I have very acne prone skin and for a long time used harsh products like benzoyl peroxide. I got in this cycle of drying out my skin which accentuated fine lines, my skin would produce more oil, and then I would break out again. I was a flakey, dry, broken out mess. So what’s the key to disrupting this cycle?
1. Maintain the skin’s protective barrier
If you use harsh foaming cleansers this actually strips your face of it’s natural oils causing it to create more oil/sebum which clogs pores. This striping also dries out the skin making wrinkles look deeper. Not to mention our skin has it’s own microbiome and cleansers disturb this delicate balance creating redness, uneven tone, and flaking. Oil cleansing with seabuckthorn oil is my favorite method to remove impurities while protecting the skin’s barrier. Oil attracts oil so it will leave your skin feeling clean and nourished without a greasy residue. This is great for any skin type!
2. Try out facial gua sha
Gua sha is a gentle scraping technique with a small tool. It brings in blood flow/nutrients to the tissue, helps lymph drain, and re-trains the muscle layer which smooths wrinkles. By doing gua sha daily, you may experience a decrease in bags under the eyes, fewer breakouts, and a brighter complexion. Gua sha works for wrinkles the same way facial taping works. It essentially retrains the muscle underneath the dermis and while this takes longer than Botox, its far more cost effective and healthy for the tissue.
3. Get your nutrition in check
Back in the day, my derm would always say nutrition has zero impact on skin but now we know this is far from the truth. Avoiding sugar, alcohol, and inflammatory oils can decrease breakouts and improve skin texture/tone. It is also incredibly important to get enough protein because our skin is made up of amino acids. If you’ve read about the benefits of collagen for fine lines, it’s because collagen bolsters up the skin’s matrix and helps seal the gut lining which decreases systemic inflammation. I recommend either adding collagen to your daily coffee or tea, or drinking bone broth.
4. Try microneedling or facial rejuvenation acupuncture
Both of these therapies cause small micro-traumas to the dermis causing more collagen and elastin to build up filling in fine lines and wrinkles. Both are non-invasive with very little down time. So what is the difference between the two?
Facial rejuvenation acupuncture is 90 needles hand-inserted into the face. The specific points open the meridians located on the face which help drain fluid from the eye area, bring circulation to dark spots, and brighten/tighten the face. Facial rejuvenation help with muscular strength creating a lift in the tissue. I recommend this for anyone wanting to improve sagging skin, "jowls", or dark circles under the eyes.
Microneedling is done with a needle-tipped pen that oscillates thousands of times over on the face. Studies show microneedling increases collagen by 400% after 4 treatments and increases the absorption of your at-home facial products/serums by 2000%. This is better for fine lines, wrinkles, age spots, acne scars, and hyperpigmentation. Microneedling creates visual changes to the texture and appearance of the surface of the skin. Check out these before and after pics of two of my patients (each taken after 5 microneedling sessions):
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