What type of wrinkles do you have?

When younger, the concept of “aging gracefully” might have been alluring.

However, when we first noticed our skin didn’t bounce back as quickly as it used to, or the day we stopped smiling and that little crease at the sides of our lips made its first appearance, it struck us.

Aging gracefully changed its definition in our minds. It would most likely mean, gracefully trying to conceal the appearance of wrinkles, and establish a new kickass skincare regimen to prevent getting more of those.

Not all wrinkles are created equally, thus different wrinkles need different dealing strategies.

Turns out, there are 5 types of wrinkles, thoroughly explained:

1. Crinkle Lines or Atrophic Crinkling Rhytids

These are the finest of them all. Thin and delicate, they run almost parallel to each other and disappear once the skin is stretched out. They indicate the first signs of the gradual loss of elastin and collagen. Retinoids have been known to promote procollagen growth and help reduce the appearance or wrinkles.  Looking for Vitamin A (retinol) in the ingredients of your serum or face cream might be a good start to slow down the aging process.

2. Permanent elastotic creases

These are most often seen on the upper lip, cheeks and lower neck (remember tech-neck?)

Main causes include smoking, sun exposure and bad posture.

Well, for one, we’d suggest the obvious. Quit smoking already!

Furthermore, do not ever forget applying sunscreen on the face and neck every single day, to not aggravate the issue!

To avoid neck lines, try a better posture, avoiding bending over when looking at your smartphone, and a bit of face yoga every now and then.

If they already inhabit your neck area though, look for a cream that’s especially designed for its needs.

Facial resurfacing or AHA treatments are also used to help reveal a more smooth rejuvenated skin.

3. Dynamic expression lines or simply Expression wrinkles

-Oh, you look so strict!

-I swear. I’m not!

It’s such a bummer when our forehead wrinkle communicates the wrong mood.

Or the damage, all that squinting does to our eye area.

Frown lines and crow’s feet qualify for this wrinkle category, and apart from practicing a poker face there’s only so much you can do prevent them from happening to you.

Afterall, we are human beings with emotions that manifest themselves through facial expressions.

Lucky for you, science has gone far enough to help us manage, to a certain extent, those wrinkles full of emotion. Botox or creams with similar botulin-like effect is the go-to solution for wrinkles caused by movement.

4. Gravitational Folds or gravitational wrinkles.

These include any line that’s accompanied by sagging skin. As we age, our skin tends to lose its firmness causing folds in areas such as jowls, chin and neck. This category also includes smile lines, marionette lines and all nasolabial folds of any sort.

At this stage, a consistent daily skincare of day and night cream, will help minimize the appearance of wrinkles and slow the aging process. Fillers are also very popular for smile lines.

For certain occasions, when we want to look like a movie star, a serum  with an effect similar to a Face lift, would be a pain-free solution that won’t break the bank.

5. Compression wrinkles

Last, but not least, these are the newbies of the wrinkle dictionary.

Compression wrinkles are the result of your face squishing against the pillow every night.

We’d suggest sleeping on your back or use a silk pillowcase.