A year in the life of your face – from 36,000 hairs and a teaspoon of fat lost to shrinking teeth
FROM year to year, your face may not seem to change much.
But over 12 months, there’s an incredible range of subtle alterations taking place that by and large, age the face.
Here, Tanith Carey takes you on a journey through 365 days in the life of your face – and gets expert advice on what to do to keep it looking healthy.
6.3BILLION SKIN CELLS LOST
Every day, we lose an incredible 17.5million skin cells from our faces, according to the Journal of Dermatological Science.
That works out to be a staggering 6,387,500,000 a year.
This is because new cells are constantly moving up to the top – or stratum corneum – from the epidermis underneath where they are made.
By the time they reach this upper layer of between 15 to 20 cells, they are no longer alive.
However, only the uppermost four of five layers of dead cells can be safely shed because the bonds holding them together have loosened.
As we age, this shedding slows down.
The links between the cells are stickier, making them harder to shift.
When you are aged 19 to 21, it takes around three weeks for new skin cells to rise to the surface.
By the time you hit your 60s, this process can start to take two to three times longer.
The result can be a build-up of old cells making your complexion look dull and coarse.
As the years pass, the capillaries – or tiny blood vessels – supplying our skin also become worn out and less efficient.
As a result, your skin gradually gets fewer nutrients and oxygen, robbing it of its rosy glow.
The skin cells also renew more slowly.
Before menopause, women have higher levels of the female sex hormone oestrogen.
This helps keep their skin soft and supple by stimulating the growth of collagen – a protein that gives firmness to the skin.
But when levels of this hormone drop dramatically after menopause, women’s skin becomes thinner by about 0.6 to one per cent a year.
This can make it look more transparent and paler because you can see this bluish de-oxygenated blood more clearly underneath.
How to help:
To speed up the process, look for cleansers, serums or moisturisers that contain retinoids, which promote new cell growth, or alpha hydroxy acids, including glycolic acid.
These loosen up the intercellular glue-like substance that holds skin cells together on the surface, allowing them to slough off sooner.
Dermatology and aesthetic registered nurse Emma Coleman says: “To fight against this, invest in collagen-boosting treatments on a monthly basis like radiofrequency, microneedling and laser treatments.
“Use collagen-boosting ingredients topically – products containing retinol are excellent for maintaining skin thickness.”
BLINK 5MILLION TIMES
Your lashes aren’t just there to make your eyes look beautiful.
Although it can vary, the average woman blinks about 15 times per minute, slightly more than men, according to Healthline.
This means if we are awake about 16 hours a day, we blink more than five million times a year.
We blink so that our eyelids can keep our eyes evenly covered with the fluid produced by the tear ducts and stop them drying out.
Not only does blinking prevent dry eyes, but it also gives a final polish to the front window of the eye, the cornea.
If that is not kept moist, your vision can become blurry.
How to help:
Ask your doctor or pharmacist about the best products to replace lost moisture if you get dry eyes.
Protect your eyes too by avoiding cigarette smoke and high winds and using eyewear outside to keep the surface moist.
It can also be helpful to use a humidifier in your home to add moisture to the air.
Foods to boost skin health
Shona Wilkinson, lead nutritionist at ethical nutrition and supplement brand DR.VEGAN, says you can give your skin a helping hand by turning your focus to what you eat.
“Many people underestimate the role your diet can play in maintaining healthy, glowing skin,” she told The Sun.
In general terms, packing your diet with fruits, vegetables, lean proteins and healthy fats can prevent all sorts of issues with our skin, Shona says.
It can “reduce the risk of premature ageing, and leave us with a consistently radiant complexion”, the nutritionist explains.
The foods she recommends are:
1. Kiwi
Shona says: “Not only are they rich in vitamin C, which is essential for healthy collagen production, but they’re also great for improving gut health, which has direct implications on our skin.”
2. Berries and cherries
The red fruits are rich in a natural plant-colouring agent called proanthocyanidin, which helps impart their dark colour.
“Proanthocyanidins are potent natural antioxidants – meaning they protect the skin from harmful oxidants that come from the sun, pollution and poor dietary choices,” Shona explains.
“Proanthocyanidins particularly help to protect the collagen in your skin, which helps to provide your skin with structure, strength, and elasticity, reducing wrinkles and providing a general layer of protection.”
3. Chia, flaxseed and fish
Foods like white fish, chia seeds, and avocados are fab for your skin as they’re rich in omega-3 – “a flexible fat used in skin cells to keep the skin healthy, moisturised, and less likely to crack or flake”, the nutritionist explains.
“Importantly, omega-3 fats also help with the production of anti-inflammatory hormones in the body, decreasing any excess skin inflammation or face redness,” she adds.
4. Brussels sprouts, broccoli and mustard greens
Shona says: “Vegetables such as Brussel sprouts, broccoli and mustard greens are rich in isothiocyanates, which support the function of the liver by protecting it from damage from toxins, especially alcohol.
“Research shows that reducing alcohol intake and increasing the consumption of cruciferous vegetables can help your liver to function properly and leave your skin toxin-free.”
5. Oranges, red peppers and strawberries
Shona says: “In order, to produce all the collagen your skin needs to keep you glowing every day, the body needs a substantial amount of both Vitamin C and protein.
“This is because vitamin C is used in a process called hydroxylation, which converts protein into collagen.
“Try incorporating lots of citrus fruits such as oranges, red peppers, strawberries, or tomatoes into your diet.”
EYELASHES GROW 5CM
As you blink, your eyelashes are also working hard to screen out dust and irritants.
On average, we have 90 to 160 lashes on our upper lid and 75 to 80 on the bottom, which are about 7mm to 8mm long.
According to trichologist Iain Sallis, from hairmedic.co.uk, eyelashes typically grow at about 0.12mm to 0.14mm per day.
“That’s 46.8mm – or almost 5cm – a year,” he says.
Treat your hair like a piece of clothing rather than a body part because it’s the best fashion accessory you will ever have
Iain Sallis
Of course, if each lash really did grow this long, you’d not only no longer need mascara, you also wouldn’t be able to see out of them.
But this doesn’t happen because lashes automatically stop growing before they reach 1cm, fall out and are replaced.
Iain says: “There’s the anagen, or growth phase, which lasts around 30 to 45 days, when the eyelashes are actively growing.
“Then there’s the catagen, or transition phase, when the eyelash stops growing, and the follicle shrinks. This lasts two to three weeks.
“Then there’s the telogen, or resting, phase. This can last more than 100 days before the eyelash falls out and a new one begins to grow.”
How to help:
As well as making lifestyle changes, like stopping smoking and sunbathing, which damage hair follicles, Iain says there are now cosmeceutical treatments, like Latisse, which have been found to make the eyelash-growing phase longer, boosting length and thickness.
Iain says: “Even though they have a success rate, it’s essential to understand you have to carry on using them because if you don’t, the eyelashes will start to go back to their normal cycle.”
LOSE 36,500 HEAD HAIRS
There is nothing unusual about shedding around 100 hairs from your head a day.
Around 80 per cent of these are lost when we wash or brush our hair, while the rest drop out without us noticing.
Your hair starts to thin at a rate of around three per cent a year after the age of 20.
However, you have to lose at least 15 per cent before you notice the difference.
So, it may not be until your 30s that you first spot that your tresses are no longer as full as they used to be.
On top of that, as many as half of all women suffer some hair loss after menopause kicks in – on average, around the age of 51.
The fall in oestrogen can expose the hair follicles to naturally occurring compounds which trigger hair thinning.
Over a year, this adds up to an average of 36,500 hairs lost.
How to help:
In some women, hormone replacement therapy will help to keep up levels of oestrogen and help counteract the hair loss.
Iain says applying a liquid drug like Minoxidil to the scalp appears to work by widening the hair follicles, making the strands of hair thicker and more visible.
“These are very successful in stimulating hair growth in females,” he says.
“However, this is not a cure; it’s a treatment, so you must continue using it until you see a difference.”
HAIR GROWS 15CM
On average, the hair on our heads grows at a rate of about 1.25cm a month, or about 12cm to 15cm a year, says trichologist Iain.
Hair starts its life in tiny bulb-shaped hair follicles.
We are all born with a fixed number – around 120,000 – on our scalps.
These follicles produce protein cells called keratin.
These are forced upwards in thin columns to the surface to form strands so strong they can support more than 100g in weight.
How to help:
Massaging your scalp every day over the course of several months can help boost hair growth by increasing blood flow to your follicles, according to a study in the journal Eplasty.
It’s at this stage you’ll start to show the appearance of very fine lines and wrinkles and you also may start to get a little bit of freckling and redness
Dr Ross Perry,
Iain says: “Treat your hair like a piece of clothing rather than a body part because it’s the best fashion accessory you will ever have.
“If you had a favourite top, you wouldn’t iron every day or bleach it.
“Yet that’s what people do to their hair.
“So cut back on excessive bleaching, chemical perms and so on.
“If you use heat to style your hair, don’t do it daily, and make sure any heat you use is less than 150C.”
LOSE 1.5% OF COLLAGEN
When we are young, skin is made up of 80 per cent collagen – long fibrous strands which form the mesh-like matrix and keep it well-supported.
From early adulthood, fibroblasts – the cells that make connective tissue – become less active.
After the age of 25, our collagen production falls at the rate of about one per cent a year, even though the decline may not be visible for decades.
Dr Ross Perry, medical director of Cosmedics, says: “As our skin starts to age after our mid-20s, the skin shows this in a number of ways, the most common being the loss of tension within the skin which becomes laxer and a little less firm.
“At this stage, it also starts to show the appearance of very fine lines and wrinkles and you also may start to get a little bit of freckling, a little bit of redness and again, these are just part and parcel of environmental factors and the inevitable ageing process.”
How to help:
One of the most proven ways to prevent collagen loss over the course of a year is to keep using sunscreen, says plastic surgeon Dr Vahe Karimyan.
“A study in the journal Dermatologic Surgery found that daily sunscreen use not only prevents photoaging but also helps preserve collagen in the skin,” he adds.
“The study followed participants over four and a half years and found those who applied sunscreen daily showed no detectable increase in collagen breakdown compared to those who used sunscreen less often.
“So the regular use of sunscreen with broad-spectrum protection and an SPF of 30 or higher can be highly effective for preserving collagen and keeping up a youthful skin appearance.”
How to combat your winter 'surface wrinkles'
DRY, cracked skin is one of the most common winter complaints, as we alternate from being buffeted by icy winds and hot blasts of heating.
But if you’re faced with a dull complexion and faint wreath of “surface wrinkles” around your forehead and eyes, dryness might may not be your concern.
These telltale signs could indicate your skin is dehydrated, which is not the same as dryness, according to Dr Anil Sharma, a medical doctor and dermatologist at Sharma Skin & Hair Surgery.
“Dehydration occurs when your skin lacks water or hydration, and it can affect anyone – no matter your skin type, even those with oily or combination skin,” Dr Sharma says.
While flaking, cracking and irritation can indicate dryness, the signs of dehydration can be more subtle.
The dermatologist says: “When your skin is dehydrated, it often looks dull and can show faint surface wrinkles.
“These dehydration lines, usually around the eyes, lips, and forehead, are your skin’s way of saying it’s not getting enough moisture. And when your skin doesn’t have enough hydration, it loses elasticity, which can lead to premature signs of ageing.”
If you suspect your skin is lacking in water, there is a simple test you can do at home – dubbed the “pinch test”.
- “Gently pinch the skin on your cheek or the back of your hand,” he says.
- “If it doesn’t bounce back quickly, or takes a few seconds to return to normal, it’s a sign that you might be slightly dehydrated.
- “If the skin stays pinched and takes a longer time to return to normal, you could be severely dehydrated.
- “While it’s not a guaranteed test, it’s a useful way to start thinking about how to keep your skin hydrated from the inside out.”
And to care for dehydrated skin, you need to drink plenty of water throughout the day and use a hydrating skincare routine.
This means six to eight glasses a day, and adding water-rich foods to your diet, like watermelon, cucumber and celery, as well as looking for products containing hyaluronic acid, which helps draw moisture into your skin, and ceramides, which are “fantastic” for reinforcing your skin’s barrier to lock in hydration and prevent moisture loss, Dr Sharma says.
“Just be sure to finish with an oil or moisturiser to seal in all that hydration, leaving your skin feeling plump and nourished,” the expert adds.
LOSE 1TSP OF FAT
After you hit 30, you start to lose about a teaspoon of fat in your face each year, according to researchers at skin care company Clinique.
By the time you’re 50, you may have lost up to 40 per cent of the fat in your face – and this contributes to loss of volume.
However, cosmetic doctor Ahmed El Muntasar, of The Aesthetic Doctor, says: “Some of the fat pads just get smaller and smaller, as time goes on, because we start losing the youthful fat in our face.
“But some of the other fat pads, particularly the ones around the jowl, actually get bigger.
“And that’s why people get jowls, because that fat pad gets bigger and bigger.
“It starts protruding downwards, and that creates the little pockets.”
Given that most people show about 3mm of tooth while speaking, losing some over 15 years of grinding can significantly impact appearance, giving a more aged look
Dr Zaeem Jafri
One of the first places you may spot the fat disappearing from is your temples, says Mr Ullas Raghavan, ENT and facial plastic surgeon at Pall Mall Medical.
He says: “The temples, located on the sides of the forehead, often experience fat loss early in the ageing process.
“This can lead to a hollowed appearance.
“When you lose fat in the cheeks, it can also result in a sunken or hollow appearance, as well as a decrease in facial fullness.
“This can contribute to nasolabial folds – lines which go from your nose to your mouth – and marionette lines – lines stretching from corners of the mouth downwards.”
How to help:
As well as protecting your skin by not smoking, sunbathing or eating lots of sugar, which breaks down collagen fibres, it’s possible to stay ahead and fill out troughs.
To subtly make up for fat loss, Dr Muntasar recommends one of the new generation of more supple fillers like Maili to fill out troughs and return the balance to places like your temples, chin, cheeks, lips, jawline.
TEETH SHRINK 0.2MM
Every year, your teeth get about 0.02mm shorter, mostly due to wear and tear from chewing and erosion from acidic foods.
But this will speed up to 0.05mm a year if you grind your teeth, according to dentist Dr Zaeem Jafri, founder of dental advice site Nova Smiles.
He says: “Considering that the average length of a central incisor (front tooth) is 10.5mm, that’s a considerable loss.
“Given that most people show about 3mm of tooth while speaking, losing this amount over 15 years of grinding can significantly impact appearance, giving a more aged look.”
According to dentist Dr Safa Al-Naher, director at Serene Dental, says: “It’s ageing because when you lose teeth height, jaws are essentially coming closer together.
“There’s less space in between your top and bottom jaw, meaning that your lower face height is reduced and you get a shorter lower face.”
Furthermore, grinding down your teeth – or bruxism – can also make your jaw look more masculine and square, says dentist Dr Asif Hamid, founder of Privé Clinics.
“It also leads to the overdevelopment of jaw muscles, potentially altering the jaw’s shape over time and contributing to a shortened facial appearance,” he adds.
How to help:
“Have your teeth assessed,” says Dr Al-Naher.
“Find out why your teeth are getting shorter. It’s most likely to be because of grinding.
“You can wear a specially made night guard, and something called a habit breaker, which actually stops you from grinding your teeth when you’re asleep.”
Nyree Whitley, chief clinical officer at My Dentist, adds: “Particularly if you tend to grind them in your sleep.
“Another option is Botox injections around the jaw to relax the muscles and help you break the cycle of grinding your teeth.”
HAIR GETS 1% GREYER
By the age of 40, around six in 10 women will have some grey hair.
This is because over time, the melanocytes – the cells which inject colour into the hair shaft – start to wear out as part of the natural ageing process.
Even if you don’t go white, the fact they no longer work as well means that with every year, the pigment goes down by about one per cent.
Trichologist Iain says: “As we age, the melanocytes in our hair, responsible for pigment production, decrease in activity and number, leading to hair greying.
“Though this varies from person to person, a general rule of thumb is that your melanocytes become approximately 10 per cent less active every decade, so that’s one per cent less a year.”
How to help:
To keep your hair looking vibrant, Iain suggests taking better care of your scalp using hair products that don’t contain perfumes or colourants.
He says helping to reduce inflammation on the scalp too with calming shampoos, like Haircalma Rebalancing Shampoo from hairmedic.co.uk, will help.