol production. Cortisol causes shortenong of your telomeres. Your telomeres are your cells' biological time clock. All this stress and especially lack of sleep has aged you faster. The damage is done. You can only reverse a small amount of it if you start taking some steps. let me outline them for you.

Stop eating a binch of sugar. Sugar breaks down your natual collagenthrough a process called glycation, where your blood sugar spikes up and while spiked up, sugar molecules attach themselves to your collagen, making them inflexible. Know when you grill and burn a burger? How the burnt part is kond of hard and inflexible? That is glycation at work caused.by grilling. Well the same thing happens on a microscopic level due to high amount of sugar consumption. Also cooking with dry heat such as grilling and fryong causes ridiculous amounts of glycation. Yourr gonna wanna stop that if you do it. Or kiss the last of your youth goodbye.

Sec9ndly. Sunscreen. Literally the best bet you have for Slowing the aging process down. DO NOT choose a whatever approach to sunscteen. use it everyday rain or shine. uVA rays, the ones that do nottttt burn you, are present year round and cause about 80 prrcent of visible agong across a lifetime. do these two things and get sleep AND get help for your issues. sadly most of the damage is done. And youll have to love woth that. But at least you can reverse a bit of it and prevent alot of future damage from here on out if you follow these reccomendations.

Wed Oct 26, 2016 6:06 pm

I see you've included some helpful details about your lifestyle, but didn't mention a word about diet. Your skin, like all other body parts, is composed of the nutrients you feed it. People slather their skin with topical nutrients like vitamin A, vitamin C, proteins, etc, but if you don't nourish from the inside it won't do much good. Avoid sugar and processed foods, eat lots of fresh fruits and some leafy greens (preferably raw) every day, and you will see big improvements in your skin.

Alcohol ages skin so you might want to bring it down from 'frequent' to moderate or occasional. Dry brushing and cold showers would be my next suggestions. I don't want to ramble too much here but you can Google this for details and find lots of info.

As for products, I used only Noxema, an occasional clay mask, and coconut oil as moisturiser which managed to keep nice skin until 50. Recently started using retinol and vitamin C, after a few weeks eye wrinkles suddenly appeared so I quit. This has made me very skeptical of any skin care products but the members here are incredibly informed so you are in the right place to learn from all their experience. Good luck!

Wed Nov 02, 2016 3:33 am

I suggest you will try to eat organic foods and also try the DIY home organic beauty treatments just like Rice Milk Cleanser, Avocado-Honey Moisturizer, Almond-Sugar Natural Anti Aging Facial Scrub:. You can do the research on how to apply it in your face. I hope this could help you.

free skin care · Wed Nov 02, 2016 12:12 pm

Try facial exercises, there are free programs easily available on the internet. I do Facerobics by Peta.

Also perhaps consider supplementing with MSM + vitamin C, and perhaps even hydrolyzed collagen.

Good luck!

Tue Nov 08, 2016 2:55 am

vanitas wrote:

I see you've included some helpful details about your lifestyle, but didn't mention a word about diet. Your skin, like all other body parts, is composed of the nutrients you feed it. People slather their skin with topical nutrients like vitamin A, vitamin C, proteins, etc, but if you don't nourish from the inside it won't do much good. Avoid sugar and processed foods, eat lots of fresh fruits and some leafy greens (preferably raw) every day, and you will see big improvements in your skin.

Alcohol ages skin so you might want to bring it down from 'frequent' to moderate or occasional. Dry brushing and cold showers would be my next suggestions. I don't want to ramble too much here but you can Google this for details and find lots of info.

Totally agree your point!
I think sleeping also very important, I mean the time, sleep earlier.
And just try to get more sunshine.
Actually I am going to try MSM.
Hope you will success! Smile

free skin care · Thu Nov 24, 2016 5:24 pm

Yes,I also think sleep is really important. And do more exercise

free skin care · Fri Nov 25, 2016 2:33 am

Well from someone who is nearly 70, please don’t be so hard on yourself. Your face will change throughout your life and what you do and how you live are two things you can control. Now adrenal fatigue unfortunately is one of those things on the uprise. My dear hubby had it and had to look at a lot of different things but he came through it and now is always looking at things to make sure he doesn’t get that way again. It is hard work but its worth doing.

Now if your skin is dehydrated, you need to do a few things. Drinking water alone won’t cut it. You need to really look at things like eating foods that contain water. Vegetables like cucumbers, lettuce etc all hold water. A derm wrote a book a little while ago – and it escapes me his name but if you look at posts on dehydration you will find it’s a common referred book. Secondly you need to look after your skincare sensibly. Don’t be using harsh toners with alcohol on your skin – as this will dry it out even further, but look at moisturising your skin with natural oils and maybe HA.

Now Do research on the methods. Microneedling may not help you long term, it might actually cause you more stress. It causes micro inflammation and as anyone in the know will tell you inflammation isn’t a good thing. LED treatments may help you but nothing will help you till you start looking at things like diet and lifestyle. Drinking and smoking are two things that rob your body of nutrients, so you need to start putting those back into your body also.

Fat transfers have risks and the results will be short termed if you continue living the way you are.

free skin care · Wed Feb 22, 2017 11:44 am

Diet is important with healthy fats, avocado, coconut and olive oil. No other oils! Unless you are taking fish, flax supplements as they are all processed by heat and become non-essential. Also take a collagen supplement such as Within Us true marine collagen. Lots of sleep, sleep on your back if you can with a good pillow.

free skin care · Thu Feb 23, 2017 3:50 am

bugaboo wrote:

Diet is important with healthy fats, avocado, coconut and olive oil. No other oils! Unless you are taking fish, flax supplements as they are all processed by heat and become non-essential. Also take a collagen supplement such as Within Us true marine collagen. Lots of sleep, sleep on your back if you can with a good pillow.

Completely agree on this point- vegetable oils, once heated, are incredibly toxic to us.

My rec's would be to:

-look into the bulletproof diet (anti-inflammatory, low GI, high good fats)

- take vitamin c (liposomal if you can). If you have adrenal fatigue then vitamin C is your best friend.

-Avoid stimulants such as cocoa, coffee and green tea (this was very hard for me to come to terms with Laughing

)

-Other anti-inflammatory sups such as turmeric (Longvida is best), and raise glutathione through R-Lipoic Acid and the three B's:

http://drhyman.com/blog/2011/02/08/maximizing-methylation-the-key-to-healthy-aging-2/

Topically I would do this:

- Get a vitamin C serum from Timeless or Cosmetic Skin Solutions as well as the Phloretin serum (I apply a few drops of both and rub in).

-Get a great sunscreen (preferably with Tinosorb S and M), and once absorbed layer a high zinc sunscreen over that - Topix Relpenix spf 50 is a good choice.

- Start with a gentle retinol once you have the above in place- Skinceuticals have good choices.

- Invest in a good moisturizer- I LOVE Nia 24 Intensive Recovery Complex. Also look into squalane, macadamia and jojoba oils for hydration.

We all look different when we are stressed and are not sleeping well. You will bounce back. You are young but it is important to start taking care of yourself and make intelligent choices with diet, lifestyle and skin care. HTH!

free skin care · Thu Feb 23, 2017 8:39 am

I had the same problem when I was around 25, but I am dry to combination instead of oil. Then I used the day and night multi-active cream + the yellow toner from Clarity , I can definitely see the difference they made to me.My pores are smaller and skin is softer. You may try this to see if it can do anything to you.

free skin care · Mon Feb 27, 2017 2:15 pm

Adrenal fatigue is the worst, took me 5 years to recover but I don't think I am fully recovered. Stimulants are not good for you (true fact). Was hard for me to give them up. my face was always bloated and puffy. Now it is looking pretty good, people say I look younger than I am. This is due to eating, sleeping, exercising and having a good consistent skincare regime.

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