The lips are often the most neglected part of most anti-aging regimens. They do not need a lot of care, but can be a dead giveaway of how old or young a person is so it deserves the same amount of attention as the other parts of the face.
Maintain Moisture
Dehydrated skin is susceptible to weakness, flimsiness, patchiness and wrinkles. To avoid this, a person should drink eight glasses of water daily, which will assist in maintaining proper hydration for skin and ultimately anti-aging for the lips. Another tip to avoid drying out the skin is to stop constantly licking the lips. It has no moisturizing or hydrating effect at all and can actually lead to drying them out. Saliva contains digestive enzymes, which evaporates quickly with a severe drying effect that can lead to cracking and chapping.
Careful of the Weather
One of the biggest contributing factors to anti-aging for your lips is extreme weather. Just like the face, lips can also get extremely damaged when exposed to the sun. The sun’s UV rays darken; wrinkle and dry out the lips, making them appear thinner, darker and more lifeless. This is another reason to avoid the sun between 11 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon when it is at its strongest. Another concern is wind. Because the skin on the lips is thin and unprotected, more moisture evaporates the stronger the wind and can lead to chapping.
The Best Protection
Daily use of a moisturizing lip balm with a high SPF helps provide anti-aging for your lips. By including a sun screen in lip protection, a person can be outside in UV rays without having to worry about the effects of its exposure. Apart from sun damage, a good lip balm also prevents discoloration, wrinkling, dryness and chapping. A good balm will contain wax that can act a protectant of the skin as well as moisturize thoroughly.
Proper Exfoliation
Those looking to protect their lips against aging should exfoliate their lips at least once a week. Exfoliation can help get rid of the dry and dead skin on the lip’s surface that may have accumulated from exposure to the elements. It can also help lighten lips that are discolored due to sun damage and smooth out the skin’s texture. Those looking to properly exfoliate their lips should use a good commercial product or a mixture of sugar and olive oil. Anybody exfoliating their lips should be careful to moisturize the lips after exfoliating them.
Stop Smoking
Smoking is one of the strongest causes of wrinkles in the skin around the lips and the lip skin itself. It dries out the lips directly causing an unhealthy and old look. When smoking, a person has to pull together their lips and doing this often and repeatedly over several years will cause wrinkles to develop around the mouth. The pulling of the lip skin itself damages it considerably as well.
Those concerned about anti-aging for their lips should be aiming for a plump, firm, light and soft appearance. Treating one’s lips carefully helps protects the collagen underneath the fragile lip skin by mainly conserving it’s moisture, protecting against UV damage, removing dead skin cells and avoiding the wear and tear from smoking.
