Anti-Aging 101 for Women of Color

I’m always SO excited to talk you guys about skincare

Folks, the 3rd Annual Wrinkle Ranking by RoC® Skincare and Sperling’s Best Places has predicted New York City will be the 8th most wrinkle-prone American city in 2040 (we were #1 last year). I’ll be 59 by the time 2040 hits and while the stresses of living in the city that never sleeps may alter my youthful appearance, hopefully I’ll still be looking snatched. Yes, Black may not crack and whatever the saying is for brown, that, too. But there are some changes in our skin that we women of color experience as we age even though we may not tend to wrinkle as fast. There are also certain behaviors we should avoid (smoking, tanning, and yes, too much drinking) that can make us crack—as fast as a Fabergé egg would in a football game. And this is all regardless of your current zip code.

While the amount of skincare info out there can be overwhelming, now is not the time to be beating your feet when it comes to getting on a proper skincare regimen. So I’ve put together this post: an Anti-Aging 101 for women of color.

What’s happening?!?!?!

Without getting into each and every detail (because we could be here all day), there are a ton of things going on in our bodies as we age and one of the main things is we tend to produce less estrogen. Estrogen is responsible for many “female” sexual characteristics, so as the production tends to slow as we age, you’ll notice things like facial and chest hair (I might be the president of that club) and an increase in adult acne brought on by a change in hormones among other things. In women of color we know that the side effects of some of these side effects usually spells out D-A-R-K S-P-O-T-S.

Other changes may also include a decrease in the production of collagen. Collagen is the protein in the skin that helps give the skin its taut and snatched appearance. As production decreases, the skin becomes more susceptible to wrinkles and loss of elasticity.

You might also start to feel a lot more achy more often. That has nothing to do with skincare of course, but I figured I’d let you know that while some of you mentioned how I don’t look 35 while leaving happy birthday messages for me last month, my body sometimes feels like it’s been here for centuries. BUT on the bright side, you also tend to become more and more confident in your womanhood as you get older. I might have chin and chest hairs and my knees may lock up at times, but dammit, I’ve never felt sexier…lol.

Your first defense

Your first defense with aging is to get yourself on a regular skincare regimen that is tailored to your skin type and skin care concerns like yesterday. I’ve written extensively on skincare so make sure you go through the archives via my menu bar to catch up, but a basic skincare regimen will look something like…

Morning: cleanse, treat, moisturize with SPF
Night: cleanse, treat, nighttime moisturizer

RoC makes some amazing products you can consider adding to your routine. The RoC® Daily Resurfacing Disks are one of my fave cleansers and it does double-duty with each disk as you can also exfoliate while cleansing. Check out my review here.

Your treatment product will of course depend on what you need to treat and can change as your skin changes. Right now my main concerns are occasional breakouts (thanks, hormones!) and dark spots. As it gets colder you can add dull skin to the mix for me. My treatment products and staples like cleansers and moisturizers change as my skincare needs and the weather changes, but it’s always the basic cleanse/treat/moisturize routine. You can see what I typically use on my skin here.

One of the most important things you can have in your anti-aging regimen is a sunscreen with at least SPF 30 and that works for your skin type. I’ve talked about the various RoC Skincare moisturizers with SPF and which ones are made for various skin types and concerns here. And for all things snatched and smooth, PLEASE do not forget to protect your neck by using a moisturizer with SPF during the day and also applying your night cream to the area at night. RoC MULTI CORREXION® 5-In-1 Chest, Neck & Face Cream With SPF 30 is pretty much made for that area and won’t stain your clothes.

Check out my Sunscreen video below as well as my Sun Care tag for more info:

Adult Acne

As I mentioned above, most of our aging skin issues stem from the slowing down of estrogen production. Another side effect of this is adult acne. You’ll probably understand more now why some people are prescribed birth control pills to control hormonal acne–estrogen helps to keep things in check.

Your best defense with adult acne is to make sure you’re on that consistent day and night skincare regimen I talked about earlier. Make sure you’re properly removing your makeup, cleansing your skin effectively, and moisturizing as well as a host of other things you might be doing (or not doing) that can promote acne.

Facial hair

I used to never understand how some women seemed like they didn’t know they had facial hair until *I* became the woman with the facial hair. See, as women of color, getting rid of that peach fuzz (or peach garden as it can be sometimes in my case…lol) isn’t as simple as just shaving it off sometimes. Hair removal processes can irritate skin of color and cause it to go into panic mode (I talk about this more later) and now instead of a whisker you have a colony of dark spots that can take months to fade. And then that whisker has the nerve to grow back :/

Sometimes I like to tell younger women about how facial hairs can sprout up like crazy once you hit 30 JUST to see the looks of horror on their faces. But like I said about getting older, you become more comfortable with yourself so I personally am not ashamed of anyone seeing my five o’clock shadow.

But alas, facial hairs do tend to get in the way of things like contouring and selfies so removing them does become a priority after a while. My esthetician friends say it’s ok to 86 the hairs with a clean straight razor but the ultimate goal is laser hair removal. Thankfully there are lasers out now that work well for those of us with dark skin and dark hair. I’ve used some at-home devices and even toyed with a single in-office session but I still have more researching to do before I can really give my take on laser hair removal.

But there are some practical things you can be doing to help avoid some of the side effects of facial hair. For one, exfoliate–but don’t over exfoliate either as that can dry out and/or irritate your skin. Remember those RoC® Daily Resurfacing Disks I mentioned earlier—one side works as a gentle exfoliator. And of course, do not forget to use SPF which is even more important after laser use.

Uneven Skin Texture

Our skin is a pretty awesome organ that not only protects our inner organs, but also does amazing things as we sleep to renew itself. But as we get older that process tends to slow down and for many of us, uneven skin texture becomes all so real.

You can combat uneven skin texture in many ways. You of course want to have your regular day and night skincare regimen in place—properly cleansing, treating, and moisturizing the skin is suuuuper important. And again, SPF is the answer as the sun’s harmful rays can make the situation worse. You also may want to exfoliate 1-2 times a week as needed. Exfoliating helps shed that top layer of dead cells on the skin’s surface that can literally be stunting your shine and helps to smooth and even the skin’s texture. There are both chemical and physical exfoliants (we’ll talk about this in depth later, remember this is Anti-Aging 101) and either way you slice it, make sure you’re using an SPF to protect your skin.

A quick way to see some temporary results is by using a product like RoC SMOOTH PERFEXION® Instant Line Corrector. This helps to blur the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles (pores, too, but understand this is a temporary fix—nothing can permanently change the size of your pores) and can be used with or without makeup. When used over time, it can help improve the skin’s appearance.

If you need a little more help, consider a wrinkle treatment—RoC makes a number that are easily accessible at your local drugstore: RoC® RETINOL CORREXION® Deep Wrinkle Filler, RoC® RETINOL CORREXION® Deep Wrinkle Night Cream, and RoC® RETINOL CORREXION® Deep Wrinkle Serum.

And don’t forget the EYES! The best time to start using an eye cream was yesterday. Read my posts on eye creams here and here.

These are all preventative methods—an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure. While some may help to treat, prevention is your best defense at this stage of life. Once things progress too far, you’ll need more than a cream to treat.

Dark Spots

Ugh, I call these the gift that keeps on giving. Well, actually it’s the things that cause the dark spots that are the gifts that keep on giving. Dark spots are a result of the skin going into “trauma” (no, not quite like what you’d see on Grey’s) from anything like a scratch, acne, facial hair, etc. and then reacting to this trauma by over producing melanin. That overproduction of melanin is the dark spots and they can take some time to fade. And if you’re like me you might be in an acne cycle where you keep getting pimples in the same places (my chin and before that my forehead) so I’d get new dark spots as the previous ones faded.

While the road to fading dark spots can be a long one filled with patience and diligence, there are some additional things you can be doing to help the cause. One of the smartest things you can do (again) is to make sure you’re wearing a broad spectrum SPF everyday—year-round, rain or shine, cloudy or not. This helps of course to protect the skin from the sun’s harmful UVA and UVB rays, but also helps prevent the dark spots from getting even darker.

Check out my How to Get Rid of Dark Spots video below and my Hyperpigmentation posts for more info:

So that’s today’s lesson in Anti-Aging 101 for women of color! I hope you’ve learned tons and this post inspires you to get on the good foot when it comes to your skincare regimen. Please make sure you check out the posts I’ve linked above because I’ve written TONS on skincare and I don’t want you to miss anything. If you have questions, leave them in the comments!

Thank you to RoC Skincare for partnering on this post!

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by RoC® Skincare. Although I have been compensated, all opinions are my own.