What to do about WRINKLES?
After yoga, when I’m rolling up my mat, seems like often a GSG reader comes over to chat. Tell me their green smoothie experience, ask what to do to help a friend struggling with health problems, ask me when the group buy ends. Stuff like that.
Recently, Cheryl, a 53-yo, very fit breast cancer survivor, had a new one:
Cheryl: What do you do about wrinkles?
Me: Ummm. How about, you love them?
Cheryl’s not buying it. She doesn’t want wrinkles apparently. She wants to be 53 but look 33. She tells me that it’s easy for me to say, because I don’t have them. (Yes I do, around my eyes—they show up when I laugh and smile. Which I will continue to do as much as possible.)
I point out to her that, first, I’m younger than she is. And second, while I play tennis and don’t use sunscreen, I don’t have a half-acre, award-winning yard in the summer, and work as Ski Patrol all winter, like she does. Both of which cause year-round high sun exposure here in the Rockies where we’re 4200 feet above sea level and the air is thin.
She won’t want to hear that I don’t have some magic product, except organic, extra-virgin coconut oil, which I slather all over my face at night. I love it. I want to make a big vat of it and roll around in it. Its healing properties aren’t just something I read about in a book. My family and I have experienced them, and I’ve heard from hundreds of readers about what high-quality medium-chain fatty acids do for them.
I say this:
“What if you took all the energy you’re giving to fretting about it, and put it instead into reflecting on all the great stuff in your life that gave you those beautiful lines?”
I mean, at the end of the day, we live a healthy lifestyle (which Cheryl does), and then shouldn’t we enjoy being the age we are? 53 is awesome, if you can do a headstand in yoga like Cheryl can, and most of the 33-year olds wish they had her loveliness. With lines or not.
If a much younger guy flirts with me (cougar hunting is all the rage), I confess that I feel insecure. If tell him my age, I’ve had a dozen say, “Who cares? A beautiful woman is beautiful at any age.”
Why can’t we just OWN that? When we’re 63, we’re going to look back at 53 and wish we’d enjoyed how young and beautiful we were.
I think women with experience-lined faces are gorgeous. Sexy, pretty, beautiful, and cute, too. (My friend Tim says there are five types of attractive women—the ones I just listed. My friends and I play a game of slotting celebrities and people we know into those categories according to Tim’s definitions and examples.)
What you’ve accomplished and experienced in your life is written on your face. Why is that a bad thing? Why do we inject dead botulism into our face to erase that? To flat-line all expression?
Use plenty of cold-pressed coconut oil on your skin. Your skin, and then your bloodstream, just eats it up. It’s skin food. But let’s embrace the much-maligned “fine lines and wrinkles.” We’ve earned them. They’re only a “bad” thing if we let them be. It’s all in the mind. How much control are you going to give popular culture, over your heart and mind?
Today, wrinkles. Tomorrow let’s talk about scars.
Posted in: Green Smoothies, Mind/Body Connection
Robyn, you are so correct. Aging affects us on many levels. The most detrimental is poor self image. If we knew we were attractive in our younger years, who’s telling us that we are no longer attractive now that the wrinkles are here? I’ll tell you who. Our own self-critic is telling us this. It’s how much we are listening to the media hype about wrinkles that determines how embarrassed we are by them. There is absolutely NO surface-applied product that will prevent wrinkles. Look at a wrinkled face. The skin is draped where there used to be tissue underneath. As we age that facial (and body) tissue dissolves leaving our skin to sag over that area . . . like a pillow case when the pillow is removed. “Miraculous” skin products promise to smooth away the wrinkles. That just won’t happen. What needs to be “fixed” is our self-image. Be proud of the face you were given. You can’t improve on it, your Creator made it. He loves it just the way He designed it. All the advertising in the world has nothing to do with being beautiful. That begins on the inside, with your self image. p.s. Caring for our largest organ, our skin, is imperative for good health. Coconut oil is the perfect nutrient for it.
You are right, as usual Robyn. Wrinkles are the result of thetissues on our face and body dissolving as we age. The skin is left slack, draping over the areas that once were plump. Imagine a pillow case after the pillow is removed. There is no way to eliminate the wrinkles short of surgery, (face lift) or botox (which plumps the area back up with toxins, yikes!) There is no topical cream that will eliminate wrinkles, even though they try to make you believe it. Take care of your largest organ, your skin. Coconut oil is nourishing and healing. It won’t prevent wrinkles, (imagine spreading a cream on a pillow case to make it plump up), but it takes the best care of your liviing organism. Love who you are. Yes, you were young and attractive, now you’re aged, but still attractive. Wrinkles are part of life. Don’t fight life. It’s not in your hands.
I just tell people regarding aging…”Just embrace it baby!”
Sorry about the double posts above. I didn’t think the first one went through ; }
Robin, could you please comment on green coffee bean extract? (chloregenic acid)
April, there are recipes for “coloring” your hair with chamomile (blonde) and coffee grounds (brown), etc. – just google it.
I love using coconut oil on my face, arms, legs, everywhere! When I was a kid, I ran around barefooted all summer long (I lived in Henderson, Nevada just outside Las Vegas). The bottoms of my feet were like leather. Because of this, my heels have always been uber dry and cracked easily (and painfully). I tried everything to soften them up and stop the cracking; even getting a pedicure once a month for over a year. Nothing helped. I read (probably on your blog) that extra virgin coconut oil was a great moisturizer. Feeling I had nothing to loose, I tried it on my heels. They are not soft and supple, but they are a far cry better than they were. I’ve been using coconut oil for nearly two years and continue to see improvement. In the next week, I’m also going to start oil pulling using coconut oil. It is supposed to do wonders for oral hygene and help with other infirmities as well (Coconut Oil Pulling Therapy by Dr Bruce Fife). By the way, I’m 54 and loving it.
Hi Robyn,
I’m 49, will be turning 50 this year. I use MSM in a pill form and I also use my own mixture of cold pressed coconut oil, emu oil, prickly pear oil, argan oil and a small amount of shea butter.
At 60 and being a 30 year vegan and 8 year raw foodist I look and feel amazing!
I don’t miss being in my 50’s .. (nor am I a cougar, Ladies, that is so totally gross and disgusting. Have some respect for yourselves. You don’t need an ego boost from a boy-child, unless you’re verrrrrrrrrrry immature. If so, grow up!) Anyway, I look great and feel great every day. . Raw Rocks!
That was amazing, refreshing, empowering and the truth! Thank you for sharing your thoughts! I hope I never forget these words as I continue to age or the confidence that grew stronger with each thought provoking word.
Robyn, I love your answer. I am very quickly approaching 60 and I am more comfortable now in my own skin than I was 40lbs lighter and in my 20s. Yes, I want to get rid of the extra 40lbs but not for vanity because I don’t look bad but because it is not healthy. I don’t dye my hair and like you I slather the coconut oil on my face everynight. I drink my green smoothie everyday, move my body every day, smile at myself in the mirror every chance I get and love my life.
I’m 62 and have used coconut oil for years, I just love it as well and find that it works wonders for me
I too love moisturizing with Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, but sometimes I forego using it on my face (which probably needs it the most) because I hate how greasy it makes my hairline. I mix it with a little beeswax (too much and it does not spread well), which helps, but it does not help enough. Any ideas?
Although I agree about enjoying our lives. I think we should do everything we can to keep healthy skin and have less wrinkles. I am 8 years older than Cheryl and have very few wrinkles. I am often mistaken for in my early 50s or even 40s at 61. For years I have used healthy products to maintain the best skin possible. I do not use any soap or cleanser on my face. I do not wear powders or foundations, so I can rinse dirt off with water. I do not follow all the routines touted by the companies selling skin care products. My first step is to remove dead skin cells. These can build and increase the appearance of lines. They may also limit the ability of your moisturizer to get to the live skin cells. I use a scrub 2 to 3 times a week for this. I use an eye cream around my eyes. Then I moisturize every morning and some evenings. That’s it.
Oh, if you are out in the sun a lot, by all means use sunscreen. However, after exposure to the sun on a long vacation, I can still quickly get back to very few lines with these steps if I scrub a bit more frequently.
Since I recently moved to Hong Kong and cannot get US products anymore, I will be trying out your coconut oil to moisturize. I recently read about the uses of lemons and will begin using lemon juice and sugar as a facial scrub. The website suggested it worked like a chemical peel….but how much more natural.
As a side note, my interest in lemons stems from a switch to using small lemon slices instead of deodorants. I cannot tolerate antiperspirants or deodorants, and salts do not work, but I really need something here in HK. Just the smallest lemon slice rubbed in the underarms keeps one from having any odor all day. In fact, if I forget it one day, I am still odor free. This works even on 90+ degree days with a 30 minute walk home! Don’t be put off with the idea of it stinging. Shave after it drys or the night before. The couple of times I have scratched my underarms the sting was short and tolerable.
On a grand adventure at 61,
Fern
Just found a quote that I kept that” wrinkles are where smiles have been” that is the perspective I’m going to keep
Awesome, I love that.