Tags
[content warning: discussion of aging as a negative thing]
If you are currently young-looking and would like to remain so, the single best thing you can do is WEAR SUNSCREEN. UV exposure is responsible for approximately 80% of facial aging.
Make sure your sunscreen protects against both UVA and UVB rays, as many sunscreens do not. UVA rays tend to be aging, while UVB rays tend to cause sunburn. If you live in Asia or Europe, you’re in luck! Your sunscreen includes ratings of how well sunscreen protects against UVA (PA in Asia, PPD in Europe). If you live in the US, you can look for sunscreens which offer broad-spectrum protection (although the use of the term is not regulated) or consult a website like this one. You can also look for the Seal of Approval from the Skin Cancer Foundation.
If you have sensory objections to sunscreen, experimenting with different kinds of sunscreens is worth trying: sprayable sunscreens and physical sunscreens have a different texture. [ETA: Physical sunscreens like zinc oxide provide a physical barrier between the skin and the UV rays, while chemical sunscreens transform UV rays into heat.] Physical sunscreens may also be better for aging, as chemical sunscreens may lead to the production of free radicals, which cause aging (however, even chemical sunscreen is better than none at all).
Apply sunscreen each morning, and reapply every two hours when you’re outdoors. Apply LOTS; most people don’t apply enough sunscreen. Apply sunscreen to your neck as well as your face: you don’t want a youthful face and an aging neck. Wash off your sunscreen each night with a gentle facial cleanser, especially if you’re prone to acne. Supplement with vitamin D, because daily sunscreen use WILL make you vitamin-D deficient (especially if you’re vegan).
Reducing your sun exposure also helps prevent damage. You can reduce your sun exposure by staying indoors (especially between 10am and 4pm), covering as much skin as you can, and using a parasol.
Doing it right… at least if she were indoors.
Finally, remember that you are competing with a bunch of people who fry themselves in tanning beds and refuse to apply sunscreen before they get that ‘healthy tan’. There is no need to go overboard. If, personally, you can’t be arsed to reapply every two hours, or use a sunscreen when you’re going to stay inside, or adopt the agoraphobic Victorian maiden lifestyle, you’re still probably going to be doing better than the people who get sunburned every summer. It’s all about your own personal desires.
Thing of Things 
Hmmmm, ageing is a bad, something to be avoided, while sex work is empowering and should be destigmatised? Remind me again why I don’t want to live under a matriarchy….
LikeLike
I never said, nor do I believe, that sex work is empowering. Being condescendingly informed that your job should be illegal to protect you from having to do it is sure as hell disempowering, though.
My fiance finds people with wrinkles less attractive than people without wrinkles. I prefer to be attractive to my fiance, so therefore I prefer not to have wrinkles. I posted this to help other people with a similar preference (for whatever reason). Other people may make the valid choice that they don’t really care about how much they age, and in this case this blog post is not for them, in the same way that blog posts about contouring or triathalons are perfectly legitimate and not for me.
LikeLiked by 2 people
So are you saying that women should feel free to pursue sex work without ever experiencing any condescension, they just shouldn’t be doing it with wrinkles? Prostitution good, ageing bad? I hate to tell you this, but if your fiancee finds wrinkles to be unattractive, that does not bode well for a long term relationship. Also, how fem-centric, how empowering to be lathering yourself with sun screen out of fear of not someday not being perceived as a suitable commodity for a man.
LikeLike
People should feel free to do sex work or not do sex work and seek to avoid wrinkles or get wrinkles, as suits them.
My fiance and I have a strong relationship which will survive one of us becoming unattractive. However, I want to be attractive to my fiance. I do not think wanting to be attractive to people you’re in a romantic-sexual relationship with is a preference that is uncommon, unethical, solely possessed by women, or a product of the patriarchy.
I’m transgender and not a woman. My level of interest in being femcentric is approximately equivalent to my level of interest in having a rusty nail repeatedly stabbed into my eyeball.
LikeLiked by 3 people
insanitybytes22 –
You just repeated what Ozy just told you was not the case.
Ozy’s fiancee can find something attractive. Ozy can choose to maximize zer attractiveness to zer fiancee because zer fiancee’s preferences are something Ozy desires to maximize, because Ozy actually cares about said fiancee.
The crucial piece you’re apparently incapable of fitting is individual choice. Prostitution is (in the context of these discussions) an individual choice; so is the choice to wear sunscreen with the goal of increasing future satisfaction/happiness of a loved one.
Stop shoving Ozy into a box that doesn’t actually describe zir political beliefs in order to satisfy your desire to point out a hypocrisy zie doesn’t actually have and argue with that perspective. This serves no purpose except to put people in a defensive mindset and make them more inclined to be charitable to the belief system you’re theoretically opposing.
Because, you see, people think more fondly of those they have done nice things for, and forcing people to defend belief systems they disagree with is making them do nice things for those belief systems, making them more inclined to agree with them. Which is to say – this style of argument is antiproductive.
LikeLiked by 5 people
A thing that makes you suffer and die is bad, and a thing that provides pleasure to ones and livelihood to others is good. Remind me again, why do non-utilitarians have bizarre ethics?
LikeLiked by 5 people
Thanks for posting this. Sunscreen is one of those things that I know I need to do, but don’t. It doesn’t help that I neither burn nor tan – probably because I’m not an outdoors person, and wear long sleeves year-round – but I probably still should put some on.
LikeLike
Do you know how much this applues to people who are dark-skinned?
LikeLike
Melanin offers some protection (Google says that black skin is equivalent to wearing SPF 13 sunscreen), but wearing sunscreen will still reduce your facial aging.
LikeLiked by 2 people
From what I’ve read, some people *do* find sex work empowering. I don’t think this is a primary argument in favor of sex work– freedom of choice is more important– but truth is truth.
I’d have thought smoking is worse for facial aging than sun exposure, but I’ve spent my life in damp and partly cloudy Delaware/Philadelphia. Maybe the equation is different in drier, hotter places, or maybe the proportions of damage shift because fewer people smoke these days.
LikeLike
Unfortunately I have cystic acne that sunscreen makes worse, unless I use an expensive kind and wash it off within a few hours of applying. It also makes sweat pool on my skin with the slightest exertion. To make things even worse, my meds for it make my skin super sensitive to sun. My previous solution was to wear a (horribly tacky) big visor and apply sunscreen to my neck and ears only, until I went to Taiwan where it is socially acceptable to use an umbrella for protection from the sun. That also helps a lot with the heat, so I’ll probably keep doing it even if people think I’m bizarre. But given how ridiculously easily I burn, I’ll probably still look old before my time.
There’s also the issue of vitamin D and whatever else causes Seasonal Affective Disorder. I don’t sunbathe like my sisters (that’s what supplements are for) but I need good lighting to function well and artificial lights usually aren’t nearly bright enough.
LikeLike
I was pretty sure this was trolling, but evidently not.
LikeLike
Thanks for this, Ozy. Because of my gender and sexuality (male cishet) I’m not usually exposed to this kind of advice. I will definitely start using sunblock.
LikeLike
Whenever I put on sunscreen it always somehow ends up stinging my eyes by the end of the day. Not sure why, only have vague theories.
LikeLike
http://www.southampton.ac.uk/news/2014/01/20-the-sun-to-lower-your-blood-pressure.page
This is out there in maybe country, but there’s some evidence that sunlight lowers blood pressure, and I don’t think vitamin D will make up for lack of sunlight.
It’s possible that even if you’re worried about skin aging, you should just use the heavy duty sunscreen on your face.
LikeLike
“sprayable sunscreens and physical sunscreens have a different texture.” Is a “physical” sunscreen just the normal kind that comes in a tube?
LikeLike
Maybe Ozy means something like an umbrella or hat?
LikeLike
I thought of that, but I’m really hoping it’s not true because that would be a lot more difficult.
LikeLike
Chemical sunscreens are the usual kind and work by changing UV rays into heat. Physical sunscreens like zinc oxide create a physical block between the skin and the UV rays.
LikeLike
Also they mentioned that physical sunscreens have a “different texture” which implies some sort of substance.
LikeLike
Oops, simultaneous post. Thanks for clearing that up, Ozy.
LikeLike
Hmm, any idea how important this is for someone who doesn’t get much sun exposure? Like, I work a desk job, I’m outside in direct sunlight maybe 30-60 minutes a day at most? I have always assumed I’m pretty safe, as long as I apply sunscreen for any intentional and extended sun exposure.
LikeLike
Should Seattlites wear sunscreen? In winter even?
LikeLike
Um, there is one elephant in the room people regularly overlook when talking about sunscreen: Humans in the northern regions became white within a few hundret generations. This means there is an awfully strong selective pressure to be white even when being outdoors all day!!! (No it is not the energy saved from not synthesising melatonin. This is much too weak.)
I think we do not really know where this pressure comes from. In the best case it is dark skinned babies geting rickets on a regular basis and adults being pretty save.
The next best case is Vitamin D something something female fertility. This is somewhat supported by females being on average lighter skinned than males of the same etnicity.
On the other hand there may be ties to inflammation, (other than skin) cancer and cardiovascular regulation (citation needed but too lazy). And this is probably only partially mediated via Vitamin D. I think we do not really know, but I would love to be corrected.
LikeLike
I’d guess sexual selection plays very heavily into it. If you can get away with being more white, you get more white.
(In pre-industrial societies, lighter skin = wealth. Darker skin implies you work for a living.)
LikeLike
I do not think this is appicable in a pre agricultural society (where most of the selection took place)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Despite being subscribed to /r/skincareaddiction forever (and feeling a little bad for mostly scrolling past the posts), this convinced me to start wearing sunscreen daily.
LikeLike
Pingback: Advice on Becoming Conventionally Attractive | Thing of Things