You can ignore them. You can pretend they don’t bother you. You can steal a little eye cream from your significant other’s stash. No matter what you do, you know you’re lowkey obsessing over your crow’s feet and wondering what you can do to get rid of them. 

With age, men get crow’s feet -- fine lines that eventually become deep wrinkles at the outer corner of each eye. They can start appearing as early as your twenties, but by your mid-thirties it’s almost a definite they’ll have shown up for the party. 

Crow’s feet can make even the most confident guy feel insecure. It’s not that we’re afraid of aging, it’s just that we’d like to do it as slowly as possible and wear our age as well as Clooney. 

The skin care experts at Disco definitely believe in evolving into a silver fox instead of a back alley dog, and we know how to do it with class.

We’ll tell you everything you need to know about how crow’s feet develop and what you can do to treat and prevent them. 

What Causes Crow’s Feet?

Age.

Seriously, preventing crow’s feet completely is somewhat unavoidable. 

There are, however, other factors that can cause crow’s feet to crop up earlier in your life and become more noticeable. 

UV Damage

One of the leading causes of crow’s feet is UV exposure. It’s not just crow’s feet, either. Fine lines, wrinkles, sunspots, and freckles are all effects of sun damage. Over time, skin will even lose its elasticity and begin to sag. 

Sun damage is the most common reason for crow’s feet that appear in the early to mid twenties. Staying in the sun for long periods of time sans hat and glasses not only causes squinting that can encourage crow’s feet -- it damages the skin cells which results in wrinkles. 

Aging, and Loss of Collagen

Why does aging cause crow’s feet? It has to do with collagen. Collagen is the most basic protein that makes up many of the tissues in your body. Tendons, ligaments, and your skin are filled with collagen. Collagen in your skin helps make it look fuller and more youthful. 

As you age, your collagen production slows. When your skin cells aren’t producing as much collagen, your skin begins to “deflate.” The first noticeable effect of less collagen production is usually fine lines that appear in the form of crow’s feet and laugh lines around your mouth. 

Another factor is consistent facial expression. Again, aging is to blame. Over time, repetitive smiling and/or squinting creates the opportunity for skin that has lost some of its elasticity to wrinkle in the same spots they wrinkle when you laugh, smile, or squint. 

Crow’s feet may even appear earlier because the skin surrounding your eyes is extremely thin, and can become dehydrated relatively easily. Dehydrated skin will also cause your crow’s feet to be more noticeable. 

Smoking

The verdict is in: smoking isn’t sexy. There are over 4,000 chemicals in a cigarette, none of which are beneficial to your skin (or your body) in any way. In fact, most of them are incredibly damaging to your skin. 

Cigarette smoke also produces free radicals. When free radicals come in contact with your healthy skin cells, they latch on and cause damage to the cell. That damage is visible as fine lines, wrinkles, and a destruction of collagen that leaves skin looking saggy. Not to mention smoking can also make your complexion appear extremely dull. 

Smokers get wrinkles and crow’s feet much faster than non-smokers. In addition to the chemical onslaught brought about with every inhale and the free radical damage, the smoke and heat from a cigarette can cause a smoker to squint more than a non-smoker, making it even more likely they’ll develop fine lines faster.  

Prevention and Treatment

You can’t prevent crow’s feet from ever forming; even spending enormous amounts of money on facial injections won’t eliminate them completely. However, you can make some lifestyle changes, and invest in some quality men’s skin care products that can help them become less visible and develop more slowly. 

Sun Protection

If you aren’t already wearing sunscreen daily, start now. Your future self ten years from now will thank you. You can opt for a sunscreen that is specifically formulated for use around your eyes, or you can just carefully apply your facial sunscreen around your eyes. 

Be sure you check the manufacturer packaging to make sure your sunscreen is safe for use on the eye area. Formulas made with mineral ingredients like zinc and/or titanium dioxide are natural choices that work well for the thin, sensitive eye-area skin. 

In addition to sunscreen, you should protect your eyes from sun damage by wearing a hat and glasses when you’re in sunlight. The more shade you can provide for your eyes means less harmful UV rays and less squinting. A double victory in terms of crow’s feet prevention. 

Adopt a Healthier Lifestyle

Lifestyle choices can help you avoid crow’s feet and make them less noticeable. 

• If you haven’t stopped smoking, stop smoking. It’s bad for every part of your body and your skin is suffering from it, too. Smoking is the equivalent of taking a daily pill to help you age faster. 

• Avoid toxins as much as possible in your day to day life. We come in contact with toxins like pollution, smoke, household cleaner, and even certain skincare product ingredients every day. Toxins damage our cells and cause them to function improperly, which can lead to the development of wrinkles. 

• Load up on antioxidants. Antioxidants are what helps us fight off free radicals, and your skin needs antioxidants to prevent free radical damage. Vitamins C and E are excellent antioxidants, and you can find them in high-quality, all natural skin care products, like the ones available from Disco.  

Use Better Skin Care

Not using any skin care other than soap and water? It’s time for a change. 

A good skin care routine can be the difference between looking five years younger or five years older than you actually are. Just like your body needs the right macros to stay healthy and maintain peak performance, your skin needs nourishing, hydrating, and protective ingredients to stay looking youthful.

First things first: If you aren’t currently using any type of skin care routine, give this one a try. 

Our starter skin care set has everything you need to take care of your skin in less than three minutes a day. 

• Face Cleanser Stick. It’s fast, it’s easy, and it removes the scum from the day. Our charcoal cleanser stick digs deep into pores to unclog them, remove stubborn dirt and oil, and even help with cellular rejuvenation (which means newer, less wrinkly skin).

• Exfoliating Face Scrub. Your skin is covered with a layer of dead skin cells. Exfoliating gets rid of them, helps accelerate your skin’s natural cellular turnover, and leaves skin feeling softer and smooth. Our exfoliating face scrub is also packed with antioxidants to help your skin fight off free radical damage. 

• Hydrating Face Moisturizer. Every skin type needs moisture, and when you’re fighting crow’s feet it is an absolute must. 
  
  Dehydration can make crow’s feet more noticeable, but some moisturizers only moisturize the top layer of the skin. Our hydrating face moisturizer contains nourishing macadamia nut oil to penetrate deeply, locking in moisture and keeping skin hydrated for hours.
  
  Macadamia nut oil is also a heavy hitter for tackling fine lines and wrinkles, but don’t worry -- it’s super light and absorbs easily so you don’t have to worry about it leaving your skin feeling greasy or causing a breakout.
  
  You’ll also benefit from vitamin C & E which help protect the skin from free radical damage and assist in brightening your overall skin tone. 

That’s all your need to start combatting crow’s feet. If you really want to go to war on those wrinkles, add Disco's Repairing Eye Stick to your quiver. 

Our eye stick rolls on easily, absorbs quickly, and goes to work immediately. Dark circles get erased, and puffiness disappears while powerful anti-aging niacinamide (a form of vitamin B3) tackles crow’s feet so they become less noticeable. 

If you thought caffeine was only good for coffee, think again. Our eye stick contains caffeine which helps depuff the eye area, so if your eyes look hungover, give them a shot of espresso by applying the eye stick directly underneath to deflate and soothe them. 

You look more awake, and the eye stick keeps working to reduce crow’s feet -- it’s a win/win. 

Let’s Disco

With Disco skin care, you’ve got everything you need to tackle crow’s feet. Our products are all-natural, vegan, non-toxic, and sustainably sourced. Best of all, Disco’s skin care is specifically formulated to work best with the natural pH balance of a man’s skin. You’ll get better, more dramatic results than most products you find at a big box which are normally targeted to women. 

You can age like a fine wine or end up looking like leather luggage -- grab some high-quality men’s skin care and stay sexy, friends. 

Sources:

https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/0003-4819-75-6-873

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/10984-wrinkles

https://smokefree.gov/quit-smoking/getting-started/steps-to-manage-quit-day