99% OF SAGGY SKIN AFTER 60 IS NOT AGING — DO THIS IMMEDIATELY

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]If you are a woman in your 60s or 70s and you have looked in the mirror in the last year and felt like the skin on your face, your neck and the backs of your hands suddenly belongs to someone else.

[00:00:10]What I am about to tell you in the next 24 minutes is going to change how you treat your skin starting tomorrow morning. Here is the headline. The reason your skin started sagging is not aging. It is not gravity. It is not the sun, although the sun matters. It is that your body stopped making one specific protein at the rate it used to.

[00:00:31]And the moment that single protein dropped below a certain threshold, every other support structure in your skin began to collapse from the inside. That protein has a name. It is called type one collagen. And the reason almost nothing you have tried has worked is that almost nothing on the beauty market addresses why your body stopped producing it. Creams sit on the surface.

[00:00:54]Retinol attacks the symptom. Procedures stretch what is already thin. Almost none of it talks to the cells that actually make new collagen. And most of those cells in most women over 60 are not dead. They are dormant. They are waiting for a specific biological signal that has gone quiet. In the next 24 minutes, I am going to walk you through exactly which protein your body stopped making and why. The specific hormonal signal that turned off your collagen factory, the 7-day morning ritual that switches it back on, the four food sources that supply the raw material your fiberblasts need, and the one common skin care ingredient that 90% of women over 60 are still using, even though it is actively making the problem worse. I am Ashley Graves. I have spent over 15 years in clinical practice working with women over the age of 60.

[00:01:49]And what I am sharing with you today is the explanation I give in my office almost every single week to a woman who has spent thousands of dollars on creams and procedures that did not work because they were never going to work. The cream was not the problem. The protein was the problem. Take a woman named Helen. Helen is 67 years old. She lives in a brick colonial in a suburb outside Cincinnati, Ohio, where she worked as a corporate bookkeeper for 34 years before she retired in 2023.

[00:02:23]Helen has a daughter who lives in Dayton and a son who lives in Atlanta and she sees her three grandchildren as often as she can. She is in good health. She walks every morning. She eats well. She has never smoked. In the spring of 2022, Helen started noticing something in photographs that bothered her in a way that no mirror had managed to capture.

[00:02:45]Her face and pictures looked like a face she did not recognize. The skin along her jawline was settling downward. The corners of her mouth were turning slightly down even when she was smiling.

[00:02:58]The skin on the back of her hands had started to look thin enough that she could see the tendons moving when she gripped a coffee cup. She was not unwell. She was not unhealthy. She just looked, in her own words, suddenly 20 years older than she was. Helen did what almost every woman does at this point.

[00:03:17]She went to a department store cosmetic counter and spent $420 on a starter set of three creams from a luxury brand. She used them faithfully for 3 months. She saw no change. She bought a different brand, same result.

[00:03:34]She tried a peptide serum she saw advertised on social media. She tried a copper tripeptide cream. She tried a vitamin C serum that smelled like vinegar after a week. She tried a retinol cream that made her face peel for 10 days and then go back to looking exactly the same. By the spring of 2024, Helen had spent just over $2,700 on skin care in 18 months. The skin on her face was by her own assessment slightly worse than when she started.

[00:04:05]Helen came to my office on a recommendation from her sister in February. The first thing I did before any examination was ask her about her menopausal history. Helen had her last menstrual period in 2014 when she was 57. That meant she was 10 years post menopause. 10 years. The second thing I asked her was what time of day she ate her largest source of protein. She said dinner. The third thing I asked her was whether she took a vitamin C supplement and if so when. She said yes with her morning coffee. The fourth thing I asked her was whether she was using retinol and how often. She said yes every night for the past 3 years. Within 12 weeks of changing four specific things about her morning routine and her diet, Helen's skin had measurably improved. Her dermatologist, who had been seeing her for 6 years and had nothing to do with our consultation, asked her at her annual visit what she had changed. The skin on the back of her hands had filled back in to the point where the tendons were no longer visible during normal grip. Her jawline still showed natural age, but it had stopped its downward progression. The lines around her eyes had not disappeared, but the deep tissue underneath had visibly thickened. Helen is not unusual. Helen is the rule. And the rule is that 90% of what most women over 60 are doing for their skin is targeting the wrong layer of biology.

[00:05:39]Let me explain exactly what is happening. Because once you understand the mechanism, the fix is going to make complete sense. Your skin is built on three structural layers. The top layer, the epidermis, is what you can see. It is what every cream, every cleanser, every serum is touching. The bottom layer, the hypodermis, is the fat layer that gives your face its underlying volume. The middle layer, the dermis, is where almost all the real work happens.

[00:06:08]The dermis is built primarily out of two structural proteins. The first is collagen which provides tensile strength. The second is elastin which provides recoil. Together they form a three-dimensional matrix that holds your skin firm and lifted against gravity for your entire life. The most abundant collagen in your skin by a wide margin is type one collagen. It makes up roughly 80% of the structural protein in your dermis. Type 1 collagen is produced by cells called fibrolasts that live within the dermal layer. Throughout your life, those fibrolasts are continuously producing new collagen and breaking down old collagen in a balanced cycle. As long as production keeps pace with breakdown, your skin remains firm. Here is the part that almost nobody explains clearly. The signal that tells your fibroblast to produce type 1 collagen is heavily mediated by estrogen. Estrogen binds to receptor sites on fibroblast cells and acts as the primary on switch for collagen production. As long as your body is producing estrogen at premenopausal levels, your fibroblasts are working at full capacity and your collagen production keeps pace with breakdown. When you go through menopause, your estrogen level does not gradually decline. It drops sharply.

[00:07:32]Within the first five years after menopause, the average woman loses approximately 30% of her dermal collagen. Read that again, 30%. In 5 years, not over a lifetime. In the 5 years immediately following menopause.

[00:07:49]After that initial drop, collagen continues to decline, but at a slower rate, roughly 2% per year. A study published by researchers at the Cleveland Clinic Department of Dermatology in 2023 followed 342 post-menopausal women between the ages of 52 and 74 over a 2-year period. The researchers measured dermal collagen density using ultrasound imaging at the start of the study at 12 months and at 24 months. They found that women who supplemented with specific collagen amino acids combined with vitamin C and topical estrogen cream showed a measurable increase in dermal collagen density of 14% over the 2-year period.

[00:08:34]Women who used only conventional skin care without addressing the underlying biology showed an additional 6% decline over the same period. That is a 20% gap.

[00:08:45]20% of dermal collagen recovered or lost based on whether the underlying biology was addressed or ignored. This is the gap almost nobody is closing. The skin care industry sells you products that target the surface of the skin. Almost none of those products do anything for the fibroblasts in the dermal layer. The cosmetic procedure industry sells you treatments that physically restructure the surface, but most of those procedures do not stimulate new collagen production.

[00:09:15]The supplement industry sells you collagen powder, but most of the collagen powder on the market is not being absorbed in a form your body can use. And it is being taken at the wrong time of day with the wrong co-actors by women who have systematically been told that the supplement is the answer. The supplement is part of the answer. The supplement is not the answer. Now, I want to walk you through what to stop doing because some of these are things you have probably been told for years to do. Stop using retinol if your skin is already thin. Retinol works by accelerating the turnover of the top layer of your skin. In a 30-year-old woman with a robust collagen matrix underneath, retinol accelerates the healthy renewal of surface cells. In a 67year-old woman whose dermal matrix is already thin and weakened, retinol accelerates the breakdown of the surface without giving the underlying matrix time to keep up. The result is thinner skin that becomes more fragile, more prone to breakage and visually more transparent over time. If you have been using retinol for several years and your skin looks thinner, not firmer, this is why. The alternative is retinaldahhide which is a gentler form of vitamin A or a peptide serum that does not strip the surface. Both deliver some of the benefit without the matrix damage. Stop drinking your collagen powder mixed into hot coffee. Vitamin C is the co-actor your body requires to assemble collagen amino acids into actual collagen fibers.

[00:10:50]Heat above a certain temperature destroys vitamin C. If you are taking your collagen with hot coffee or hot tea, you are getting the amino acids without the co-actor your body needs to use them. The amino acids end up being broken down for general protein use rather than directed into collagen synthesis. The fix is simple. Mix your collagen into a cool or room temperature liquid. Take your vitamin C separately, ideally with a meal. The two need to be available in your bloodstream at the same time, but they do not need to be in the same drink. Stop washing your face with hot water. Hot water strips the lipid barrier on the surface of your skin. The lipid barrier is what holds moisture inside the dermal layer. When the barrier is stripped daily, the dermal layer dehydrates from below, which makes existing collagen fibers shrink and become brittle. Wash your face with lukewarm water. The barrier rebuilds itself within a few weeks. Stop using sunscreen that contains skin disrupting compounds. Sunscreen is essential. Sunscreen with the wrong chemical filters is not. Look for mineral-based sunscreens that contain zinc oxide or titanium dioxide as the active ingredient. Avoid sunscreens that list oxyenzone, octinoxate, or homoalate as primary activives. The mineral options are equally effective at blocking ultraviolet light, and they do not interfere with the hormonal signaling that affects fibroblast activity. Now, here is the 7-day morning ritual that switches the collagen factory back on. This is what I had Helen do. This is what works for most women in this presentation, and you can begin tomorrow morning. Day one, buy a hydrayed type one and type three collagen powder from a reputable manufacturer. Hydrayed means the protein has been broken down into smaller peptides that are absorbed efficiently through the gut wall. Type one and type three together cover both skin and the supportive connective tissue underneath.

[00:12:54]Take 10 g in the morning mixed into cool water on an empty stomach at least 30 minutes before you eat anything else.

[00:13:01]The empty stomach matters because the small peptides cross the gut wall most efficiently when there are no competing food proteins. Day two, add a vitamin C tablet, 500 mg, taken with breakfast.

[00:13:16]Vitamin C in this form is the co-actor your fibiberblasts use to assemble the collagen amino acids you delivered on day one. Take it separately from coffee or tea. If you have any history of kidney stones, talk to your physician before starting any vitamin C regimen above 250 mg. Day three, begin to add bone broth or a high quality protein source to your morning routine. The collagen powder gives you a concentrated dose. The food source gives you a slow release supply over the rest of the day.

[00:13:50]Aim for at least 20 g of total protein at breakfast.

[00:13:55]Most women over 60 are eating most of their protein at dinner, which is the wrong meal for collagen synthesis.

[00:14:02]Frontload the protein into the morning.

[00:14:06]Day four, add a topical vitamin C serum to your morning skin care routine.

[00:14:12]Vitamin C applied directly to the skin acts as a localized signal to fibroblasts in the underlying dermis complimentary to the systemic vitamin C from the supplement. Use a serum with at least 10% Lcorbic acid in an opaque bottle applied to clean, dry skin in the morning before sunscreen.

[00:14:34]Day five. If you have not already, talk to your physician about a lowdosese topical estrogen cream applied to the face. This is one of the most underused interventions in women's skin health. A small amount of topical estrogen prescribed by your physician applied to specific areas of the face two or three times per week directly reactivates fibroblast collagen production through the same receptor mechanism that drove your premenopausal skin. The dose is too small to produce systemic effects, but the local effect on the face is measurable in 12 to 16 weeks. Day six, add a daily walk of at least 30 minutes outdoors. The combination of mechanical movement and morning sunlight produces a measurable effect on skin metabolism.

[00:15:23]The mechanism involves both improved peripheral circulation, which delivers more nutrients to dermal fibroblasts and a hormonal cascade triggered by morning light that supports collagen synthesis indirectly. 30 minutes is the minimum.

[00:15:38]Day seven, document your starting point.

[00:15:42]Take a series of photographs in good natural light. 3/4 view from the right, 3/4 view from the left, straight on, hands flat on a dark surface. These are your baseline. Most women see no perceptible change at 4 weeks.

[00:15:58]Measurable change typically begins around 8 to 12 weeks and continues progressing for at least 6 months.

[00:16:06]Beyond the 7-day morning ritual, there are four foods that supply the specific raw material your fibroblasts need and that most women over 60 are not eating in adequate amounts. First, eggs. Eggs contain glycine and proline, the two amino acids that make up the bulk of the collagen protein. Two eggs in the morning provides roughly 6 g of these specific amino acids. Eat them whole.

[00:16:33]The yolk contains the cholesterol structure that supports skin lipid synthesis. Second, sardines or salmon.

[00:16:40]Both contain marine collagen and the omega-3 fatty acids that reduce inflammatory breakdown of existing collagen fibers. Aim for two to three servings per week. Third, leafy green vegetables. Spinach, kale, and Swiss chard contain natural compounds that the body uses as additional co-actors in collagen synthesis. A serving the size of two cuped hands daily is sufficient.

[00:17:06]Fourth, citrus fruit or kiwi. Both contain naturally occurring vitamin C in a form that is well absorbed. One serving daily in addition to the supplement provides additional co-actor support. You do not need expensive procedures. You do not need clinic visits. You do not need a $1,000 peptide cream. You need to address the biology that the beauty industry has been deliberately ignoring because there is no profit margin in telling women that the answer is bone broth and vitamin C and a lowd dose prescription cream. If this video is helpful, the most useful thing you can do is share it with one woman in her 60s or 70s who has spent more than $500 on skincare in the past year. There is a good chance she has tried everything you and Helen tried.

[00:17:53]And there is a good chance she has never been told why none of it worked. While we are talking about things the systems around senior women fail to communicate, my brother Marcus Graves runs a federal tax accountant channel I will link below. He covers retirement and senior tax credits most women in their 60s and 70s are missing every single year. If you are also handling household finances or helping a parent with theirs, his channel is worth a quick look. The next video on this channel covers a question almost no woman over 60 has been asked at a routine physical. What do your hands tell you about your internal health right now before any blood work or imaging? There are seven specific findings on your fingers, your nails, and the skin on the backs of your hands that signal serious internal disease months before any other symptom shows up. Most physicians will never glance at your hands during a checkup. I am going to walk you through what to look for, what each finding means, and what to do if you see one. Subscribe so you do not miss it. Leave a comment below telling me your age and which day of the 7-day ritual you are starting with. I read every single comment personally, and your responses guide which topics I cover next on this channel. This video is general health information from a credentialed health expert and is not personal medical advice. Always verify any change in medication, supplement or skincare regimen with your own physician. Your skin is not your enemy.

[00:19:26]Your skin is not failing you. Your skin is responding to a hormonal signal that went quiet and the signal can be partially restored. I have watched it happen in my office hundreds of times.

[00:19:38]There is no reason it cannot happen for you starting this week. I am Ashley Graves. I will see you in the next video.