Be Kind, you can't rewind

Eat junk, drink booze, smoke anything, lay in the sun and look like crap later.

Study of identical twins reveals how habits like smoking and tanning can dramatically age skin

"The beginning of my partying days in Montauk at Ciro's"

A new study of a female bodybuilder shows the dramatic effect bad habits such as smoking, sun exposure and yo-yo dieting can have on our looks.

"Years of partying has finally taken it's toll on me"

Sun exposure, smoking, alcohol intake and stress levels all have an impact on appearance and how old you look, according to new research published in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and reported in Allure magazine. Some sets of identical twins were found to look almost a decade apart in age.

Among the 186 twins studied were sisters Jeanne and Susan, who looked exactly alike growing up, according to Allure. But Susan took up certain habits that Jeanne didn’t.

Susan spent a lifetime lounging in the sun and now lives in Florida, while Jeanne resides in Ohio and avoids harmful rays. Susan also averaged a pack and a half of cigarettes per day for 16 years before giving it up in her late 30s, while Jeanne never smoked.

And now, the sisters can see major differences in the way they look.

“Susan looks ten years older than I do,” Jeanne dishes in Allure. “In fact, when we meet new people I’ll say, ‘She’s my sister,’ but I never say she’s my twin.”

According to the study’s research, this drastic differences in looks caused by our lifestyle are not out of the ordinary, even in those with the same DNA.

Taking birth control pills can make women look younger, while taking antidepressants, drinking alcohol, smoking, being divorced and having heightened sun exposure all made case studies look older.

There's good news for middle-aged women carrying a few extra pounds: Additional weight fills in and softens wrinkles, making heavier women look younger, study author Bahman Guyuron explains in Allure. For women under 40, however, being overweight has the opposite effect, obscuring youthful features like a smooth jawline and causing facial skin to sag. link