Everyone expects to start seeing a few more fine lines and deep creases on their skin as they get older. After all, wrinkles are a normal byproduct of the collagen loss, hormonal changes, and environmental damage that comes with the natural aging process.
But if you’ve noticed that some of your skin looks crepey, chances are you want to know why — and what you can do about it. Luckily, board-certified anti-aging expert Jennylle Zanzi, FNP-C, and our team at RVA Regenerative Wellness can help on both counts.
Here, we explore the common cosmetic phenomenon known as crepey skin, and explain how microneedling with platelet-rich plasma (PRP) can improve your skin’s resiliency, strength, and appearance to restore a tight, youthful-looking complexion.
As its name implies, crepey skin has a thin, finely wrinkled surface that’s reminiscent of crepe paper. Crepey skin is skin that’s become weaker, saggier, and less resilient than it used to be — if you pinch or stretch it, it doesn’t resume its normal shape and tone quickly.
While your dermal tissues do progressively lose their ability to repair and reproduce strong skin structures as you get older, these normal age-related changes aren’t the main cause of thinning, crepey-textured skin. So, what is? Photodamage, or the cumulative effects of long-term exposure to the sun’s harmful ultraviolet (UV) light rays.
Photodamage is responsible for up to 90% of the early signs of aging that appear on your face, neck, chest, hands, arms, legs, and other frequently exposed areas of skin. Skin-damaging contact with UV light can happen through time spent outdoors, in tanning beds, or both.
Over time, continued exposure to harsh UV rays degrades and destroys the collagen and elastin “building block” fibers that give youthful skin its shape, strength, firmness, and resilience. While collagen can somewhat repair itself, elastin fibers cannot.
Photoaging, also known as premature skin aging, contributes to the development of some of the most common cosmetic complaints, including:
Although they can appear anywhere, the effects of photoaging tend to be most noticeable on the face, neck, upper chest, forearms, and hands.
Fortunately, there’s a lot you can do to minimize the appearance of crepey skin and other visible signs of premature skin aging — starting with better daily skin protection habits, and continuing with advanced skin care treatments.
Using a daily moisturizer that contains a broad-spectrum sunscreen (SPF 30 or above) can go a long way in keeping your fragile facial skin protected as you go about your normal day.
Staying indoors or in the shade when the sun is most intense (between 10AM and 4PM) can also help, as can wearing wide-brimmed hats and loose clothing with greater coverage.
Once you’ve put the brakes on the photoaging process, you can concentrate on improving or reversing any existing photodamage that makes your skin look older, thinner, crinklier, and otherwise crepey.
The most effective way to address photodamage? With an advanced skin care treatment that stimulates collagen and elastin renewal at the deepest level, helping you rejuvenate your skin and revitalize your complexion from the inside out.
As the ultimate form of collagen induction therapy, microneedling with PRP is a powerful treatment that triggers long-lasting collagen renewal and elastin fiber growth to restore healthier, more youthful-looking skin.
How does this damage-reversing, collagen-stimulating treatment work? It’s simple. First, we spin a small sample of your blood in a centrifuge machine. Your platelets, which are rich in growth factors, rise to the top of the vial. This “liquid gold” is your personal “PRP serum.”
Microneedling with PRP helps foster enduring skin renewal, too. How? Restoring higher levels of collagen and elastin prompts your skin to continue producing more collagen and elastin on its own, naturally.
If you’re ready to say goodbye to crepey skin, RVA Regenerative Wellness in Midlothian, Virginia, can help. Call us at 786-224-6878 today, or use our online booking feature to schedule a consultation at your convenience.
