It's not a secret - exposure to the sun is harmful to our skin and eyes. Sunglasses protect our eyes and our vision by filtering the light through coated lenses. There’s another powerful cosmetic benefit to wearing sunglasses that no one is talking about; it naturally slows signs of aging in our skin.
Sunglasses make you look younger?
To explain the effects of wearing sunglasses on aging, we'll break down their impact into two parts. The first is the direct protection they offer the skin behind the lenses, and the second is the consequences of eliminating eye strain on our wrinkles.
Reduces Sun Damage On Skin
Sunglasses shield the areas of skin that they cover from the sun, which depending on the size of your sunglasses, will be an area of a specific shape around your eyes that are prone to aging. To understand this deeper, let's look at the adverse aging effects of UV rays on our skin.
How the Sun Ages Skin
Sun exposure is the primary cause of aging – 80% of visible aging signs are caused by the sun including wrinkles and age spots.
Enhances Ptosis
Ptosis is the condition that causes slackness in the skin around the eyes and the upper eyelids to droop downwards. While it's an ordinary sign of aging, UV exposure worsens its development, hitting you earlier in life and making you appear older than you are.
Causes Pigmentation Conditions
Being in the sun for too long can cause pigmentation abnormalities in your skin, and especially around your eyes where the skin is thinner. While most people think they can simply avoid sunbathing too often, most damage occurs gradually over time with as little as 15 minutes of exposure per day.
Causes Eye Conditions
Your corneas are prone to sunburn like the rest of your skin is, though the consequences are more severe, and it can result in distortions, growths, and even discolorations - which has the potential to age the appearance of your eyes.
Filtered Light Protects Skin
These potential aging effects of sun damage are heightened around your eyes and face, where the skin plays a pivotal role in how old you look. The skin around your eyes is also one of the most vulnerable areas to aging because it's thin, so the deeper skin layers are closer to the surface and have a much lower tolerance to the sun than other areas of your skin.
It's also a vulnerable area because its thinness causes it to strain and wrinkle easily, becoming an area where we first notice aging skin. Sunglasses with adequate protection reduce the amount of harmful UV light you absorb and keep your eyes looking healthy young much longer when you wear sunglasses regularly.
Reduces Eye Strain and Wrinkles From Squinting
Squinting your eyes to see in bright sunlight without sunglasses causes your skin to wrinkle temporarily. Over time these wrinkles deepen with each strain until they become permanently set.
The more you squint in response to unfiltered sunlight, the deeper your wrinkles grow, and the more permanent they lay their roots. This is not only about the skin around your eyes, but when you try to focus on anything, your eyebrows furrow and your cheeks lift – it really takes your whole face to accommodate for the sun's brightness.
Wearing sunglasses means your vision is less impaired, and you don't need to make those adjustments. Instead, your face remains unwrinkled, allowing wrinkles to stay shallow and less visible, making you maintain a youthful appearance. Vicci Eyewear stock a stylish and broad collection of sunglasses to protect your vision, reduce squinting, and keep you looking younger for longer.