One of the microscopic substances that makes up your skin is known as collagen. Collagen is nothing more than a protein that is twisted in a helical shape; like a DNA molecule. However, collagen has three strands instead of two. Collagen’s shape helps to keep your skin strong and firm and confers some elastic properties as well.

While collagen does have elastic properties, there is a protein in your skin that is more involved in the elasticity of it: this protein is called elastin. It allows your skin to pop back into place after some kind of force depresses it or pulls it out of position, like when your grandma pinched your face.

Like greying hair, reduced skin elasticity is a fact of life. And it mostly starts to occur when we get into our 30s. At this age you may start to notice your skin is drier and duller in color. This is because the rate of new cells being produced by your skin is beginning to slow down. You may also notice more fine lines around key areas such as your eyes and mouth. Unlike your teens and twenties, when you smile these lines may not disappear. This is when wrinkles start to form as ‘expression’ lines. In your 30s, you may also start to lose some of your skin tone because the elastic support from your lymph glands – responsible for flushing out toxins – starts to weaken. This can lead to puffiness around the eyes and the overall complexion of your skin can become less bright.

But let’s list some of the main reasons why our skin loses elasticity with time.

1.) Genes:
This is probably the biggest factor in determining why and when your skin will lose elasticity, sag, and form wrinkles. Remember, you can maximize your genetic potential only up to a certain point but you can destroy it far more quickly.

2.) Smoking:
It’s a well-established fact that this causes damage to the skin through one of several ways. cigarettes contain substances that negatively affect collagen synthesis, increase its breakdown, while simultaneously diminishing nutrient delivery to the skin.

3.) U.V. Radiation:
Most of us get this from the sun and many others flirting with danger get it from tanning salons. You can think of U.V. radiation as a weapon of mass destruction for your skin. Exposure to too much of the wrong kind of U.V. radiation essentially bombards your proteins in the skin with WMD’s that destroys the collagen directly.

4.) Stress:
When your body is under a lot of stress it releases a stress hormone known as cortisol. This hormone causes all sorts of problems that lead to inflammation of the skin. It also slows down the reparative mechanisms in your skin and has been implicated in the destruction of collagen directly.

5.) Sleep:
If you don’t get enough sleep you can suffer a lot of ill effects; but you already knew that. However, did you know that not only will lack of sleep cause stress but that it’s during our sleep that a lot of repair and regeneration of our skin takes place? If you don’t get enough sleep, you won’t give your body enough time to properly heal itself. So, get your beauty sleep!

6.) Diet:
Do you like sweets? Too bad if the answer is yes. It’s been shown that eating too much stuff with sugar can cause your skin to start sagging prematurely due to a process called glycation. What basically occurs during glycation is that the sugar you eat begins to attach itself to elastin and collagen, thereby disrupting the normal cohesiveness of your skin, which therefore causes it to wrinkle and sag. It’s no fun, but you might consider cutting out some of that sugar for this and many other health related reasons.

Now we have summed all of these up here are a few tips that can help you to maintain elasticity for longer. Exfoliation is as important as ever to rid the complexion of skin-dulling dead cells and a good eye cream or serum can help to keep fine lines and dark circles at bay. Treat yourself to a nourishing face mask whenever your skin feels in need of an extra boost and invest in a good skin brightener for instant radiance. Massaging your skin when applying moisturizer can help move your lymphatic fluid around. Antioxidants is a word that pops up constantly when talking about skin elasticity and anti-ageing – these compounds are said to be the weapon against cell-damaging free radicals that can lead to premature ageing Antioxidants can speed up the cell replacement process and neutralize the harmful free radicals in your body.