Shereene IdrissBoard Certified Derm, Founder and Chief Nerd

First Sign of Aging #shorts

9 Feb 2025 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:02

Short YouTube video by dermatologist Shereene Idriss arguing that uneven skin tone/hyperpigmentation — not wrinkles — is the primary visible sign of aging. The speaker demonstrates sub-surface pigmentation with a Wood's lamp, recounts personal sun exposure and melasma history (didn't use sunscreen until ~age 25), and recommends consistent, everyday topical skincare targeting discoloration instead of relying on expensive procedures.

Chapters

Your wrinkles are not aging you. You know what's aging you? Your skin tone. And if you don't believe me, let's whip out our skin's lie detector test to show us the damage under the surface of the skin. Oh, and I'm a 40 year old board certified dermatologist. This right here is a woods lamp. It's going to show us all the damage that's lurking underneath your skin that has accumulated over the years. And in an instant, I will look like the Crypt Keeper. Good lord. So I never used sunscreen until I was really 25 because I am so white and I am Lebanese and they told me to tan. Plus I developed melasma which made me look worse and the damage became prominent on my skin. A few years ago, this was me at the beach looking like a speckled mess. But I was able to turn things around not through expensive procedures like lasers and chemical peels, etc, but through skin care skincare that was targeting discoloration hyperpigmentation every single day, consistently every single week throughout the year. Because at the end of the day, an even skin tone is next to godliness and you can have all the lines and wrinkles in the world, but as long as your skin tone is even, you can fake it till we, I guess, never really make it.