I think they're wrong about what they say causes wrinkles

It is clearly mostly biomechanics in my view.

Skin complexion and wrinkles are a topic that are kind of close to my heart.

Part of the reason is my family.

My brother and his wife both work in the cosmetics company, Estee Lauder, in their R&D lab on Long Island.

And so starting almost 20 years ago I used to get free ‘Creme de la Mer’ sample bottles from them for Christmas, etc.

A high end, anti-aging skin cream

And honestly I loved it.

It was a great cream and I used it several times daily from the time I was in my mid-20’s.

I continued to use it into the years that I was going up and down with these biomechanics, which started in 2014.

And there were some years where I really looked like i’d aged a lot. For example in mid-2020.

me in mid-2020

I’d developed some wrinkles and sort of creases in my face… and my cream didn’t save me from it.

Then I figured out how this works in late 2021 and have been on an upward trajectory since.

I also stopped using the cream around that time. For no other reason than I literally hadn’t gone back to New York to visit my brother between the years 2020 - 2024.

And so i’d run out of stock by early 2022.

Despite this… my skin complexion rocketed up during those years. Even without the cream.

And i realized… “I don’t need this damn cream.” LOL

So now even though i have it again.. I literally never use it.

Anyway let’s talk a bit more about wrinkles, shall we?

What Are Wrinkles?

Everyone knows what wrinkles look like—those fine lines and deep creases that start appearing on your face, neck, and hands as you get older.

They’re typically fine lines around the eyes, deeper folds around the mouth, and broader sagging across the cheeks and jawline.

And actually they classify them.

Wrinkles are usually classified based on what causes them and how they look. Here are the main types:

1. Dynamic wrinkles (movement wrinkles)

👉 Caused by repeated facial expressions.

Examples:

• Forehead lines (raising eyebrows)

• Crow’s feet (smiling)

• Frown lines between eyebrows (“11 lines”)

Key traits:

• Appear mainly when you move your face

• Become permanent over time

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2. Static wrinkles (resting wrinkles)

👉 Present even when your face is relaxed.

Cause:

• Collagen loss

• Skin aging

• Long-term sun damage

Examples:

• Deep nasolabial folds

• Permanent forehead line

  

  s

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3. Fine lines (superficial wrinkles)

👉 Early stage wrinkles.

Cause:

• Dehydration

• Early collagen breakdown

• Mild sun damage

Examples:

• Tiny lines around eyes

• Lip lines

These can sometimes improve with skincare.

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4. Gravitational wrinkles

👉 Caused by sagging due to aging and gravity.

Cause:

• Loss of skin elasticity

• Fat pad shifting

• Bone structure changes

Examples:

• Jowls

• Drooping cheeks

• Neck sagging

  

  
  

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5. Sleep wrinkles

👉 Caused by repeated compression during sleep.

Examples:

• Vertical chest lines

• Side-of-face creases

Unlike dynamic wrinkles, these are from pressure, not muscle movement.

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6. Elastotic wrinkles (sun damage wrinkles)

👉 Caused by UV exposure.

Features:

• Thick, leathery skin

• Deep, rough lines

Often seen in:

• Sun-exposed areas (face, neck, hands)

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7. Expression-related structural wrinkles

👉 From long-term muscle tension + tissue remodeling.

Examples:

• Mouth downturn lines

• Chin dimpling

Quite a lot to take in no? Till I started researching them just now I had no idea they had so many different types?

Why Do They Think People Get Wrinkles?

The conventional narrative about wrinkles is straightforward. They say it is caused by things like:

• sun exposure that damages the skin

• repeated facial expressions that create grooves

• collagen and elastin, which break down over time

• gravity pulling everything downward

The skincare industry has built a trillion-dollar empire around this framework—serums, retinoids, lasers, injectables, facelifts.

All designed to address wrinkles as if they’re primarily a skin problem.

Dermatologists talk about photoaging, oxidative stress, and cellular senescence. It’s all very scientific-sounding, and it all misses the actual root cause.

The problem with this approach is that it treats wrinkles like they exist in isolation—as if your face is an independent entity separate from the rest of your body and skull.

But your face isn’t sitting on top of a static structure. It’s stretched across a living, dynamic system that’s constantly changing. Kind of like a rug that is sitting on top of a bunch of rocks, which are shifting over time.

Why I Think People Get Wrinkles

Here’s what I think is happening: your wrinkles are a direct result of your skull deflating.

Think of your skull like a balloon. When the soft tissue surrounding your skull loses volume—when the “balloon” deflates—everything collapses inward. Your face caves in on itself.

The skin that was once stretched taut across a full, inflated structure now has too much fabric for the space beneath it. What happens to fabric when there’s less underneath? It wrinkles. It sags. It creases.

This deflation happens because of biomechanical collapse.

But it’s a bit nuanced, which i think is interesting. In that people that have pretty good facial structure that age tend to have more wrinkles. For example this native.

Whereas you’ll see people that have worse skeletal structure as they age and yet have less wrinkles.

For example compare this lady below to the native man above. I’d bet they’re about the same age.

The guy above will clearly have better structure and yet has more wrinkles than the lady below

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Which brings me to my second part of this theory, which is that people with more skeletal collapse will show less ‘traditional’ wrinkles on their face than someone with less collapse.

However their cranial bones will have become more assymetric and deranged. Like is the case with this lady. Her face is far more assymetric than the native man.

I have a feeling this is because the slack in the skin is used to cover more surface area due to the twisting of the skeleton.

So as you can see it is a bit nuanced.

me in January 2026

I Am a Case Study For This

Over the past 4 to 5 years, I’ve essentially erased almost all wrinkles I had while also improving my symmetry.

And I didn’t do it with serums, laser treatments, or filler injections. I did it by reversing the skull deflation that was causing them in the first place.

By stretching the soft tissue that covers the body like a wetsuit my face literally inflated back out. The wrinkles flattened. The sagging tightened. My skin developed that youthful fullness I had in my twenties.

I still have (biomechanical) work to do as i’m not done… but I have no doubts that in the coming years my skin is only going to improve. Despite using zero skincare products and eating whatever I want.

All at age 48.

Which basically throws conventional wisdom on it’s head.

Closing thoughts

My point today is that I don’t think they are right at all about what causes wrinkles.

They have all these names based on what they think causes wrinkles and how they look… when in fact I think there’s only really one main root cause. And that is biomechanics.

Or perhaps more accurately i’d guess that wrinkles are like 98% biomechanical and than 2% the rest.

Even damage from the sun I believe can mainly be reversed with biomechanics. Because this process continually stretches the skin to the point of it breaking and shedding.

And so I, for example, am constantly going through layers of skin on my face with this process. Just stretching right through one and bringing up the next.

Getting less wrinkly and more youthful as i do it.

Just don’t tell my brother… he still has to work at Estee Lauder hahahaha.