There are plenty of downsides to getting older, but one of the first ones you're likely to notice is how it changes your appearance. Women and men alike often don't appreciate how their faces change as they grow older, with their skin starting to develop obvious wrinkles and sagging. If you're going through this yourself and are tempted to reach for products that promise solutions, you might want to think twice. Here's why your skin is changing its appearance, and why any product you can buy can't do much about it.

Collagen

One of the main reasons why you lose your taut, elastic-like skin is because your body loses collagen. Collagen is used in the body for lots of things, including joint support, but it's also present in your skin. When you have a lot of collagen at a young age, your skin snaps back when you pull on it, and it gives your skin an overall smooth and even appearance.

Collagen is typically lost in older people for two reasons. The first is simply that the body doesn't replace and repair collagen in older age like it does when you're young. This is true of a lot of aspects of the body and can't really be changed. Alternatively, or in addition to this, you may have been exposed to a lot of sunlight earlier in life. This can destroy collagen and can even damage your skin's ability to produce more, which makes this a double-whammy of skin sagging.

Despite what lots of products claim, there are no collagen products sold on the market that can actually be utilized as collagen in the body. Collagen isn't absorbed into the human body and utilized that way. Instead, it's broken down for its components and used as nutrition, or in the case of things like face creams, it's more likely to simply not be absorbed into the skin.

Weight Changes

Another common issue is weight gain and weight loss. When you gain weight, it often damages the skin to the point where it can't snap back. So if you were heavier and were disappointed to see sagging skin after you lost the weight, it's unlikely that you'll get your original face shape back all on your own. 

Subdermal Fat Loss

Finally, similarly to collagen, your body has a layer of fat under the skin. When you're young, regardless of your body weight, this fat layer gives your skin a sort of rounded, plump appearance, like a baby's face. As you grow older, this layer of fat gradually thins, and by old age, very little of it remains. Gaining weight is unlikely to help in this regard, and there are no products on the market that can restore lost fat under the skin.

While you can't get the help you need from a jar or a bottle, you can from a cosmetic surgeon. Facelifts address the core problems that cause sagging skin by removing any damaged and stretched parts of the tissue that can't bounce back. Then, the remainder of the skin is lifted up and stitched into its new position to give your skin a tighter, more youthful appearance. This procedure can immediately help to give you a younger look without wasting hundreds or thousands of dollars on products that don't work.

For more information about facelift procedures, contact a cosmetic surgeon.