It comes as no surprise when we hear about the levels of cash people spend on the various skin care products that grace the counters of our cosmetics stores. That’s because our skin, particularly our faces and hands, is the part of us that other most often see and take signals from and our skin gives away so much about our health and lifestyle and, most notably our age.
The youthful look is definitely in vogue. It has been for the best part of a century and shows no sign of stopping soon. Of course, there is no longer anything graceful about growing old gracefully. The best way to maintain a fresh, young-looking appearance is, well, to be young and fresh; for everyone else a combination of preventive measures and a full care plan is what is needed. The key is probably to be realistic about our expectations and not expect overnight miracles. But there’s one thing we can all do, and it’s never to early or late to start.
We all love the sun. It makes us joyful and carefree and we’re prepared to travel huge distances to lie under its rays. But the sun has some unfortunate side-effects that can age our skin prematurely. Most of are taught from a young age that we have put sun block on, but the sun creams available today are far more advanced that those of twenty years ago. It was frequently known as sun tan lotion, and still is in certain circles. Taking precautions as part of our daily routine would have been unheard of, it was strictly a holiday thing.
But then scientists discovered a massive “ozone hole” in the upper atmosphere in the 1970s and 80s. As ozone filters out some types of UV light from the sun, the relationship between sunlight and likelihood of conditions ranging from sunburn to various cancers made the world take note. Nowadays, UV blockers are a component many skin creams, lip balms and anti-ageing creams as UV light is a recognized cause of ageing. Aside from this, we are advised to control our exposure to the sun by staying in the shade and keeping covered up, take the midday siesta you see followed in some hot countries for example.
