What are Laugh Lines?
Laugh lines are wrinkles that radiate out from the outer corners of your eyes. These are also sometimes called smile lines or crows feet.
What Causes Laugh Lines?
Any facial expression that causes the skin around your eyes to the crease will contribute towards the development of smile lines. Most of the time they are caused by smiling, which is where they get their name from. If your skin is young, healthy, and flexible then you’ll have less of an inclination to develop laugh lines and wrinkles in general. As you get older or as your skin succumbs to the sun and other damage it will become less flexible and wrinkles will be more likely to develop.
Anything that damages your skin and reduces its flexibility and ability to self-repair will contribute to the development of smile lines. Sun tanning, drug use including tobacco and alcohol, and exposure to wind and dry air can all make your skin more leathery and less flexible. Genetics can also play a part with some people having a genetic tendency towards skin that is more likely to wrinkle and develop laugh lines.
How to Prevent Laugh Lines?
There are a few things that you can do to inhibit laugh lines and wrinkles from forming. Most of these focus on skin health and on your general health and well-being, so they are worth doing for reasons beyond just keeping laugh lines under control.
Apply Sunscreen Every Day
The ultra-violet radiation emitted from the sun does constant damage to your skin, so reducing your exposure to UV rays will slow down skin aging and help prevent laugh lines from forming. If you spend time out in the sun then it’s a good idea to apply a sunscreen to the exposed parts of your skin. The right sunscreen can also help keep your skin moisturized and flexible. Another advantage of limiting your exposure to the sun is that it reduces your chance of developing skin cancer.
Use Clothing and Shade to Keep the Sun Off Your Skin
In addition to sunscreen, you can also pick clothing that gives you good protection from the sun. Wear a wide-brimmed hat when outside and stay in the shade on days with harsh sunlight. On hot days this will also help you to avoid sunstroke.
Avoid Junk Food and Drugs
Junk food often contains a variety of additives that may not do your body and your skin much good. If you eat too much of it instead of healthier food then your body may also not be getting enough of the nutrients it needs to stay healthy and repair the damage. Drugs will also harm your skin and make you less healthy in general. If you drink or smoke then you should do so in moderation.
Eat Healthy Well-Balanced Meals
Your body needs some basic nutrients, vitamins, and minerals to maintain itself and heal damage. If you are not providing it with these in the form of a well-balanced diet of healthy foods then your general health will suffer and your skin will succumb more easily to wrinkling as a result.
Sleep 6-8 Hours Every Night
Sleep is a repair time for your body. During sleep, your body cleans out toxins and fixes damage that is hard to repair when you are more active. Ensure that you get as much sleep as you need on a regular basis, and avoid going for long periods on little to no sleep. Think of it in terms of driving your car around long past the point where it needed to go in for servicing. The more you drive it in this state the faster it wears out beyond what is normal.
How to Remove Laugh Lines?
While laugh lines are more or less permanent they can be made less visible. Ideally, you should focus on preventing them to begin with, but once you have them the methods below can help to make them less noticeable.
Massage
A face massage with oils and skin creams can help reduce the effect of laugh lines and improve the flexibility of your skin. This can also be great for improving blood flow to the skin.
Anti-aging Creams
You can buy many prescriptions and over the counter creams that can be used to moisturize your skin and mask or reduce wrinkles by improving the skin’s health and flexibility. Talk to your pharmacist and beautician to see what they recommend trying.
Botox
Botox is a natural toxin that can be used to paralyze the muscles that can cause wrinkles on some parts of the face from showing more prominently. Injecting toxins into your skin isn’t a great solution and may have side effects for some people so talk to your doctor if you are considering this as a possibility.
Botox Alternatives
Some potentially less problematic alternatives to Botox include Restylane, Evolence, Juvederm, Elevess, and Radiesse. These are all temporary measures and may cause allergic reactions and other possible issues, so talk to your doctor about them.
Home Remedies for Laugh Lines
Some home remedies you can try out to reduce smile lines include rubbing coconut oil, grape seed oil, or olive oil into the laugh lines and massaging that area of your skin. You can also use lemon juice in a similar fashion as long as you avoid getting it in your eyes.
Beauty face masks utilizing spices such as cinnamon or turmeric are often used to reduce wrinkles and smile lines. Mix in one tablespoon of the powdered spice with three tablespoons of honey and apply it to your face. Leave it on for at least twenty minutes for the best effect. Wash it off with warm water when you are done with the mask.
Taking Aloe Vera supplements can help increase the collagen in your skin that keeps it flexible. You can find concentrated Aloe Vera gel powder at your local health food store.
Facial exercises can help improve the health of your face muscles and reduce laugh lines. To exercise your face first place your fingertips firmly onto your smile lines and then smile as widely as you can, keeping your lips separated in the process. Maintain this state for around five to ten seconds and then rest and repeat it. Do this about thirty times a day for best results.
Something to say…
Prevention is a far more effective option than cure when it comes to stopping wrinkles and laugh lines. Treat your body and skin well and eat the right foods to keep it healthy. Get plenty of exercises and stay out of the sun where possible. Avoid toxic substances like tobacco and alcohol as much as is practical. Remember that your skin is the largest organ on your body, so keeping your body healthy keeps your skin healthy and makes it less prone to wrinkle.
Disclaimer: The treatment methods mentioned in this article need to be decided according to your own situation. It is recommended to use under the guidance of a family doctor.
