NatNews

While many people prefer to practice quality skin care in order to minimize signs of aging and have glowing, blemish-free appearances, taking care of your skin is actually beneficial for your overall health. Your skin helps protect you from external elements, regulates body temperature, promotes vitamin D synthesis, and naturally protects against harmful UV rays, and treating it properly can fight against infection and disease, improve self-confidence, and even help improve mental health.

According to research conducted by NatNews, 58 percent of the dear readers who participated in a recent survey indicated that they believe that skin care is important, 36 percent said they mostly think it’s important but don’t invest much into it, and 6 percent do not care much or at all about taking care of their skin. For New York City resident Alicia Wyatt, skin care is certainly a priority in her life.

“Our skin is often the first sign to see when we are having health issues,” she said. “It is also a big driver of confidence (or non-confidence) in our self-perceptions of ourselves, too.”

Dallas resident Keith Jensen said he also ensures that he makes time and efforts to care for his skin, as he knows the negative effects that can result from not doing so. 

“Your skin has the ability of being something that gives you great confidence or can cause you a lot of pain,” he said. “I have had family members who deal with ongoing skin issues that are painful and itchy and can cause great pain physically and sometimes even emotionally.”

In order to maintain healthy skin, Jensen said he uses sunscreen every day, often multiple times per day. That’s not the only precautionary measure he takes, though.

“I also use skin hydration products and, over the last four years, have done a yearly deeper blue light therapy to combat cancerous cells and repair damage from years past,” he said.

People’s faces are exposed to a number of harsh elements, including pollution, the sun’s dangerous rays, and adverse weather conditions—all of which can take a toll on a person’s skin. While some individuals are able to treat themselves to facials and other such procedures, not everyone’s lifestyle can allocate much to skin care. While Dallas-area resident Laura Mattingly believes that basic skin care is beneficial for overall health and self-confidence, as a mother of two young boys, she has a rather full schedule.

“I try to use SPF and moisturizer daily and clean my face before bed,” she said. “Other than that, it can be hard for me to make the time to apply other products regularly.”

Some individuals, like Wyatt, have sensitive skin and use certain products that help protect it. Wyatt said she also tries to eat a healthy diet, drinks plenty of fluids, takes a collagen supplement, and wears sunscreen daily because she is rather susceptible to sunburns.

“As I hit middle age, I have found my body needs a bit more help keeping up with its care,” she said.

Research conducted by the U.S. Census and Simmons National Consumer Survey revealed that the average American spends more than $320 each year on skin care. When it comes to the idea of seeking self-improvement in a variety of ways, this amount is not surprising to many people.

“Skin is tied so closely to your appearance, which means that it’s a natural place for people to invest their money when they are trying to look or feel better about themselves,” Jensen said.

Mattingly said she thinks there has been a continued growth in the popularity and use of products to help one’s skin because of the availability of information and knowledge people now have to the long-term benefits such products offer.

“I think there has been an increased awareness that good skin care, over time, really does help with the signs of aging,” she said. “And as people’s overall efforts to stay healthy later in life have increased, so has the desire to delay the physical signs of aging.”

And those efforts are likely not going to fade away anytime soon. Wyatt said she believes that products to help with proper skin care will always be popular staples in many people’s lives.

“They are ever-evolving to try to be healthier, and as consumers, we have been conditioned to be open to trying them out,” she said. “The science behind skin care is just as evolving as the products being produced. It’s also important to understand that our needs change as we age. As long as beauty sells, skin care will sell right along with it."

Though Olympic gold medals contain 6 grams of gold, they are primarily made of silver. The last time Olympic gold medals were made entirely of gold was in 1912.

When it comes to dating, no two relationships are identical. Some people meet during childhood or high school or college and stay together forever. Others meet at work or through friends or out and about in a number of different places or use dating apps to help them find their significant others.

Throughout the adolescent and young adult years, it’s more common for individuals to date people their own ages. The more advanced in age one gets, though, the more likely it becomes that he or she might end up with someone a bit older or younger. While age gaps (especially significant ones) in relationships sometimes spark social disapproval, not everyone believes that there are specific standards adults are required to follow. Dallas resident Laura Hays said she thinks an age difference in a relationship completely depends on the people and the situation.

“There is no hard and fast rule,” she said. “However, up to six years in either direction seems to be the range that works best for me.”

For Hays, this truth comes from previous personal experience.

“When I was 36, I briefly dated a 24-year-old,” she said. “We had a fun time together, but it definitely wasn’t going to work long-term. We were in very different places in life, as he was only a couple years out of college, and I was established in my career, looking to settle down and start a family. But it did make me feel like ‘I’ve still got it!’"

Like Hays, Dallas resident Alexis Derrow believes that plus or minus six years is a sufficient age gap between two people for a relationship to work.

“You need to have some cultural fluency, and if it is more than six years, you start to lose it,” she said.

Also similar to Hays, Dallas resident Andy Cline said he believes that there’s no set rule. For him, however, a difference of five years in either direction is typically acceptable.

“I care less about the actual number and more about two other factors that are somewhat tied to age: maturity-to-immaturity ratio and phase of life,” he said.

Cline said in any lasting romantic relationship, that maturity-to-immaturity ratio cannot be too unbalanced on either side.

“You have to be able to have fun as well as be able to have the difficult conversations that help the relationship to grow,” he said. “And the phase of life compatibility is crucial because people’s values and goals change in different phases of life, and if yours aren’t aligned, you’re going to have a bad time.”

For Dallas-area resident Josh Odegard, a significant age gap between two people is not necessarily a problem when both individuals are consenting and mature adults.

“There are obviously issues—like health and financial issues—that people in a relationship with a very large age gap may run into, but those issues also happen to people in relationships with no age differences.”

Derrow also believes that individuals dating people much older or younger than they are can have lasting relationships, though like Cline said, those situations are often less about the number of years the people have lived.

“If people have the same goals, then yes, it can work,” she said. “But often you are at different places in your lives.”

Because of being in life stages that were not quite the same, Derrow’s relationships in which she has dated men up to 15 years younger or older have not lasted.

“I dated a much older and a much younger man,” she said. “With the older one, we were in different places. With the younger, there was too much Gen Z angst. I couldn’t take it.”

Cline said he has seen many relationships he believes are successful between people with large age differences, though he doesn’t think that he would do well in one. He was once in a relationship with a six-year age gap that didn’t work out in the long run.

“We were in different phases of life and had differing priorities as a result,” he said. “So, ultimately, the relationship ended.”

That’s not the case for everyone, though. Odegard said he has dated women close to his age as well as those who are not quite in his age bracket.

“I tend to get into relationships with people younger than me, but I think that is mostly because I act so much younger than my actual age,” he said. “I’ve never had any age-related issues with somebody I’ve dated who was much younger than me, other than the people who judge us because of the age gap.”

WEEKLY PHOTO OP

Sweet Lily Hays is new to Dallas and so excited to make new friends and call this place home

Monday, July 22: Rangers vs. White Sox at Globe Life Field
Tuesday, July 23: Free Rooftop Movie — Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle at Sundown at Granada
Wednesday, July 24: National Tequila Day at Community Beer Co.
Thursday, July 25: Sounds of Summer — Champagne Yacht Club at Grandscape
Friday, July 26: Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony Watch Party at Legacy Hall; Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey — The Greatest Show on Earth at the American Airlines Center (also on Saturday and Sunday)
Saturday, July 27: WRRC Saturday run from Taco Joint; Olympics Bar Crawl in the Harwood District
Sunday, July 28: Community Beer Co. Cycling Group Ride