It is never too early to prevent wrinkles on the face. I tell my patients to begin an aging prevention plan in their 30s if they do not get a lot of sun and in their 20s or younger if they have sun exposure often. You can find out if you are a wrinkle-prone skin type and need to take steps to prevent wrinkles by taking our skin type quiz.There are 16 Baumann Skin Types and 8 of them are wrinkle-prone and need to be on a wrinkle prevention strategy.

The face is usually the first part of the skin to wrinkle because it gets the most sun exposure.  Even women in Muslim cultures who cover their face can get wrinkles on the face from the heat- especially if the head covering is black and more likely to absorb infrared radiation. So everyone should use treatments to prevent skin aging- even in your teens, 20s and 30s.  Men and women and all ethnicities should prevent skin aging.  Darker skin types tens to get sagging of the skin rather than wrinkles, but black skin types should also ty and prevent this skin aging and sagging by using skincare products to prevent wrinkles, sagging, skin thinning , and uneven skin pigmentation.

This blog will discuss strategies to prevent forehead wrinkles, crow's feet, wrinkles under the eyes, and wrinkles on the chest, neck and body.

Most people wait to late too prevent wrinkles!

If you are unsure if it is time for you to begin aging prevention skincare, find out your Baumann Skin Type to learn if you are at a high risk of getting skin wrinkles. Click the link below or read more here about what age to begin antiaging skincare.

You can see that there are many good products to prevent wrinkles on the face. Which to choose depends upon your Baumann Skin Type and which barriers to skin health you have, but in general- these are the 5 best products to prevent skin aging:

1. Alastin Restorative Skin Complex with TriHex Technology
2. Essopi 3x Retinol Serum
3. Plated Skinscience Intense Serum
4. Skinceuticals CE Ferulic
5. SkinMedica TNS Advanced + Serum

Of course, daily sunscreen is paramount! These all work must better when combined in a custom skincare routine with sunscreen.

There are many antiaging skincare ingredients and products but they do not all prevent wrinkles. There are 10 strategies that your aging prevention skincare products should use to block the causes of wrinkles:

1. Prevent inflammation
2. Neutralize free radicals
3. Protect skin proteins like collagen
4. Increase collagen production
5. Prevent skin elastin breakdown
6. Protect the extracellular matrix like glycosaminoglycans
7. Reduce senescent cells
8. Increase autophagy
9. Protect skin from glycation
10. Prevent DNA mutation

You can learn more about the best anti-wrinkle serums in these blogs or in the following video.

• Anti-wrinkle serums
• Menopause skin care for women
• Antiaging skincare for men

 These are the best sunscreens to prevent wrinkles:

• ISDIN Eryfotona Actinica Daily Lightweight Mineral SPF 50+ Sunscreen- this sunscreen has DNA repair enzymes that correct  mutations caused by the sun before permanent damage to your cellular DNA occurs.
• Pavise Dynamic Age Defense SPF- 

There are many structural proteins and components to the skin that are slowly lost which leads to skin aging. The components  most discussed are the glycosaminoglycans in the extracellular matrix like hyaluronic acid and heparan sulfate, and structural elastin and collagen. 

• Loss of collagen thins skin and causes wrinkles.  
• Loss of hyaluronic acid (HA) leads to a loss of skin plumpness (or jello skin). 
•  Loss of elastin leads to skin sagging. 

Although you can bring back collagen and HA with skincare products, elastin is lost forever so you cannot reverse sagging.  You are much better off preventing aging then waiting until you have it! Our skin type quiz can tell you when to start using antiaging skincare product and which products to use.

To learn more about antiaging skincare routines in your 20s, visit this blog.

Here are products to use in your 20s to prevent aging:

Preventing wrinkles is possible. There are many “prejuvenation treatments” to help keep the skin young.   These are the strategies that help prevent wrinkles on the face:

• Protect skin from sun
• Protect skin from free radicals with antioxidants
• Reduce movement with botulinum toxins
• Encourage collagen production with retinoids and vitamin C

I will discuss each area of the face and how to prevent wrinkles-  but to avoid repetition, I will not discuss sunscreen each time even though sunscreen is the best way to prevent skin aging.

The following sections will discuss treatments that have been proven with evidence-based data to prevent or slow skin aging. These are the treatments used by dermatologists to prevent wrinkles:

• Botulinum Toxin Type A
• Hyaluronic acid Dermal Fillers
• Retinoid acid peels
• Oral retinoids like Accutane
• Vitamin C masks and supplements

Note that while lights, lasers, and peels are used to treat skin aging- they do not prevent wrinkles.

Forehead wrinkles are caused my the natural movement of the frontalis muscle that occurs with facial expression.  While using retinoids, an, ascorbic acid and antioxidants can help prevent aging, you really need to limit the movement of this area by relaxing the muscles with botulinum toxins. Preventing movement helps stop the formation of forehead wrinkles.

There are many types of botulinum toxin Type A on the market and they all work to prevent forehead wrinkles.  The brand names are:

• Botox®
• Daxxify®
• Dysport®
• Jeuveau®
• Xeomin®

The best ways to prevent crow's feet wrinkles are:

• Botulinum toxin injections
• Wearing sunglasses to stop squinting
• SPF
• Retinol 

Here are some good eye serums with retinol to help prevent crows feet:

It is not as easy to prevent wrinkles under the eyes because the botulinum toxins like Botox do not really prevent under eye wrinkles that are formed from the cheek pushing up.  Your best bet to prevent these under eye wrinkles is a retinol serum and sunscreen and keeping the area hydrated.  Sun glasses are always a good idea to protect the area from sun exposure and from squinting. (24,25)

My patients in their 20s and 30s are already beginning to develop neck wrinkles from looking down at their phone.  So I am commonly asked what to do abut neck wrinkles. The best way to prevent neck wrinkles is with retinoids and Vitamin C. Also, hold your phone up so you are not creasing the skin in your neck when you look at your phone screen. 

Here are some neck creams to help prevent wrinkles on the neck.

The decolletage area is the skin on yur chest above and between your breasts.  In women, this area tends to wrinkle due to the way the breasts are pushed together while sleeping or in a bra.  The skin should be treated with retinoid to prevent aging, but this area is extremely delicate so you need a very low strength retinol. You probably will not be able to use both retinol and ascorbic acid together in the décolleté area until you adjust to the retinol- so start it first every third  night and alternate with an antiaging hydrating moisturizer like Zerafite Wrinkle Defense Cream. This area tends to be wrinkled in the morning because it gets creased at night and the water is pushed out of t e skin. Using a humectant and occlusive ingredients together in a moisturizer can help the skin look smoother in the morning.

These antiaging creams are some options for the décolleté area.  Many have peptides that help temporarily firm the skin and plump up the fine lines.  But peptides don't prevent future wrinkles on the chest the way that retinoids and Vitamin C do.

Preventing wrinkles in men is the same as in women except you should avoid estrogen containing creams or ingredients that bind estrogen receptors. The 3 best products to prevent skin aging in men is with:

• Retinoids
• Vitamin C
• Sunscreen

If you are perimenopausal, then you may want to consider using products that have some estrogenic effects.  Do not use this if you have a history of breast or uterine or ovarian cancer in your family.  Discuss with your doctor before you use these.  You can learn more about skincare during menopause at this blog.

Wondering how to prevent wrinkles naturally?  The number one way is daily sunscreen and sun avoidance.  The sun is responsible for at least 70% of skin aging.

You can considering using natural oils with antioxidants at night to help the skin repair itself. Also eat a diet high in fruits and vegetables.  Drink green tea.  Make sure you have antioxidants like blueberries, strawberries and cranberries in your diet.  Also- moisturizer your skin every day at least once.  Dry skin types should moisturize at least twice a day.

There are many treatments to prevent skin aging like microneedling, laser and peels that are unnecessary if you use the right skin care routine for your Bauman Ski Type.  Consistent skincare is more important than getting cosmetic treatments when it comes to preventing aging.  Botulinum toxin treatments are the best way to prevent wrinkles caused by motion such as forehead wrinkles and crow's feet. 

1. Baumann, L. (2005). How to prevent photoaging?. Journal of Investigative Dermatology, 125(4), xii.
2. Baumann L. Antiaging Ingredients in Ch. 37 of Baumann's Cosmetic Dermatology Ed 3. (McGraw Hill 2022)
3. Baumann L. Intrinsic aging and Extrinsic Aging in Chapters 5 and 6 of Baumann's Cosmetic Dermatology Ed 3. (McGraw Hill 2022)
4. Baumann L. Wrinkled Skin in Ch. 21 of Baumann's Cosmetic Dermatology Ed 3. (McGraw Hill 2022)
5. Baumann, L. Ch.81-83  Cosmeceuticals and Cosmetic Ingredients (McGraw Hill 2015)
6. Baumann, L. (2007). Skin ageing and its treatment. The Journal of Pathology: A Journal of the Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 211(2), 241-251.
7. Baumann, L. (2018). How to use oral and topical cosmeceuticals to prevent and treat skin aging. Facial Plastic Surgery Clinics, 26(4), 407-413.
8. Jesus, A., Mota, S., Torres, A., Cruz, M. T., Sousa, E., Almeida, I. F., & Cidade, H. (2023). Antioxidants in sunscreens: which and what for?. Antioxidants, 12(1), 138.
9. Dańczak‐Pazdrowska, A., Gornowicz‐Porowska, J., Polańska, A., Krajka‐Kuźniak, V., Stawny, M., Gostyńska, A., ... & Masternak, M. M. (2023). Cellular senescence in skin‐related research: Targeted signaling pathways and naturally occurring therapeutic agents. Aging Cell, e13845.
10. Čižmárová, B., Hubková, B., Tomečková, V., & Birková, A. (2023). Flavonoids as promising natural compounds in the prevention and treatment of selected skin diseases. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 24(7), 6324.
11. Susmita, A., Kolli, N. N. D., Meka, S., Chakravarthi, S. P., Kattimani, V. S., Lingamaneni, K. P., & Shaik, L. S. (2016). An evaluation of use of botulinum toxin type a in the management of dynamic forehead wrinkles-a clinical study. Journal of clinical and diagnostic research: JCDR, 10(10), ZC127.
12. Satriyasa, B. K. (2019). Botulinum toxin (Botox) A for reducing the appearance of facial wrinkles: a literature review of clinical use and pharmacological aspect. Clinical, cosmetic and investigational dermatology, 223-228.
13. Liza, R. S., Malek, L., ul Islam, M. R., & Nobi, N. Sustainability of preventive botox for the anti-aging process.
14. Braccini, F., Catoni, I., Belfkira, F., Lagier, J., Roze, E., Paris, J., ... & Redaelli, A. (2023). SAMCEP Society consensus on the treatment of upper facial lines with botulinum neurotoxin type A: A tailored approach. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, 22(10), 2692-2704.
15. Sun, Y., Li, Y., Zhang, Y., Dong, R., Lan, X., Zhang, M., ... & Long, X. (2023). Unparallel improvement patterns of dynamic wrinkles and skin quality after botulinum toxin type A treatment on the upper face. Skin Research and Technology, 29(3), e13309.
16. Susmita, A., Kolli, N. N. D., Meka, S., Chakravarthi, S. P., Kattimani, V. S., Lingamaneni, K. P., & Shaik, L. S. (2016). An evaluation of use of botulinum toxin type a in the management of dynamic forehead wrinkles-a clinical study. Journal of clinical and diagnostic research: JCDR, 10(10), ZC127.
17. Tamatsu, Y., Tsukahara, K., Sugawara, Y., & Shimada, K. (2015). New finding that might explain why the skin wrinkles more on various parts of the face. Clinical Anatomy, 28(6), 745-752.
18. Poljsak, B., Godic, A., Starc, A., & Dahmane, R. (2016). The Neglected Importance of Sleep on the Formation and Aggravation of Facial Wrinkles and Their Prevention. Journal of Cosmetics, Dermatological Sciences and Applications, 6(03), 96.
19. Zhao, Y., Feng, B., Lee, J., Lu, N., & Pierce, D. M. (2020). A multi-layered model of human skin elucidates mechanisms of wrinkling in the forehead. Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials, 105, 103694.
20. Cole, M. A., Quan, T., Voorhees, J. J., & Fisher, G. J. (2018). Extracellular matrix regulation of fibroblast function: redefining our perspective on skin aging. Journal of cell communication and signaling, 12, 35-43.
21. Wang, F., Garza, L. A., Kang, S., Varani, J., Orringer, J. S., Fisher, G. J., & Voorhees, J. J. (2007). In vivo stimulation of de novo collagen production caused by cross-linked hyaluronic acid dermal filler injections in photodamaged human skin. Archives of dermatology, 143(2), 155-163.
22. Carruthers, J. D., Carruthers, J. A., & Humphrey, S. (2014). Fillers and neocollagenesis. Dermatologic Surgery, 40, S134-S136.
23. Sachs, D. L., & Voorhees, J. J. (2011). Age‐reversing drugs and devices in dermatology. Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 89(1), 34-43.
24. Ekiz, Ö., Yüce, G., Ulaşli, S. S., Ekiz, F., Yüce, S., & Başar, Ö. (2012). Factors influencing skin ageing in a Mediterranean population from Turkey. Clinical and experimental dermatology, 37(5), 492-496.
25. Behar-Cohen, F., Baillet, G., de Ayguavives, T., Garcia, P. O., Krutmann, J., Peña-García, P., ... & Wolffsohn, J. S. (2013). Ultraviolet damage to the eye revisited: eye-sun protection factor (E-SPF®), a new ultraviolet protection label for eyewear. Clinical Ophthalmology, 87-104.
26. Kim, J. M., Jeon, S. W., Lee, W. G., Nam, H. J., & Kim, Y. B. (2010). Study of preventing methods for skin aging and wrinkles. Journal of physiology & pathology in Korean Medicine, 24(4), 533-542.
27. Fabi, S., Pavicic, T., Braz, A., Green, J. B., Seo, K., & van Loghem, J. A. (2017). Combined aesthetic interventions for prevention of facial ageing, and restoration and beautification of face and body. Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology, 423-429.
28. Robin Chung, M. S. (2021). Efficacy and Tolerability of a Novel Topical Treatment for the Neck: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Regimen-Controlled Study. Journal of Drugs in Dermatology, 20(2), 184-191.