Signs of Skin Ageing: 4 Early Clues and What Helps

Four early signs of skin ageing that people often miss are thinner-looking hands, flat brown sun spots, a changing eye area and dry, itchy skin. Ageing can’t be fully reversed, but it can be slowed: Australian adults under 55 who used sunscreen daily showed no detectable skin ageing over 4.5 years.¹

Are your hands ageing faster than your face?

They can give it away. With age, hands lose collagen, elastin and the fat under the skin, so veins, tendons and joints begin to stand out. Sun and household cleaning products add wrinkles, rough texture and brown spots.²

Put sunscreen on your hands as well as your face, and wear gloves for cleaning. If they still bother you, our ageing hands treatment uses fillers to restore volume, with PRGF, pico laser or peels to renew thin skin and fade spots.

Are those flat brown spots sun damage?

Probably, if they are flat, evenly coloured and on skin the sun reaches. These are solar lentigines, also called sun spots or age spots. Long-term UV exposure causes them, they are harmless, and they are common in Asian populations, often on the face.³

Strict sun protection reduces new spots and may lighten existing ones a little. Retinoids, chemical peels and pigment lasers such as pico laser are the usual next steps.³

Get a spot checked straight away if one half is unlike the other, the edge is uneven, the colour varies, or it is changing. Those are warning signs of melanoma.⁴

Why does the area around your eyes look different?

Part of the answer is bone. The rim around the eye is one of the areas of the face that loses bone with age, in a predictable pattern, and this adds to an older look.⁵ That is why an eye cream can only do so much: creams give only subtle results, and they can’t lift sagging skin.⁶

Sunglasses help by limiting the lines that come from squinting.⁷ For thin, tired skin under the eyes, a doctor may suggest a salmon DNA injection. For brows and cheeks that have started to drop, HIFU is one option.

Why does skin get dry and itchy as you age?

Dryness is a recognised part of skin ageing: a study of 4,025 American women aged 40 to 74 counted it alongside wrinkles and thinning as a sign of ageing.⁸ Dry, cracked skin can then itch.⁹

Keep showers short and cool or lukewarm, use an unperfumed moisturiser regularly, and pat your skin instead of scratching. A HydraFacial leaves skin soft and hydrated for a few weeks if you want a boost.

See a doctor if the itch is severe, covers your whole body, keeps coming back, or comes with a new rash. Less commonly, it can be a sign of a thyroid, liver or kidney problem.⁹

Can skin ageing be reversed?

Partly. Natural ageing carries on, but some sun damage improves. In one study, 32 adults used an SPF 30 sunscreen on the face every day for a year, and their texture, clarity and pigmentation improved by 40% to 52% from where they started. All 32 used the sunscreen, so there was no comparison group, and some authors worked for a sunscreen maker.¹⁰ Used for more than six months, the retinoid tretinoin can also reduce sun spots and fine wrinkling.¹¹

Clinic treatments go further on what has already changed. HIFU, chemical peels, microneedling, RF microneedling, Botox, fillers and thread lifts each suit a different problem, and you can compare them on our anti-ageing treatments page. They can soften lines and firm skin without surgery, though results are more modest than a facelift.⁶

Which habits speed up skin ageing?

• Sun: in a study of 966 people, sun exposure was strongly linked to elastosis, the breakdown of elastic tissue in facial skin.¹²
• Smoking: linked to the same change in both men and women in that study. Smoking also causes a dull, sallow complexion.^7,12
• Poor sleep: among 60 healthy Caucasian women, poor sleepers had more signs of natural ageing and weaker skin barrier recovery than good sleepers. This shows a link, and it doesn’t prove cause.¹³
• Diet: in the study of 4,025 women, more vitamin C was linked to lower odds of a wrinkled look.⁸ Too much sugar and refined carbohydrate may speed ageing up.⁷
• Alcohol: it dehydrates skin and damages it over time.⁷
• Harsh products: scrubbing and anything that stings or burns irritates skin, and irritation can make it look older.⁷

What should I do next?

Start with what you can change this week: daily sunscreen of SPF 30 or higher, no smoking, and gentler products. If one of these four signs still bothers you, a doctor can look at your skin and explain what would help most. Consultations for aesthetic treatments are free at all 12 of our clinics, and you can ask for a female doctor. A dermatologist consultation has a fee.

See our anti-ageing treatments, or ask a skin specialist in Islamabad what would help most.

Medically reviewed by Dr Sadaf Saleem, Dermatologist, FCPS (Dermatology), PM&DC 62494-P; Dr Junaid Rabbani, Dermatologist, PM&DC 44510-S; and Dr Shegref Mushtaq, Dermatologist, FCPS (Dermatology), PM&DC 19827-N

1. Hughes MC, et al. Sunscreen and prevention of skin aging: a randomized trial. Ann Intern Med, 2013.
2. Har-Shai L, et al. Revitalizing hands: a comprehensive review of anatomy and treatment options for hand rejuvenation. Cureus, 2023.
3. DermNet. Solar lentigo.
4. American Academy of Dermatology. What to look for: ABCDEs of melanoma.
5. Mendelson B, Wong CH. Changes in the facial skeleton with aging: implications and clinical applications in facial rejuvenation. Aesthetic Plast Surg, 2020.
6. American Academy of Dermatology. Many ways to firm sagging skin.
7. American Academy of Dermatology. 11 ways to reduce premature skin aging.
8. Cosgrove MC, et al. Dietary nutrient intakes and skin-aging appearance among middle-aged American women. Am J Clin Nutr, 2007.
9. NHS. Itchy skin.
10. Randhawa M, et al. Daily use of a facial broad spectrum sunscreen over one-year significantly improves clinical evaluation of photoaging. Dermatol Surg, 2016.
11. DermNet. Topical retinoids.
12. Kennedy C, et al. Effect of smoking and sun on the aging skin. J Invest Dermatol, 2003.
13. Oyetakin-White P, et al. Does poor sleep quality affect skin ageing? Clin Exp Dermatol, 2015.

Treatments in this article

Sessions, downtime and results for each, on its own page.

Ageing Hands TreatmentAppointment: 15–40 minutes, by treatment · Downtime: Swelling for a few daysFreckles & Dark Spots TreatmentAppointment: 20–30 minutes · Downtime: Flaking or redness for a few days

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