Ultraviolet (UV) rays from the sun can damage your skin and cause up to 90% of skin aging. ¹ There's a specific term for this called 'photoaging', which refers to the premature aging of your skin due to repeated exposure to UV radiation.
The sun prematurely ages the skin. Called photoaging, this can lead to skin cancer. Dermatologists refer to the damage the sun does to skin by several names, including photoaging, photodamage, solar damage, or sun damage.
In fact, many scientific estimates have shown that up to 80-90% of how young or old you look for your age is due to how much sun exposure you've sustained. And this has been shown repeatedly, in different parts of the world, over many years and in many different clinical studies.
Sun damage can make you look older in more ways than one
The sun's UV rays damage the elastin and collagen fibres in our skin, resulting in everything from freckles and age spots to spider veins, thinning of the skin to fine lines, wrinkles, blotchiness and yellowing.
Lifestyle factors that can speed the pace of aging skin include smoking, use of tanning beds, and sun exposure. The sun begins leaving its mark during the first years of life, says Tamara Lior, MD, chairwoman of the department of dermatology at Cleveland Clinic Florida.
Although the causes of premature aging are not always clear, unprotected exposure to harmful UV rays break down the collagen and elastin fibers in healthy young skin, and cause wrinkles and loosened folds.
Whilst a glowing complexion may be seen by some as a sign of good health, often, tanned skin resulting from frequent sun exposure speeds up ageing. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), sun exposure is the leading factor for skin ageing.
Sun exposure is the most common cause of skin damage and wrinkling. Exposure to the ultraviolet (UV) radiation in sunlight causes changes to the skin. In addition to fine lines and wrinkles, UV damage causes brown spots and pigment irregularity, as well as broken capillaries and red blotches.
The study of 231 women by researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital and Olay has revealed that those, who kept out of sun and wore sunscreen when ditching the rays wasn't possible, looked up to 20 years younger than they actually were.
If successful, stem cells could potentially be used to slow down or reverse the effects of aging and provide patients with a “more natural look and feel since it will be using the patient's own tissue,” Dr. Percec said, which could benefit the way you look, as well as your overall health.
Scientifically, a tan/darker skin exaggerates contrast which emphasizes definition. This is what makes you look skinnier/more shredded and is why bodybuilders use it as well.
The researchers found that the darker version was twice as likely to be rated as more attractive. Of course, tan enthusiasts would say that you don't need science to figure that one out. "When I look in the mirror I feel more attractive when I'm darker, like my face is prettier.
The American Academy of Ophthalmology reports that tanning beds produce 100 times more UV levels, or the expected intensity of ultraviolet radiation, than what you would get from the sun. This can severely damage the external and internal structures of your eyes and eyelids.
MYTH #5: 20 minutes in a tanning bed is equivalent to 20 minutes in the sun… no big deal! 20 minutes of exposure in a tanning bed may equal up to two hours spent on the beach under the hot mid-day sun without protection.
Use self-tanner
The only safe way to tan is to use a self-tanning product or get a spray tan. Most self-tanning products and sprays are safe and FDA approved. These cosmetics do not penetrate the skin to cause harm like UV rays, and instead, just coat the outer layer.
This is called extrinsic aging. As a result, premature aging can set in long before it was expected. In other words, your biological clock is more advanced than your chronological clock. Controllable factors such as stress, smoking and sun exposure can all play a role in expediting extrinsic aging.
With age, that fat loses volume, clumps up, and shifts downward, so features that were formerly round may sink, and skin that was smooth and tight gets loose and sags. Meanwhile other parts of the face gain fat, particularly the lower half, so we tend to get baggy around the chin and jowly in the neck.
When it comes to skin aging, there's not much we can do to completely stop the process. Signs of aging like wrinkles and spots are the results of the accumulation of defects in cells and intracellular structures. Experts have found that skin aging typically starts around age 25.
From around the age of 25 the first signs of aging start to become apparent on the surface of the skin. Fine lines appear first and wrinkles, a loss of volume and a loss of elasticity become noticeable over time. Our skin ages for a variety of different reasons.