Do you know what, other than UV rays from the sun, is a significant cause of skin damage? It’s cigarette smoke! Yes, the highly addictive nicotine in them can not only cause life-threatening ailments, but it can also harm your skin. 

Smoke affects your entire body, causing accelerated ageing and sagging skin, as well as Squamous Cell Carcinoma and other diseases. So, if you’re a smoker who cares about your skin, you should read this article to learn what skin damage smoking causes and how to reverse its effects.
What Effect Does Smoking Have on Your Skin?
 Toxins in cigarette smoke stimulate the creation of free radicals, which cause smoking. They cause oxidative stress, which results in a lack of oxygen for the skin. This can cause both acute and permanent skin damage. Free radicals can also raise the risk of mouth cancer, hair loss, and gum disease among smokers. Here are some of the most prevalent smoking-related illnesses and side effects:

Uneven Skin Tone: Due to the compressed blood flow, the skin tone of a smoker becomes uneven. The skin appears pale, almost yellow or even grey, due to a lack of blood. Capillaries appear as spidery lines on the epidermis when blood vessels are more visible.

Aging prematurely: One of the most noticeable side effects of smoking is the appearance of wrinkles and creases on the face. Smokers furrow their brows to protect their eyes from the smoke, resulting in crow’s feet. While most people develop crow’s feet after a certain age, smokers develop them early. Pouting while sucking on a cigarette can result in lines around the mouth that eventually become permanent wrinkles. These appear as small, vertical lines around the upper and lower lips.

Sagging Skin: When you smoke daily, the nicotine in the tobacco tighten the flow of blood to your skin. Toxins also have an effect on collagen and elastin formation, which impairs skin suppleness. So, it causes the skin to sag and droop, giving you an older appearance.

Lip lines appear around the lips: Tobacco use packs a one-two punch to the area around your mouth. First, there’s the smoker’s pucker. “Smokers use certain muscles around their lips, which causes them to have dynamic wrinkles that nonsmokers do not. Second, there is a decrease in flexibility. These variables, when combined, might result in deep lines around the lips.

Age Spots:  Age spots are dark blotches of skin that appear on the face and hands. While anyone can get these spots from spending too much time in the sun, studies show smokers are more prone. The twin on the right in this image has spent decades smoking and tanning, while their sister has not. 

Damaged Teeth and Gums: One of the most well-known side effects of long-term smoking is yellow teeth, but dental damage doesn’t end there. Smokers are likelier to develop gum disease, persistent foul breath, and other oral hygiene issues. Smokers are twice as likely as nonsmokers to lose their teeth.

Hair Loss: Both men and women aim to lose hair as they age, and smoking might hasten this process. According to several research, persons who smoke are more likely to go bald. Smoking has been established as an apparent risk factor for male-pattern baldness in Asian males by Taiwanese researchers.

Skin Cancer: Compared to nonsmokers, smokers are twice as likely to get the second most prevalent kind of skin cancer, Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SSC). It is caused mostly by cigarette smoke and can be visible on smokers’ lips. Cigarette smokers are also more likely to get mouth cancer and leukoplakia. If you have lip cancer and quit smoking, your chances of the disease spreading to other regions of your body are reduced by two to three times.
How Can You Reverse Smoking’s Effects On Your Skin? 

• The first step in reversing the skin-damaging effects of cigarettes is to quit smoking. 
• A diet high in antioxidants is essential for destroying free radicals. 
• Carrots, mackerel, tomatoes, broccoli, sweet potatoes, spinach, citrus fruits, kiwis, and mangoes are high in Vitamins A, B, B5, K, C, and folic acid. 
• According to research, a diet rich in tomatoes and fruits, particularly apples, can restore the damage done to the lungs by smoking. 
• Drinking carrot juice can also aid in the removal of nicotine residues from the body. 
• Berries aid in the removal of cigarette poisons from the body.
• Pomegranate promotes blood circulation and collagen and elastin formation. 
• Drink more water to stay hydrated and counteract nicotine’s drying effects. 
• Having a glass of milk before smoking will help you quit because studies have shown that smokers dislike the flavor of their smoke when they have milk before lighting up. 
• Choose skincare products containing glycolic acid or alpha-hydroxy acid for cosmetic assistance.

What Happens to Your Skin When You Stop Smoking? 
The amount of tobacco you smoke is directly related to the negative consequences evident on your skin. When you stop smoking, the nicotine in tobacco no longer restricts blood flow to your face. The increased blood flow provides the skin with the essential nutrition it requires. Because the chemicals absorbed from cigarette smoke no longer affect your body, the creation of elastin and collagen will continue, aiding in improving skin texture and look. Both of these elements will aid in restoring the skin’s health.
Wrapping Up:
Because of the harmful ingredients in cigarettes, smoking causes the skin to wrinkle, droop, and become paler and drier over time. The effects of smoking on your body and skin are irreversible. You can only avoid more harm by quitting totally. For more details, consult our experts at Sasha Luxe.