Has all that ‘Fun in the Sun’ been aging your eyes?

Combined with squinting and smiling, the skin around your eyes works really hard. You blink about 21,000 times each day? It doesn’t have many oil glands to keep it moist. And this skin is thinner than the skin on the rest of your face.

Under eye circles and puffiness form with allergies, heredity and thinning skin of aging. Sleep loss and sun exposure contribute to wrinkles around the eyes. All this wear and tear means the skin around your eyes is the first area to show signs of aging.

Lines and Wrinkles

Each time you move your face, the skin around your eyes moves too. As we age, production of collagen and elastin slows. (Collagen gives skin firmness and structure, while elastin gives skin its elasticity.) Skin thins and repeat movements cause fine lines and wrinkles.

Micro-needling

Micro-needling adds thickness to the skin especially around the eyes. Most lasers and chemical peels cannot be used close to the eyes due to risk of eye injury. Micro-Needling below the eyes always gives the greatest ‘Wow.’ This is the first area to show signs of loss of structural integrity. In my own practice, I have found this is the first place my micro-needling patients notice improvement is in the wrinkles around their eyes.

Botox Injections

When Botox (or another botulinum toxin) is injected into the muscles that cause wrinkles, the muscles relax and wrinkles smooth. Results start to show in about a week and last about 4 months.

Dark Skin Under the Eyes

Dark skin underneath the eyes can be inherited or a result of post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation. Sometimes skin reacts to an injury (like frequent eye rubbing from itchy eyes, allergies or contact lenses) by creating dark pigment. One way to tell what’s causing your dark circles is to press on the dark circle with your fingertip. If the color does not fade, then pigment / melanin is the cause of your dark circles. If the color fades, then the darkness maybe contributed to the vascular wall beneath the skin beginning to show through as skin thins as we get older.