Why You’ll Wish Your Face Looked Like Your Butt.

It doesn’t matter how many times you are told that sun exposure is bad for your skin.

The negative repercussions usually do not happen right away, and it can be easy to shrug off warnings and convince yourself that none of that bad stuff will happen to you…

It’s harder however, to argue against picture-proof of what that sun exposure is doing to your skin.

Check-out this quick game of “Guess the Age of that Butt?”

Take a good, hard look at the following image: can you tell which derriere belongs to a 25, 35, 45, 55, and 65-year old??

old butts


Now take a look at this image: can you identify which face belongs to a 25, 35, 45, 55, and 65-year old?

old faces

To brilliantly demonstrate the subversive effects that sun damage has on our skin, day-in and day-out, Julie Kenner, M.D., PhD recently constructed a very simple experiment that was published in Cosmetic Dermatology.

The “Cheek Quiz” consisted of five women, each in different decades of life (20’s, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s) that agreed to have both their faces and their bare buttocks photographed and shared.

The sets of pictures were randomly mixed, and then 50-participants were asked to look at the pictures, and identify which picture went with which age.

Whereas over 75% of the participants were able to correctly identify the women’s age group based on their facial pictures, less than 5% were able to guess the women’s age based off the appearance of their buttocks. (Can you? Answers are at very bottom.)

The organizers of this experiment were pleased with their findings, because it provided such a clear point about the importance of sun protection. The faces, which are exposed to sun damage all year long, showed the distinct passage of time. However the skin on the buttocks looks almost indistinguishable from each other — chronological age be damned — because that skin is always covered up and never exposed to the sun’s damaging rays. (The presence of cellulite is the only visual clue about the age of the rear-ends.)

This goes to show the extent of aging that occurs due to sun exposure. Stay out of the sun, have pretty skin forever. Expose your skin to sun, and deal with the onslaught of aging. Sun damage is the #1 cause of premature aging, and it is a unique concept to think that it’d be better if our face’s looked more like our buttocks…

It probably goes without saying, but daily sun protection is vital– whether it is winter and you are in the office all day, or it is summer and you’re spending time at the beach. Your skin is being exposed to harmful UVA and UVB rays all the time, whether you’re cognizant of it or not.

It’s in your best interest from both a health and aesthetic stand-point to nip the danger in the bud(tock?) and protect your skin from the get-go. Fortunately, sun protection is something that we are all much more aware of now, and to that end there are a million varities of sun protection available so that even the pickiest person can have a way to happily protect themselves. Clothing, hats, tinted windows, sunscreen, etc., there are a wide variety of sun-protecting options at your finger-tips, take advantage of these skin-saving options to keep your skin butt-perfect forever.

Age of buttocks, clockwise from right of question: 65, 55, 25, 35, 45
Age of faces, clockwise from right of question: 25, 45, 55, 65, 35