Looking at the state of your mother’s (or grandmother’s) skin can give you clues about how you might age, but it’s far from a snapshot of the future you, explains top New York dermatologist Amy Wechsler. (Wechsler herself, at fifty, looks remarkably similar in age to her twenty-two-year-old daughter, Zoe, with whom she hosts a hilarious and thought-provoking podcast called Am I Embarrassing You?) “How you take care of your skin—and especially what you expose it to—can leave the future you looking very different,” she says. “Lifestyle is incredibly important.”
While a healthy diet and great skin care make a huge difference, the biggest lifestyle factors, for Wechsler, are sun and smoking exposure. “They’re tied for first place,” she says. “If you want great-looking skin as you age, protect your skin from smoke and sun.