Does Rubbing Your Face Really Cause More Wrinkles?

How Your Skin Gets Damaged

To understand if rubbing can damage facial skin, it helps to know how wrinkles form in the first place. Wrinkles happen when the lower layers of skin lose their elasticity. This allows lines and creases to become etched permanently onto the surface.

UV Rays Break Down Collagen

Overexposure to UV sunlight degrades collagen and elastin in the dermis layer of skin. These are the proteins that keep facial skin firm, smooth and supple. As they deteriorate, skin becomes looser and sags more easily into wrinkles over time.

Smoking Restricts Blood Flow

The chemicals in tobacco smoke limit blood flow to the outer skin layers. With less blood and oxygen reaching the area, skin cells become nutrient deficient. Their regeneration process slows right down, causing the skin to thin out faster and look weathered.

Facial Expressions Fold Skin

Making repetitive facial expressions like squinting and frowning etches dynamic creases into the skin's surface. Performing these actions again and again causes temporary etchings to become permanent wrinkles over time.

Does Rubbing Your Face Worsen Wrinkles Too?

Knowing how UV rays, toxins, and expressions imprint creases onto the face, it seems logical that rubbing could accelerate wrinkling as well. The constant friction essentially "irons" in creases, making temporary folds more prominent each time.

Evidence That Rubbing Causes Wrinkle Damage

Although no scientific studies definitively prove that rubbing alone leads to more wrinkles, logical evidence points that way. We know UV rays degrade collagen while smoking restricts blood flow to aging skin cells. Rubbing essentially continues damaging skin by:

• Stretching out delicate facial skin repeatedly
• Kneading facial creams deeper into crevices unnaturally
• Tugging at loose jowls and sagging areas aggressively

Rubbing Could Exacerbate Other Skin Aging Factors

Rather than being the sole cause of wrinkles itself, rubbing your face probably worsens issues like:

• Dehydration - friction dries out skin and depletes natural moisturizing oils
• Redness - the physical irritation leads to inflammation and sensitivity
• Thinning - pulling stretches out the skin causing it thin out faster

Parts of Your Face Most Prone to Rubbing Damage

If continual rubbing does degrade facial skin, certain areas likely suffer more than others. These zones tend to take the brunt of repetitive friction from daily facial touching.

The Forehead

Between brushing back hair from your face and resting hands here, the forehead cops a lot of needless touching. All this rubbing back and forth bunches up the skin unnaturally, imprinting horizontal creases more severely over time.

Around The Eyes

The fragile eye area muscles get worked out constantly from squinting, blinking and smiling. Add touching and rubbing into the mix too, and the crow's feet zone becomes extremely prone to etched-in wrinkles and bunched skin.

Mouth and Jawline

Your mouth, nose and jawline also endure endless facial movements talking, chewing, laughing, and breathing. Combine smiling creases with additional rubbing here, and deep nasolabial folds become inevitable later in life.

Breaking The Face Rubbing Habit

If minimizing future wrinkling is the goal, it seems sensible to quit mindlessly touching your face throughout the day. Here are some tips to stop the face rubbing cycle for good:

Wear A Headband

Simply having a physical barrier between your hands and face makes unconsciously rubbing much harder. Wearing sports sweatbands, thick headbands and soft gloves at home minimizes mindless tactile habits.

Try Gua Sha Massage

Gently massaging the face with smooth gua sha stones may satisfy the desire to manually manipulate your facial skin. Always use light pressure with gua sha and other TCM tools as aggressive rubbing can still degrade collagen.

Stimulate Pressure Points Instead

Lightly pressing acupressure points around the Pericardium Meridian running down from beside the eyes, over the cheeks and around the jawline and chin activates circulation without needless rubbing.

Protecting Your Skin From Rubbing Damage

Assuming face rubbing does indirectly worsen wrinkles over time, safeguarding your skin better now allows it to withstand friction. Heres how to reinforce facial skin health from the inside out:

Moisturize Morning And Night

Hydrating facial skin daily plumps it up with water content, making tissue less prone to thinning and wrinkling over time. For an added collagen boost, use peptides, ceramides and retinol moisturizers too.

Exfoliate Gently Weekly

Removing the accumulation of dead cells with enzymatic exfoliators or soft muslin cloths keeps skin glowing. Just dont over-scrub at thinning areas as this can worsen sagging.

Eat More Youth-Enhancing Foods

Make skin more resilient to rubbing forces internally too. A nutrient-rich diet with antioxidant and omega-rich plant foods boosts collagen production for plumper facial structure.

Apply Broad Spectrum SPF 30+

Shielding vulnerable facial skin from further UV damage with mineral sun filters daily makes it better equipped to withstand incidental rubbing without degrading as rapidly.

When to Seek Professional Help

Combining healthier skin habits with consciously avoiding face touching whenever possible lowers your risk of rubbing-related wrinkle woes. However if your facial skin becomes extremely thin, inflamed and painful from friction forces, seeking cosmetic intervention makes sense too.

Laser Resurfacing

For seriously crinkled and sagging skin, fractional CO2 laser therapy helps resurface facial skin by removing damaged outer layers. New fresh skin then forms underneath with improved tone and texture.

Dermal Fillers

Injecting strategic areas with hyaluronic acid filler plumps up facial hollows and etching creases from the inside out. This supports fragile skin externally making it more resistant to chafing forces long-term.

Botox

Preventing dynamic wrinkles from getting imprinted at all is key after significant rubbing damage. Having neurotoxin injections like Botox relaxes overactive facial muscles, limiting ability to crunch skin.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult with a healthcare professional before starting any new treatment regimen.