The skin aging process is extremely complex.
Post-menopause, women suffer a massive drop in the hormone estrogen, which can have a noticeable effect on the skin. Within the skin, estrogen binds and influences cells such as the epidermal keratinocytes, dermal fibroblasts, and melanocytes.
Dermoi’s Chief Scientific Officer, Eve Casha, MSC in Pharmaceutical formulation, provides top tips for post-menopausal skin and hair care.
1) Boost collagen production with advanced skincare & skin supplements
Collagen drops at a rate of 2% per year, and it is estimated that the overall collagen can decrease as much as 30% in the first 5 years of menopause. This can lead to a reduction in skin elasticity, causing wrinkles and sagging. In addition, the skin starts to become thin.
Topical products containing vitamin A and peptide-based technologies or nutraceutical supplements with bioavailable collagen peptides and vitamin C are all scientifically proven to help.
2) Intensely hydrate the skin with oil-based and water-based hydrators
As estrogen drops post-menopause, the skin can become very dry and dull due to a decrease of hydrophilic molecules within the dermis called glycosaminoglycans. These molecules bind and store water.
Hydrating serums containing multiple molecular weights of hyaluronic acid have proven beneficial. Following these with oil-based moisturizers with skin barrier repair lipids such as ceramides, fatty acids, or niacinamide can improve the skin’s ability to trap moisture.
3) Protect the skin with anti-inflammatory active ingredients
After menopause the skin also has a decreased ability to defend itself against environmental stressors and can have reduce wound healing capacity. The skin shows a decrease in anti-inflammatory proteins TGF-B1 and IGF-1 and can often become chronically inflamed.
Antioxidants and anti-inflammatory active ingredients like vitamin C, vitamin E, glutathione, resveratrol, co-enzyme Q10 can help to prevent this. Due to their unstable nature antioxidant molecules should be formulated into sophisticated cosmeceutical formulations to preserve their potency. This can be done with topical skincare and skin supplements.
4) Stimulate the hair growth Cycle with next generation technologies
Estrogen also has the ability to act on the hair follicle. It can increase the hair growth phase of the hair cycle and decrease the resting phase. After menopause, when estrogen drops, it is very common to see thinning hair.
New generation haircare and hair supplements use active ingredients that are clinically proven to bind to the hair follicle and stimulate hair growth. Examples include extracts from pea sprouts which can influence the gene expression of hair growth, or advance peptides such as Dermatopoietin by Evenswiss that gives signals to the hair follicle from the surface of the skin.
Dermoi has a range of products that can help with all of the issues outlined above.
