What Causes Loose and Sagging Skin on the Face?

When it comes to figuring out what causes skin aging over time, we look into the root cause of what levels of the face get affected by aging.

As you age, your face slowly loses its volume around the bones of your cheeks, forehead, temples, and jawline. This is essentially the “infrastructure” or “scaffolding” that supports the fat, collagen, as well as the skin. 

When this diminishes, not only will it lead to hollowness of the cheeks, under-eye, and temples but also the sagging and drooping of the lower part of your face such as your jowls or marionette lines. Marionette lines are also known as the vertical lines around your mouth. 

Sagging skin is almost always inevitable as you begin to age. However, other factors such as diet, sun exposure, and sleep deprivation can also contribute to it.

All in all, aging skin is a natural process that cannot, not should be avoided. Having said that, there exists external factors that accelerate skin aging including lack of sleep, smoking, chronic stress, and so on and so forth, all of which aren’t desirable for the health of your skin or body.

Other causes of sagging skin include: 

• Significant and sudden weight loss
• Pregnancy
• llness
• Rare disorders—such as Ehlers-Danlos syndrome

How to Tighten Face Skin 

Now that you know the reason why your skin begins to sag, let’s take a look at the best ways you can tighten the skin on your face. Bear in mind that the methods we’re about to share aren’t only ideal for treating already-aged skin but also useful for preventing speedy aging.

So, start taking notes!

1. Use a Microcurrent Facial Tool

Microcurrent is a very tiny electrical current that mimics your body’s own natural pulses. To put it simply, our brains rely on currents to communicate through our neurological pathways, where it’s constantly sending signals to different parts of your body. Microcurrent technology is used to mimic those currents, then have them delivered to your facial muscles. 

Basically, microcurrent tools work through the production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), or a molecule that’s naturally produced in the body and acts as an energy currency.

Your body, including the skin and muscles, use ATP as part of their regenerative process, producing more collagen, elastin and other important proteins. Better yet, these tools help strengthen the facial muscles under your skin, which in return, will help enhance your facial contour and skin tone, as well as to reduce wrinkles.

If used correctly and consistently, microcurrent devices can be effective to treat and reverse aging. With that, it’s pretty worth investing in one.

2. Add Collagen to Your Daily Meals

Collagen gives your skin a toned and taut look, but as we age, we start to lose our natural collagen. 

One common way to boost your collagen production is through supplementation. Nevertheless, not all supplements are created equal. While certain options in the market are able to help stimulate collagen production, it’s important to not compromise on quality when purchasing them. 

We highly recommend hydrolyzed collagen peptides. While the research done on collagen is somewhat new, most of the significant results have been seen with this form of collagen supplementation.

The amino acids in collagen supplements are able to increase hydration levels to an extent in your skin, making it less likely to look dull.

3. Take Up Gua Sha

Gua Sha, or jade scraping, uses a small stone scraping tool to boost circulation. While this is a benefit on its own, this practice may also help treat skin aging. 

Practice facial rolling for only five minutes a day can stimulate blood flow to the face, resulting in an improved skin quality and smoother skin ultimately. Some individuals even claimed that their skin began feeling tighter and more supple.

Just like any other skin care remedies, gua sha is not a one-off practice—you must do it consistently to see results. Not to mention that this tool isn’t necessarily intuitive, and if you’re new to this, you may need to take some time to finesse gua sha before letting it touch your skin.

4. Consider Microneedling Treatment

Microneedling is the very process of pricking the skin with very tiny, sterelized needles. These needles pierce the skin and create tiny punctures.

What it does is that it triggers the body’s wound-healing process and the release of growth factors that improves cell regeneration, as well as the production of collagen and elastin.

As you may already know, encouraging collagen and elastin production is the ultimate goal when it comes to rejuvenating the skin and making it more taut.

Remember that microneedling treatment should always be done by a professional, rather than at home. DIY-style derma rollers can be dangerous and difficult to use correctly. Plus when you rely on a professional, you’ll yield greater results as their needles pierce deeper into the skin. 

On top of that, microneedling tools in beauty parlours are often used hand in hand with LED light therapy, meaning that you’ll benefit even more in terms of an improvement in skin tone, texture, and more.

5. Use Retinol

Topical retinol serums and creams are another option for treating sagging skin as they bind to retinoid receptors within skin cells. Then, they activate genes that are responsible for producing collagen. 

Retinol exists in many forms, with over-the-counter and prescription available. While different individuals require different solutions, it’s important to consult your dermatologist first on which type of retinol is most appropriate for your skin type.

Bear in mind that once a retinol is incorporated into your skin care regime, you should start emphasizing hydration to prevent unwanted dryness and irritation. 

6. Invest in a Quality LED Light Therapy Device

Another approach worth investing in is the LED light therapy device. The devices are able to increase collagen and potentially elastin production, resulting in an improved skin tone, skin smoothness, and increased collagen density. Thanks to the photobiomodulation mechanism in these devices, whose light stimulates different pathways in cells that trigger different outcomes, one of which is collagen production.

There are plenty of LED light therapy devices that can be used at the convenience of your own home, just be sure to opt for a trustworthy one.

7. Prioritize Sleep

If you’re asking how to tighten face skin but are losing sleep constantly, you may have gotten off on the wrong foot in your skin care routine. Sleep is often disregarded in the lives of many, but it’s one vital key to maintaining healthy skin at any age.

Losing sleep increases cortisol, or your stress hormone, which can gradually break down collagen. With that in mind, try your best to get a full seven to nine hours of sleep when you can. 

Frequently Asked Questions on How to Tighten Face Skin

1. How to tighten face skin without undergoing surgery?

The best non-invasive methods to tighten your skin include using microcurrent facial devices, gua sha, retinol, LED light therapy devices, microneedling treatment, as well as to prioritize sleep.

2. What vitamins can help tighten loose skin?

Loose skin is often caused by a deprivation of collagen and elastin, which happens naturally as you age. You may consider incorporating a collagen supplement to your daily meals, this includes vitamin C as it’s essential for collagen production to take place/

3. Can facial exercises tighten face skin?

The key to tightening your face skin is to once again, stimulate collagen production. You can make this work by using gua sha or jade rollers, microcurrent devices, LED light therapy devices and consuming hydrolyzed collagen peptides.