6 Nighttime Habits That Make You Look Older

Sleeping This Way on These Types of Sheets

Why it’s making you look older: Sleeping on your stomach or side can lead to wrinkles, says Lauren Ploch, MD, an Augusta, Georgia-based board-certified dermatologist and Fellow of the American Academy of Dermatology, which is why she and pretty much any dermatologist will tell you it’s best to sleep on your back. If you’re a stomach/side sleeper with cotton or flannel pillowcases though, you could be making matters even worse, as those two fabrics tend to cling and pull on the skin, says Rachel Nazarian, MD, assistant clinical professor of dermatology at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. 

The fix: Becoming a back sleeper isn’t easy; plus, you can’t control whether you move and turn over in your sleep. A do-able first move is to switch to silk or satin pillowcases.

Using a Gentle Cleanser to Remove Your Makeup

Why it’s making you look older: Thanks to today’s long-wear, budge-proof makeup formulas, “which require more than water and a gentle cleanser to remove,” says Nazarian, you’re probably going to bed with some makeup still on your face. That can lead to clogged pores, dull skin and accelerated skin aging, says Nazarian. 

The fix: If you use long-lasting makeup formulas, start your cleansing process with a makeup-removing wipe or cloth (which will have ingredients that break down long-wear formulas better than a regular cleanser can. Look for ones that say “makeup-removing” on the packaging); then use your gentle cleanser to catch any traces the wipe left behind. The two-step combination is much more likely to get all of your makeup off before you hit the hay.

Turning the Thermostat Up to Toasty

Why it’s making you look older: You know that heat can dry out your skin, and that exacerbates wrinkles. It can also lead to eczema and atopic dermatitis flare-ups, and is a known trigger for rosacea, an inflammatory condition that accelerates the aging process, says Nazarian. 

The fix: Everyone’s ideal sleeping temperature is different, but a good rule of thumb is to find a temperature where you’re just a little bit cool without a blanket, not straight-up cold. (You could also try using a humidifier in the bedroom to keep the air moist.)

Applying Retinol Immediately After You Wash Your Face

Why it’s making you look older: Retinol (the gold standard among anti-aging ingredients) can be irritating. Because it penetrates even deeper into damp skin, you may experience increased tenderness or feel it more sharply, says Nazarian. You’re less likely to use it consistently if you can’t stand the way it makes your skin feel; and, if you don’t apply it regularly, you won’t see the benefits. 

The fix: If you’re new (or even new-ish) to retinol, make sure your skin is dry before you apply it. Only seasoned retinol users should consider using it on damp skin.

Not Including Hand Cream in Your Nightly Routine

Why it’s making you look older: Along with your chest/neck area (and your face, of course) your hands are one of the first areas to show the signs of aging. Using a rich, hydrating hand cream is a great way to combat dryness and crepey skin; but, if you put it on in the morning, you’ll likely wash and rinse it off over the course of the day, says Nazarian. 

The fix: Make hand cream part of your nightly anti-aging routine, applying it just before bed.

Putting Your Anti-Agers on Haphazardly

Why it’s making you look older: First, kudos for using anti-agers at night, when your skin makes the best use of them. But they need to be applied in the right order to make sure all of the ingredients can actually reach your skin. Generally speaking, products should be put on in order of heaviness—gel, lotion, cream, serum, ointment, etc.—to prevent thicker products from blocking the lighter ones. 

The fix: Start with serums or gels, then lotions, then creams, then ointments, says Nazarian. Don’t go overboard with products, though. Ploch recommends using no more than three or four per night, to minimize skin irritation. If you’ve got a long nightly routine full of products that only do one thing each, consider switching to multitasking products instead.

Share Button

Health24.com | The unexpected way your age might affect your sex life

The story goes that as you get older, your sex life gets less satisfying, right? Well according to a new study, that’s totally dependent on how you approach it.

The study, published in the Journal of Sex Research, actually found that older people had a higher sexual quality of life than their younger, friskier counterparts – with a few caveats.

For the study, the researchers looked at how sexual satisfaction changed over time using data from a national survey of more than 6 000 adults between the ages of 20 and 93, collected between 1995 and 2014.

To analyse the survey data, researchers created multiple models (or charts) to see the association between participants’ age and the quality of their sex lives.

The first model, which compared the age of the participants and which wave they took the survey in to how they ranked their sex lives over time suggested that the quality of their sex lives declined with age.

The second model found that both men’s and women’s sex lives take a dip as they get older.

Read more: 12 things we wish guys knew about blow jobs

However, when the researchers recalculated their model to take frequency of sex, perceived control of their sex life, thought and effort invested in sex, and number of sexual partners into account (in addition to their age and when they took the survey), they found that participants who reported high levels of comfort and control, thought and effort, and frequency of sex were actually more satisfied with their sex lives even as they got older.

And those who had only one partner (indicating they were in a committed relationship) were also more satisfied than those with two or more.

In fact, when these factors were favourable, their sexual quality of life increased by about 1.4% over each decade.

The researchers also found that as you get older, how often you have sex and control over your sex life becomes less important to your overall sexual satisfaction. But at the same time, the amount of thought and effort put into each encounter is even more vital to a happy sex life. In other words, the quality of your sex sessions trumps the quantity as you get older.

The future is definitely looking hot.

Looking for more? Here are six important times in your life when sex feels totally different.

This article was originally published on www.womenshealthsa.co.za

Image credit: iStock

NEXT ON HEALTH24X

Share Button

DNA study provides insight into how to live longer

A year in school adds nearly a year to your life, study in Edinburgh shows.

Share Button

Jane Fonda Is 79, Unretouched And Glorious On The Cover Of Town & Country

Jane Fonda is a beauty, both on the red carpet and off.

The actress glows on the cover of Town & Country’s November issue in what is an unretouched photo, People reports.

Fonda wears a simple white collared shirt and bold statement jewelry with minimal makeup. 

Fonda is open about the fact that she’s had cosmetic surgery, though she’d rather discuss topics she deems more important.

“I did have plastic surgery. I’m not proud of the fact that I’ve had it. But I grew up so defined by my looks,” she told W Magazine in 2015. “I was taught to think that if I wanted to be loved, I had to be thin and pretty. That leads to a lot of trouble.”

Her unretouched cover is the latest step in the beauty industry’s growing appreciation of older women. It follows Helen Mirren’s Allure cover from August, which accompanied Allure’s announcement it is banning the term “anti-aging” from its pages. 

“Whether we know it or not, [the term is] subtly reinforcing the message that aging is a condition we need to battle,” wrote Editor-in-Chief Michelle Lee. “Repeat after me: Growing older is a wonderful thing because it means that we get a chance, every day, to live a full, happy life.”

Fonda and Mirren gave us even more gold when they rocked the runway together at a L’Oreal fashion show last week.



Keep it up, ladies. 

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misattributed a 2014 quote against retouching to Jane Fonda. It was Helen Mirren who made the statement.

Share Button

What Going Gray Early Can Tell You About Your Health

[brightcove:5583080330001 default]

Does going gray earlier mean I’m aging more quickly?

Silvery strands are one of the more conspicuous signs of aging. That said, getting gray hair doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re closer to the end of your life span than anyone else your age. Gray hair occurs when the hair follicles produce less melanin, the pigment that gives hair its color. It’s most common for graying to begin in your 30s, though some women spot a few grays in their 20s. Your graying age is related to your ethnicity (Caucasians tend to go gray earlier than Asians and African-Americans), as well as your family history, so you may want to ask your parents and grandparents when they noticed their first grays.

RELATED: 13 Everyday Habits That Are Aging You

If you think you’re going gray unusually early, there are a number of possible reasons why. Smoking, for one, has been linked to the early onset of gray hair. Environmental factors—like ultraviolet rays and air pollutants—may also be partially to blame. In rare cases, premature graying can be a sign of a medical issue, such as vitiligo (a condition that causes skin to lose its pigmentation), pernicious anemia (in which the body has difficulty absorbing vitamin B12) or problems involving your pituitary or thyroid glands.

Health’s medical editor, Roshini Rajapaksa, MD, is associate professor of medicine at the NYU School of Medicine and co-founder of Tula Skincare.

 

Share Button

CoverGirl’s Newest Face Is 69-Year-Old Maye Musk

CoverGirl keeps on getting better with age, adding new members to its roster of awesome faces. The same can be said of its newest star, 69-year-old model, dietician and entrepreneur Maye Musk.

Musk, who is also the mother of Tesla founder Elon Musk, filmmaker Tosca Musk and The Kitchen Community founder Kimbal Musk, has two master’s degrees and has been modeling since she was 15.

“Maye Musk is not only a timeless beauty, but a visionary who has always follower her own path, creating new opportunities and paving the way for so many others who might not meet the industry standard of ‘model’ but are truly beautiful in every regard,” said Unkowa Ojo, senior vice president of CoverGirl said in a press release. 

The news comes just a few weeks after the global brand named Issa Rae as a CoverGirl and just days after it tapped Ayesha Curry, too. 

“Who knew, after many years of admiring the gorgeous CoverGirl models, that I would be one at 69 years of age?” Musk wrote on Instagram. “It just shows, never give up. Thank you CoverGirl, for including me in your tribe of diversity. Beauty truly is for women of all ages, and I can’t wait to take you all along this amazing journey with me!” 

Despite Musk’s long modeling career, it’s just recently that she emerged as the star of multiple magazine covers and campaigns. In an interview with The New York Times, she said aging has been good for her.

“You develop confidence, you’re able to handle the knocks a little easier,” she said. “I model for my age. I’m not trying to hide it and say I’m 50. I’m so proud that I’m going be 70.”

This news serves as further proof that the fashion and beauty industries are adjusting their dated standards of beauty. More models over 50 walked in more shows during Fashion Week in March 2017 than ever before, for example. 

 Easy, breezy, beautiful and right on the money. Big ups, CoverGirl. 

Share Button

This Is What Being 30 Looks Like Around The World

Turning 30 is no simple life event. The milestone often prompts all sorts of introspection: evaluating career goals, feeling pressure about finding love or comparing the person you are now to the one you thought you would be at 30.

Back in 2014, photographer Stephane Domingues and writer Anne Hangouet set out on a 16-month trip to photograph and interview people around age 30 from around the world. Though their lifestyles differed, each of the pair’s thirty-something subjects had something in common, Domingues said.

“I would say that the main similarity [between 30-year-olds] is the awareness of who you really are, the accomplishment of yourself,” he told HuffPost. “I think the main reason is that you already have completed your studies, worked for several years, developed some passions and maybe even built a family. All these experiences enable you to understand who you are and what you want in life better.”

Domingues and Hangouet added another subject to their series this summer, and they plan to interview more soon, Domingues told HuffPost. They catalog all the portraits on their website, Being 30, and include each subject’s name, occupation and personal quotes. 

Here’s what 30 looks ― and feels ― like in 10 countries.

See more of Domingues and Hangouet’s work on Being 30.

Share Button

Julianne Moore Has The Most Refreshing Take On Aging

Julianne Moore is simply gorgeous, and so are her thoughts on getting older. 

The 56-year-old actress recently shot five different cover looks for the October issue of InStyle, in which she serves up some YAAAS!!!-worthy comments on aging. While women are regularly pressured to appear as youthful as possible, she points out aging is a blessing.  

“I mean, let’s not talk about this idea of ‘Oh, no! I’m going to be 40!’ You could be dead,” Moore told InStyle. “So enjoy it. It’s a privilege to age!

Her cover looks range from Madonna-inspired to sweater-clad “girl next door”:






Moore has offered similarly positive thoughts on aging before, saying she prefers to avoid plastic surgery and even favors drugstore beauty products for glowing skin. Embracing aging is hitting the mainstream, too: Her InStyle profile comes just a few weeks after Allure announced it would ban the term “anti-aging” from its pages because growing older should be embraced and appreciated, not treated like something to fight off.

Moore of all this, please.

Share Button

Watching My Mother Age Taught Me About America’s Lack Of Care For The Vulnerable

Since I teach mostly young people, college age, and have been an active cyclist with much younger friends for a while now, I have depended on a persistent self-deprecating joke about being old.

Since the end of 2016, a pelvis fracture, a winter of illnesses including the flu for the first time in decades, and then my mom’s stroke followed by my father’s death have all tempted me to shift that joke to a more serious view of life. However, I am increasingly convinced the problem with the human condition is not aging ― which is inevitable and preferred to the alternative ― but a lack of compassion and community in the U.S.

While literature and pop culture are awash in portrayals of the challenges that families bring, Kurt Vonnegut spent a great deal of his work as a writer ― in speeches, essays, and fiction ― arguing passionately for more human kindness as well as the importance of the extended family, an idealizing of tribal life that recognized the horror that is human loneliness.

Like most people, Vonnegut himself may have failed some or even often as a spouse, sibling, and father, but that doesn’t diminish the power and truth behind his essential message.

I suspect I have compassion for Vonnegut’s flaws since I share them along with his ideological commitments to kindness and community ― regardless of how inept I can be at both.

And my curmudgeon tendencies are strong, but as I grow older, and as I struggle with the necessary deteriorations of aging, I am more and more apt to recognize the futility of lamenting aging, of fearing and regretting old age (whatever that may be).

I remain frustrated with aging, and my vanity is triggered more than I like to admit. But I am more convinced than ever that the real fear is a lack of community as I continue to struggle with how to provide for my mom the sort of late life she deserves despite the consequences of her stoke (which took a significant part of her humanity) and the barriers we are encountering because, to be blunt, she has very little money to sustain her ― and the typically horrible insurance that most working-class and poor people are saddled with (if they have any at all) in the godforsaken U.S.

Many times, I have lamented that in the U.S. we simply do not care about children, and about that I am both deeply saddened and convinced. But that callousness and carelessness is a subset of a much larger and damning part of the so-called American character: we simply do not care about any vulnerable populations: children, disabled people, carers, and the elderly.

The great and caustic residue of being a rugged-individual culture is that we are willfully choosing to reject community in favor of Social Darwinism, consumerism, and the almighty dollar.

Instead of social safety nets being a foundational commitment among us, we have chosen to cast everyone to the fate of the Invisible Hand, our claims to being a Christian nation reduced to so-much hokum in practice.

The cost of growing old is in fact not the deterioration of the mind and body, but the consequences of aging being magnified by a people who refuse to provide for vulnerable populations as an unwavering commitment to human dignity.

I will continue to joke with my younger students and friends about being old; it is fun and often a way to assert my humanity into an environment that I recognize will eventually discard me because of age, although my privileges of being male, white, and well-educated will inoculate me for quite some time.

Despite my many, many flaws, my anger about the callousness of the U.S. toward vulnerable populations is not about me, and extends well beyond my sadness at how the world does not really care about my aging and disabled mother.

My anger is reflected in why Maggie Smith’s “Good Bones” has resonated so powerfully over the past several months. Smith forces us to admit “[t]he world is at least/ fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative/ estimate,” and she keeps us focused on the vulnerability of children.

My anger is enflamed because I do believe Smith’s closing lines: “This place could be beautiful, right? You could make this place beautiful.”

My anger grows because I doubt we will ever assure that comes to fruition.

To squander vulnerable populations ― from children to the elderly ― is to abandon our souls, to spit in the face of beauty, to declare our society morally bankrupt.

Share Button

Zara Used Models Over 40 And Totally Missed The Point

Zara recently introduced its new “Timeless” clothing collection with ads featuring models over 40. People rejoiced to see age inclusion the notoriously narrow world of fashion, but the positive messaging about aging is sadly overshadowed. 

That’s because Zara’s campaign confusingly highlights a statement that links growing older with getting “ugly.” Oof. 

The fast fashion retailer’s new line is fronted by models Kristina de Coninck, 53, Malgosia Bela, 40, and Yasmin Warsam, who is 41, according to Pret-A-Porter. On both Instagram and Zara’s website, the three women give personal testimonials about various subjects, including aging. 

In one testimonial, Bela delves into the subject of getting older, but uses some cringe-worthy language even as she says she likes the older version of herself. 

“I prefer myself so much better now than 10 years ago or 20 years ago. Obviously, it would be nice not to get old and ugly, but the mental process is only for the better,” she said. “So, it’s a paradox: more confidence, and you are getting old. But it’s… I kind of like it.”

The company highlighted her statement in a pull quote on its website, next to a her photo.


Linking “old” to “ugly” only reinforces gender stereotypes about aging women, and Zara’s unfortunate choice flies in the face of healthy progress. Models over 50 were represented more than ever during the last Fashion Week, and earlier this month, Allure was praised for banning the term “anti-aging” in an effort to help reframe growing older as an opportunity and a blessing, rather than an undesirable horror that saps a woman’s beauty and worth. Zara, which declined to comment, could easily help redirect the conversation. 

Instead, although the company’s campaign is admirable for highlighting women of an age we don’t often see in fashion campaigns, its messaging is still problematic. Sadly, such missteps are becoming routine for the Spanish brand: Back in March, Zara used thin models for a “love your curves” ad

Right idea, wrong execution ― once again. 

Share Button