What Happens To Your Skin When You Quit Smoking?
For many people who smoke, their skin is visibly different after years of smoking. They may have a more “leathery” appearance, or in most cases, have more wrinkles. One of the most noticeable effects I see in heavy smokers is premature aging. Typically you look anything up to ten or fifteen years olders as a heavy cigarette smoker. In my clinic, one of the most common question that women especially ask me is “what happens to your skin when you quit smoking?”
Cigarette smoke negatively affects some of the chemicals in your skin that keeps it elastic. Under normal conditions your skin remains smooth and soft but when you smoke, you skin become harder. It’s that lack of elasticity that causes more wrinkles. Here are some of the skin effects of smoking:
- You look older. If you compare a smoker to a non-smoker of the same age, you’ll find in most cases, the smoker looks older. This is because the skin is receiving less oxygen which is negatively affecting the skin’s ability to make collagen which is what gives the skin it’s elasticity.
- Bags under your eyes. Smoking can also cause saggy, or loose skin, most noticeable as bags under the eyes in smokers that are generally less noticeable in a non-smoker of the same age..
- Discolouration of the skin. You’ll notice this most obviously where the fingers of a smoker become yellow-ish. You may also notice either dark spots or maybe even a change in the entire skin colour to a shade yellower or darker than normal.
- Skin conditions: the most obvious one is skin cancer. However, that’s not the only one. You are also at risk of contracting a chronic inflammatory skin condition, or atopic dermatitis, hidradenitis suppurativa, psoriasis, lupus and a number of others.
The good news is that depending on your age and how much tobacco smoke you’ve inhaled during your time as a smoker, you should notice quite significant skin benefits. After many smoke-free years, you should notice a significant reversal of any bad skin effects as the body’s ability to repair itself is quite impressive.
What Happens To Your Body When You Quit Smoking?
Believe it or not, the first changes happen only twenty minutes after you have stopped smoking your last cigarette. Your blood pressure starts to normalise. Your pulse also shows measurable changes as your heart rate returns to normal.
Within one day of stopping smoking, your oxygen vs. carbon dioxide balance in your lungs is getting back to normal, so tissues that have been starved of oxygen can become healthier.
Within two to three weeks, you can actually breathe properly again. Your lung function improves dramatically.The amount of oxygen getting from your lungs into your bloodstream has increased dramatically. You have more energy. You can do more without having to give up. Wheezy coughing becomes less. Your risk of lung cancer also becomes less.
One year on, your risk of heart attack is now way less than it was while you were a smoker. If you do still get a cold or a flu, it’s likely to be less severe.
How Long After Quitting Does Skin Improve?
While you were a smoker, your skin slowed down that process of making new skin cells so your skin regularly looked older and more tired. It literally only takes a couple of weeks before you’ll notice your skin is looking better and any skin damage begins to repair itself. Here’s what happens to your skin when you quit smoking.
- Skin discoloration begins to fade – your skin colour may lighten a little, often in as little as two or three weeks. This is partially because blood flow is partially or fully restored to the small blood vessels in the face. A study done approximately ten years ago indicated that skin discoloration can begin to change in as little as four to twelve weeks.
- Your skin may lose some wrinkles – as the elasticity of your skin improves, you regain some of the elasticity you used to have so wrinkles begin to fade in as little as a few months. (This depends upon your age and how wrinkled the skin is at the time of quitting, and also on what measures you take to look after your skin in the aftermath of smoking). The reason for this is that collagen production which had stopped due to smoking, restarts.
- Better healing – if you cut yourself accidentally, your wound will heal better and quicker as a non smoker. Your risk of infection will also be less as a non-smoker.
Do Wrinkles Improve After Quitting Smoking?
Definitely – yes! You’ll notice than in a couple of weeks your skin color will lighten a little and within a couple of months, your skin will feel softer and less wrinkled. You’ll also notice changes to your skin tone
Here are some tips of what to do to help your skin look great when you stop smoking.
- Cleanse – many females do this as part of their daily routine. Men, on the other hand, may not have gotten into this habit.
- Moisturise – after you have cleansed you face, apply moisturiser. This helps the skin stay soft and supple.
- Take vitamins – depending on your diet you may not be getting enough of the two vitamins that play a vital role in how healthy your skin is. These are Vitamin D, Vitamin A & Vitamin C. Vitamin D in particular, is vital to skin healing and what happens to your skin when you quit smoking is that levels of these vitamins return to normal after a short period.
There are, of course, other ways to help your skin but these three are, in my opinion, the most vital.
Self Hypnosis Audio To Stop Smoking Successfully
Self hypnosis can be a great tool to stop smoking successfully. This powerful audio is 25 minutes long.
Will Eye Bags Go Away After Quitting Smoking?
No-one can guarantee they will go away completely but they will certainly reduce significantly.
Not many smokers realise that smoking alters your sleep patterns. This is probably because the changes are subtle. You may just have woken up feel a lack of energy and never joined the dots in your mind that this could be smoking causing the problem. Studies have shown that nicotine withdrawal during the night alter the level of sleep you are at so smokers may not achieve the same level of deep sleep as a non-smoker.
As a result of not sleeping as well as a non-smoker, bags or circles under your eyes can become more pronounced. Another contributing factor is the lack of vitamins that the skin is getting (as I already mentioned in an earlier paragraph). This causes a lack of elasticity in the skin which in turn causes bags and circles to be more noticeable.
The good news is that, when you stop smoking, you get more vitamins to that area, the skin is more moisturised and sleep is better. All of this leads to a definite reduction in bags under the eyes.
Will I Look Younger If I Stop Smoking?
The reason your skin looks “younger” when you are a non-smoker is that you’ve got more oxygen and nutrients getting into the skin than a smoker does. If you smoke on the other hand, carbon dioxide takes the place of oxygen which means your skin won’t look as well. Your carbon monoxide levels are higher than they should be. The chemicals in cigarettes also reduce blood flow to your skin. Blood flow is necessary for the health of skin.
I suppose a good example of what happens when you cut off blood flow to the skin is what happens when you tie some thread around a skin tag. Over a couple of days the skin discolours (goes a bit black) and then dies and falls off. This really illustrates why blood flow is vital for healthy skin.
The good news is that when you stop smoking
- oxygen returns to your skin
- your blood flow to your skin increases
- vitamins A & C are found in greater quantities in the skin
The result is that you can’t help but look younger when you stop smoking
5 Ways To Improve Your Skin After Quitting Smoking
You can download this beautiful A4 pdf right now and print it off if you’d like.
Stick it on the mirror in the bathroom to remind you of what you can do every day to improve your skin
No subscription required
Does Hair Get Thicker After Quitting Smoking?
Smoking has been linked, in certain studies, with temporary hair loss. Just as with what happens to your skin when you smoke, your hair also requires good blood circulation in order to maintain healthy hair. As the body’s oxygen levels decrease, circulation is affected negatively as nicotine levels increase.
In this article from The Belgravia Centre, it is explained that hair loss may have nothing to do with smoking and might be a separate issue such as male pattern baldness happening simultaneously to smoking. So don’t assume hair loss is caused by smoking – it may but it is also possible it might not be smoking causing the problem.
If the cause really is smoking, the good news is that the increased blood flow to your skin and hair that happens when you quit smoking should cause your hair to thicken. The shortness of breath decrease that happens when you become a non-smoker increases circulation which is important for proper, healthy hair growth.
Self Hypnosis Audio To Stop Smoking Successfully
Self hypnosis can be a great tool to stop smoking successfully. This powerful audio is 25 minutes long.
Self Hypnosis For Stopping Smoking
So now that you know what happens to your skin when you quit smoking, lets talk about how to quit smoking so you can get all those good effects. One of the best and most effective ways to achieve smoking cessation is to listen to a self hypnosis audio for thirty days. If you’d like to read more about hypnosis for stopping smoking, check out my article entitled “Hypnosis For Quit Smoking Success That Works”.
This “Stop Smoking Successfully” self hypnosis recording will:
- Re-inforce in your mind over and over again, your reasons for wanting to stop smoking.
- Encourage you by telling you that you’ve got this.
- Remind you of what horrible, dangerous chemicals you are breathing in every time you smoke.
- Replace the old cigarette smoking habit with a new healthy habit of taking deep breaths and loving that sensation more than you used to love smoking.
Listen to this self hypnosis recording every day for at least thirty days. This recording has been scripted and voiced by one of the world’s leading Clinical Hypnotherapists, Paul J Hunter, so you are assured of the highest quality and standard of recording.
Over fifteen years of experience has gone into this powerful hypnosis audio and, if you are a current smoker, will help you:
- really feel that you love being a non-smoker and that it’s easier than you thought it would be
- believe you really are a non-smoker
- replace with new and healthier habits
Next Article
In the next article, we’ll look at learning how to love yourself just the way you are. The article is called How To Practice Self Love
Frequently Asked Questions
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Author: Paul Hunter
Although thousands of people read his blog every month, Paul's path to success was not an easy one. Click here to read his amazing story "From Unwanted Baby And Adopted To A Respected Self Help Blogger". If you want to send Paul a quick message, then visit his contact page here
