Father time is undefeated.
No matter how young at heart you might be, how good your beauty routine is, or - in some cases - how skilled your surgeon is, time catches up with all of us in the end.
We can't stay looking young and beautiful forever, and we think that's a good thing.
There's such a thing as aging gracefully, and as we approach the latter years of our life, it's often better to wear it with pride than spend dollar after dollar trying to fight the inevitable.
While we can't stop the aging process, we can slow it down.
There are a thousand anti-aging tips on the internet, and it can be hard to work out what's worth trying and what isn't.
Think of it like playing online slots with your skin. You have no control over when or even if an online slots game might deliver you a win. It might happen within the first ten spins of the reels after you arrive on an online slots website, or it might happen on the thousandth.
There are even UK casino slots on online websites like 'Pamper Me' that play into that very idea! By the time the win arrives, you don't know what you did differently to the first time you arrived -- and the same is true of anti-aging tips.
We can take some of the random lottery factor out of fighting the signs of aging for you. Firstly, if you smoke, stop it. If you drink excessive amounts of alcohol, stop doing that as well! Those are obvious pieces of advice, though.
Here are five time-honoured, trusted, but lesser-known tips that we swear by.
Get Started With Facial Yoga
It’s 2020. By this time, we hope you’ve caught on to the idea that yoga is good for you.
It keeps your joints supple, helps you to fight off the risk of weight gain, and strengthens your core.
How many of you are doing yoga for your face, though?
That’s right - facial yoga is very real, and it can work wonders for your skin and facial muscles. The muscles in your face are the same as every other muscle in your body - if you don't tone them, they'll become flabby and less rigid.
Keep your facial muscles moving, and you'll find that your face stays firmer for longer. As an added bonus, facial yoga is also a great way of beating stress - and we all know how bad stress is for the skin!
Always Take Off Last Night’s Makeup
After a good night out, the first thing you want to go when you get home is go to bed.
Never mind the fact that you have a full face of makeup on, and you're caked in sweat - you're exhausted, and you tell yourself that everything can wait until the morning.
Unfortunately, we're here to tell you that isn't the case. We've been looking at all of the things that happen when you sleep with your makeup on, and none of them are good.
We’ll spare you the finer points of the science, but makeup clogs and stretches your pores. Every time you leave it on for too long, it starts breaking down the collagen in your skin, and that’s very bad news for your face’s ability to hold back the clock.
That extra five minutes it would take you to wash it all off in the shower is always five minutes well spent.
Exfoliate Often
In the BBC television show ‘Doctor Who,’ you’ll often hear alien bad guys the Daleks screaming ‘exterminate, exterminate.’
We have a similar direction for you - ‘exfoliate, exfoliate.’
You should be making the time to do this thoroughly at least twice a week, and maybe three times if your schedule allows and your skin can handle it.
The reason for this is simple. New skin cells are smooth. Old skin cells are rough. The way light reflects off older skin is totally different from the way light reflects off younger skin.
When we talk about skin having a healthy glow, we’re talking about the glow that comes from young skin when all the dead skin cells have been expunged.
Cut Down On Sugar
Every medical professional and health expert you ever come into contact with during your whole life will tell you the same thing about sugar - you should consume less of it.
Cut the sugar out of your coffee and stop adding it to your cereals. After a few weeks, you should be able to visibly see the difference.
Dentists want you to consume less because it will save your teeth. Your doctor wants you to consume less because it will stave off obesity, and limit the risk of high cholesterol or diabetes.
From a skincare perspective, it's important to cut back on sugar because sugar kickstarts a process known as glycation. This happens when the excess glucose in your body binds with collagen and elastin and ultimately gives your skin a stiff, harsh appearance.
Sleep More
The most important trick is the most obvious. If you're not getting eight hours of sleep every night, you might as well tear up the rest of your beauty and skincare routine and throw it in the trash.
While you're asleep, growth hormones in your body create new skin cells to replace old ones. This process can't happen while you're awake, and if you're not getting enough sleep, it won't work properly.
Lack of sleep ages you rapidly, and over time the damage does becomes impossible to reverse.
Not only that, but when you're tired, you're more inclined to become stressed, and you also become hungry more often because your body is short of energy. That's a trio of doom when it comes to aging your skin.
To Conclude
Like we said right at the start of this article, you can't fight off the signs of aging forever, but you can allow the process to happen slowly and gracefully rather than ambushing you in your late 30s and early 40s.
A good skincare and healthcare routine should be something you practice your whole life - so factor in these five tips and start practicing them straight away.