According to the findings of a new study from Procter & Gamble, it is actually a skin tone, and not wrinkles that gives away one's age and indicates that we are becoming older.

The experts say that distribution of melanin and hemoglobin in our skin becomes uneven with years, leaving us with brown age spots and spider veins. On a young and healthy face, the only contrast is due to the features - the mouth, nose and eyes. But as a person grows older, he/she has more concentrations of hemoglobin and melanin, as well as darker shadows due to fine lines and wrinkles, and it is this contrast that is a major indicator of our age.

For their study purposes, two researchers, Dr. Bernard Fink, evolutionary psychologist at the University of Goettingham, Germany, and Dr. Paul Matts, research fellow at Procter & Gamble, have focused exclusively on how skin tone can give away a woman's real age even in those cases when there was not a single wrinkle on her face. The investigators took high-resolution digital images of 170 women with the ages between 11 and 76 years old and also created 170 identical virtual skulls with standard hair, bone structure and features and then electronically draped their subjects' skin over the skulls. This was done because the experts were interested only in skin coloration, without the distraction of features and hair.

All the images then were shown to more than 400 public individuals, who were able to guess how old the original women were from their skin coloration alone. The findings helped the experts come to the conclusion that those in pursuit of a fresh-faced look better concentrate on the condition and colour of their skin, and not on wrinkles.

Whereas the problem of wrinkles can be addressed in a number of different ways, from massages to anti-aging devices and creams, and, of course, plastic surgery, the problem of skin tone can also be handled and taken care of. Dr. Matts strongly believes that the best way to achieve the goal of looking fresh, young and healthy is to protect the face from harmful sun rays. According to the researcher, skin never forgets - chronic sun damage is cumulative. His advice for those who are interested in looking good for their age and having a blemish-free skin color, is to moderate sun damage through changing their behavior and using sun screen with an SPF of at least 15 and both UVA and UVB protection.

In the short term, cosmetic products that contain light-diffusing particles, such as micas and titanium dioxide, can be very helpful to maintain a good complexion because they scatter light and create a softer focus on fine lines and wrinkles. A moderately and professionally-applied artificial tan will also even out skin colour. As to the long term, Dr. Matts recommends products that contain niacinamide, as the chemical moderates melanin, thus eliminating blotches and brown age-spots and giving a skin more even coloration. In addition, niacinamide brings down the transportation of melanocytes (the cells that produce melanin) to the outer layers of the skin and also makes skin smoother by increasing the rate of cell turnover.

Tags: Aging, Skin Care, Women's Health

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