Does face taping work for preventing or eliminating wrinkles?

You may have recently heard about face taping while scrolling TikTok, seeing women with slices of tape across their foreheads, under their eyes or on their cheeks.

Videos and comments about face taping on social media have been offering people false hope of eliminating their wrinkles. Laying tape on parts of your face before you go to sleep can keep the muscles in those areas from moving overnight. But, in the morning when you take the tape off, if it seems any lines disappeared, that’s only temporary. Those lines will reappear soon.

There are also risks to putting tape on your face. It can irritate your skin, causing acne and rashes. While it’s tempting to reach for what seems like a quick fix to eliminate wrinkles, I would not recommend face taping.

How wrinkles form

As you get older, wrinkles typically appear where muscles move repeatedly, such as around your eyes, forehead and mouth. Sun damage and smoking can also cause wrinkles.

Lines and creases form in the layer of skin just below the layer you can see. That lower layer, called the dermis, contains elastin and collagen, which are protein fibers which keep the skin strong and stretchable. Aging causes you to have fewer of these fibers so your skin becomes thinner and less elastic.

If you eat a balanced diet, exercise and drink plenty of water, you might wonder what else you can do to keep your skin looking youthful.

Routines to adopt at any age for a lifetime of healthy skin

Some products you can use to prevent wrinkles:

• Sunscreen year-round: Use sunscreen with at least 30 SPF.
• A gentle moisturizer: Ideally, the moisturizer would contain antioxidants, which are vitamins that can prevent or slow damage to your skin.
• Retinol: Various skin products contain retinol, a form of vitamin A that encourages the regrowth of skin cells. It has been shown to thicken the dermis layer of skin. Retinol can also the turnover of skin cells brining about a more youthful appearance.
• Neuromodulators (Botox/Dysport): These medications can prevent as well as treat wrinkles. They can temporarily prevent movement in muscles that cause wrinkles, such as frown lines.

Can you get rid of age spots?

If you already have wrinkles you want to eliminate, you can try:

• Chemical peels: These are chemical solutions that can remove top layers of skin.
• Laser resurfacing: Erbium and CO2 lasers work by removing the superficial layers of the dermis to eliminate the fine lines and wrinkles. This allows a new healthy dermis to form.
• Neuromodulators: Products such as Botox and Dysport can be used to improve static wrinkles, those that remain on your face at all times, as well as dynamic wrinkles which happen when you move muscles such as when you smile or furrow your brow.
• Hyaluronic acid fillers: Hyaluronic acid is found naturally in the body. It can be injected into certain areas of the face to decrease the appearance of heavy folds and wrinkles.

Three skin treatments better left to professionals — don’t try this at home

Natural protection against the sun

The type of skin you inherit matters, too. If you have darker skin, it contains more melanin than white skin. That extra melanin in dark skin gives you more protection from the sun. Still, you can still get a sunburn or other damage from the sun.

Regardless of your skin color, you may inherit young-looking skin. That may be because your skin is better able to maintain collagen, so although you’re in your mid-60s, you look closer to your early 50s. Even if you don’t come from a family that looks younger than their years, there’s still a lot you can do to keep your skin healthy-looking regardless of your age.