I love that you ask this because many women/men have this complaint, especially around the eyes and on the neck. I’d like us to understand this problem better so here it goes. You didn’t tell me how old you are though?   🙂

Crepey-ness is the result of 4 things:

1.  The kind of skin you started with and inherited from your parents – thickness, skin color and oiliness
2.  The area of the body like the difference between the thin eyelid skin and the thick skin on your back
3.  The amount of sun damage in that area – the more sun damage the more you destroy collagen and elastic fibers, and delay natural repair functions
4.  The natural (intrinsic) aging process itself that happens to all organs. In skin, natural aging tends to result in a very slow loss of thickness.

Eyelid skin on almost everyone, tends to get crepey – the skin is very thin there naturally AND its on the face, the area most prone sun damage. Also, people born with thinner and/or drier skin are much more prone to wrinkles and crepey skin than those with thicker and oilier skin.

What can you do to prevent crepey skin?

• Stay as healthy as you can! A diet rich in intact grains, veggies, quality protein, fruits, healthy oils and probiotics gives you a lot of antioxidants and all the building blocks for great skin. Exercise increases circulation to every organ including skin. 🙂
• Block that UV light with at least 7-9% zinc in colder climates and 10-20% zinc in sunny weather or warmer climates. Here are some good ones.
• Don’t forget your eyelids with sunglasses, hats and maybe an eyelid specific sunscreen. Try this one.
• Especially if you have thinner, drier skin stay well moisturized always and start the use of products that are proven to  build collagen like retinoids by age 30 if possible. Here is a good one.

What can you do to fix crepey skin?

• First accept that if you are over 45, products by themselves can’t fix this.  This is especially true for those with naturally thin, dry skin.
• But start by optimizing your products – a gentle cleanser that doesn’t strip oil, a quality antioxidant, moisturizer and sunscreen with zinc (see above for the %) in the morning. At night, gentle cleanser, a ton of moisturizer and a retinoid. These are the basics and you can other things after these, if you want.  More on my skincare regimen here.
• Then start educating yourself about lasers, radiofrequency and perhaps fillers. You will need one or more of these to correct this problem and it’s quite individual. There’s a ton of information on this site and you can just use the search function for specific questions on SkinTour.
• Recommit to a a healthy lifestyle. Pick one thing at a time and get strong with that and then add another.  Go slowly and mindfully and you’re more likely to make it permanent.

Hope this helps,  Dr. I