@anese
Are you guys ready for some serious aging knowledge? Like eye-opening, jaw-dropping reinforcement of one of the most important lessons of Skin Health 101? If you’ve ever wondered why certain parts of your body don’t show the same signs of aging as your face, this is for you.
It all starts with your butt. Yes, you read that correctly. In one of the world’s most unfair aesthetic occurrences, our face starts losing fat as soon as our early twenties. However, many people see the opposite happening in their tush at the same age. The reason behind this? Sun exposure causes fat loss. So unless you’ve truly been living the #sunsoutbunsout hashtag, your tuchus rarely sees the light of day. Your face, on the other hand, gets plenty of doses of Vitamin D throughout your life. In short your butt keeps its volume longer than your face.
To drive this point home, the New England Journal of Medicine posted a (now infamous) photo of a truck driver who spent his entire life on the road. The two sides of his face look like they have a 20-year age gap, with the driver’s left-hand side showing increased fat loss and wrinkling as a result of much more sun exposure.
New England Journal of Medicine
Co-founder of FACILE dermatology + boutique Nancy Samolitis, MD, FAAD, sees this IRL regularly, although to a lesser extent. “A lot of times when I’m doing filler on people’s cheeks, I will definitely notice they’ll need more of the substance on the driver’s side,” she says. “We don’t realize how much sun exposure we get when we’re driving.”
Another factor in uneven volume loss is our sleeping habits. “I was injecting a 70-year-old woman the other day who had a dramatic difference in volume between her two cheeks,” says Dr. Samolitis. “I asked her if she rode on the passenger side in cars a lot, but it turns out she had just been sleeping on her right side her whole life.”
Here’s the takeaway, here, people: WEAR. YOUR. SUNSCREEN. Yes, even if you feel lazy. Protect your skin, even if that means hiding under several towels to do so. And judging by that photo, you may even want to invest in some sun-blocking tint for your car windows while you’re at it.
