What Can I Do About Age Spots on My Face?
Alayne, Do you have anything for age spots?
This is one of the top 3 questions when I speak to women about their skin.
Why Do I Have Age Spots?
Age spots, brown spots, sun spots, pigmentation. Whatever you want to call them, their prevalence is a hot topic. Especially as we cross over.
Peri-menopause, menopause, post menopause, mid fifties and beyond… That pesky climb towards the mirror staring back at us ( if we can still see without a magnifying one). How did this happen? I occasionally hear the voice in my head laughing.
I have been taking care of my skin since I was ten. My mother gave me the gift of self-care = skin care early on and off and running I was.
Always wash, always moisturize drilled into my head and fifty years later, it is a practice I never miss.
It's All About the SPF
But in all of this basic self care, the message of SPF was omitted as I tagged along with my mother and friends to the beach. I grew up living on a small island where going to the beach was a sport. Bain De Soleil for that St. Tropez Tan, foil blankets, holding album covers in front of our faces to reflect the sun better towards our face.
When I was drinking age, I worked as a cocktail waitress at a really fun outdoor bar in Newport, RI in the summers. I became friends with a waitress who worked alongside of me. This meant work the 10pm-2am shift, go to a party from 2-5am, stumble home, get your beach stuff together and meet at the beach for the day to sleep it off. Rewind. Repeat.
I hung out with her for three straight summers. She used to wear a tee shirt that said, She who dies with the best tan wins. No kidding, I wouldn’t be surprised with the intense tanning she did, that she probably died from melanoma. Let’s hope not, but tanning was a fashion statement back then and my posse of friends spent hours and days baking.
The tee shirt probably should have said, "She who has the best tan in their teens if they don’t die from skin cancer, will become wrinkly brown spotted old ladies."
The good thing about a weakening eye sight is that I don’t notice the ever expanding brown spots popping up. Until I do and and as I get continuous questions about how to get rid of them I am clear that one product here, one product there is not the solution. It is a hope in a jar feel good purchase.
How Can I Get Rid of Age Spots?
Getting rid of brown spots is different conversation than minimizing them. “Getting rid” of brown spots I generally leave up to the people with an MD attached to their name. Julie B, a powerhouse esthetician who works for me and who has a deep knowledge of skin, has been producing some incredible results from the in person peel treatments she does along with a focused and consistent at home routine. This is neither for the feint hearted nor the budget conscious, though. It requires a time and money commitment and a very structured habit. It also requires a no more sun EVER commitment.
When you decide to focus on the elimination or minimization of brown spots, you must couple this with no more free- falling fun in the sun. Hats, umbrellas, and DAILY SPF are your new menage a trois.
That is usually a deal breaker in the conversations. But for those of us who want little wins, brighter skin, less pigmentation, more even tone, I can steer you in the right direction.
Schedule a skin chat with me. I also offer occasional workshops to help with various skin questions and concerns.