Is anti-aging skin care really necessary

The answer is that there is really no one-size-fits-all standard answer. It all depends on your skin condition and actual needs.

Not long ago, I helped my 32-year-old Internet operator best friend adjust an anti-aging program. She stayed up late for almost half a year working on projects in the past two years, and often fell asleep without washing her face. At the end of last year, she suddenly discovered that her apple muscles were so collapsed that they were almost pressing down on her nasolabial folds, and her tear troughs were so deep that she didn’t wear two layers of concealer. Xia didn’t even dare to hold weekly meetings, so she started using low-concentration A-alcohol and acetyl hexapeptide-8 essence, and combined it with a home radiofrequency device twice a week to create jaw lines. After more than three months, her face became noticeably tighter. Now she tells everyone that anti-aging is the best money she has spent in the past two years. In fact, the reason is very simple. The natural aging of our skin starts around the age of 25. Collagen is lost at a rate of about 1% every year. If you don’t protect yourself from the sun, stay up late at night, and have a sweet tooth, photoaging and glycation will double this loss rate to three times, causing looseness and dry lines. It's only a matter of time before wrinkles come to your doorstep. At this time, using scientific anti-aging methods to intervene is essentially to put a brake on the aging speed of the skin. It's much more cost-effective than waiting until the lines have deepened into static lines and the face is too shabby to be seen, and then spending hundreds of thousands on major projects such as facelifts, right?

But this does not mean that everyone should put anti-aging on their skin care must-do list. I have a 47-year-old distant aunt in my hometown. She has never used skin care products worth more than 100 yuan in her life. She usually puts on ordinary moisturizer, wears a wide-brimmed hat and long sleeves when going out, and has a regular schedule to go to bed at 9 o'clock every day. Starting from five o'clock, she eats less oil and less sugar. Now, except for two shallow crow's feet when she smiles, her whole face is very tight. Last time she went out with her, some people thought she was only in her early 30s. She always said that those expensive anti-aging creams were IQ tax. She had never used them in her life and she looked smaller than her peers. To put it bluntly, the core logic of anti-aging is "reduce damage + replenish loss." If you have a full genetic buff, a regular schedule, strict sun protection, and your skin's own repair ability is enough to offset the speed of aging, then ordinary moisturizing and sunscreen are enough. There is really no need to spend extra money on anti-aging products. If you mess around, you may damage the skin barrier, which is not worth the gain.

In fact, before worrying about whether it is necessary, it is better to look at your own condition in the mirror first, and don't be bound by the anxiety marketing online that "20-year-olds must resist aging". I once met a girl who had just entered her junior year of college and saved up her living expenses for two months to buy an anti-aging cream. As a result, she was left with acne, which made her good skin sensitive and red. This is completely unnecessary - the skin in its early 20s still has a strong ability to synthesize collagen and does not need additional anti-aging ingredients. If you look in the mirror every day and feel that your nasolabial folds are getting deeper and your face looks haggard, and you are willing to spend some money to get in better shape, then anti-aging is necessary for you; if you are not anxious about wrinkles and feel that the lines caused by aging are the marks of life, then it is absolutely fine even if you don’t use anti-aging products for the rest of your life. Being comfortable is more important than anything else.