Image Source: Getty/Edward Berthelot / Contributor
In a society that is obsessed with trying to fight the clock and age as little as possible, it’s not unusual for people to try some pretty far-fetched treatments and products in the name of staying youthful. Case in point? The rise of special straws to beat wrinkles.
“It looks really odd while using it but if I stay looking youthful . . .” TikTok user Rachel Madison Carlisle explained in a now-viral video about her decision to purchase an anti-wrinkle straw ($21). Instead of being completely vertical, the tip of the straw is horizontal, presumably to keep your mouth in a more neutral position while you drink your favorite beverages.
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It’s likeness to bendy straws aside, the product itself creates more questions than clear answers within the anti-aging conversation. Chief among them is whether this is a topic you should be worried about in the first place. To find out if straws actually cause wrinkles and how to prevent early signs of aging around the mouth from two dermatologists, keep reading.
Do Straws Cause Wrinkles?
We hate to break it to you, but the answer is yes. “The musculature pulling on the skin is essentially what causes the wrinkles,” board-certified dermatologist Michelle Henry, MD, FAAD, tells POPSUGAR. “The repetitive motion will cause wear and tear on the skin.”
If you’re a frequent straw user, don’t fret (frowning also causes wrinkles) – it’ll likely be a while before they actually show up. “It would take quite a few years of sipping out of a straw frequently throughout the day for them to show up,” says Serena Mraz, MD, board-certified dermatologist of Solano Dermatology and Associates. “If you start in your teens or 20s, you may start showing lines in your late 30s and early 40s, especially as you start losing collagen in the skin as a natural part of aging.”
Do Anti-Wrinkle Straws Work?
Anti-wrinkle straws do work, in theory, but you shouldn’t rely on them to do the bulk of the heavy lifting when it comes to preventing wrinkles. “While they may reduce the amount of pursing and wrinkling, they do not negate or get rid of oral wrinkles,” Dr. Henry says. “Therefore, they will still happen, just at at a slower or less aggressive rate.”
Drinking is not the only reason why lines around the mouth appear, so anti-wrinkle straws would only address a small part of the equation. “The truth of the matter is that time drinking through straws, in most cases, contributes very little to repeated muscle action as a contributing factor to wrinkles,” Dr. Mraz says. Factors like age, sun exposure, and genetics have more of a direct impact on the appearance of lines around the mouth.
How to Prevent Wrinkles From Straws
If you’re not into the idea of anti-wrinkle straws, there is a way to slow down the effects of using normal ones over time. “Avoidance or minimization of the pursing motion may help marginally with delaying lip-line formation,” Dr. Mraz says. “Still, a more effective use of one’s energy is to practice regular sun protection, avoid smoking, and use regular, effective skin care.”
Products like the Wrinkles Schminkles Mouth and Lip Wrinkle Patches ($20) or cosmetic treatments like Botox, Dysport, or Daxxify are also more intensive steps that Dr. Mraz recommends. “They can effectively stave off and even reverse the ‘bar code’ lines and other wrinkles around the mouth with regular use,” she says. “The neuromodulators, in particular, can weaken overly active muscles around the mouth and can be useful in people with strong sphincter muscles of expression.”
Even with all of this, the little lines may still appear around the mouth due to genetic predisposition – and that is OK. It’s a privilege to be able to age.
