Maybe We Need to Stop Talking About Aging

For a long time, I’ve described my approach to skincare as pro-aging.

It felt like the right response to an industry that had spent decades telling women that aging was something to fight.

Anti-aging creams. Wrinkle correction. Age reversal. Preventative treatments.

The language may have softened over the years, but the underlying message has been remarkably persistent: there is something about your face changing that you should be concerned about.

Pro-aging felt different. Kinder. More accepting.

But lately, I’ve been questioning even that.

Because upon reflection, I wonder if “pro-aging” still rides alongside the very idea it’s trying to push against.

We’re still talking about age.

We’re still defining our relationship with our skin by how old it looks.

And I’m increasingly convinced that age doesn’t need to be at the centre of the skincare conversation at all.

When did normal facial movement become something to prevent?

I’ve worked with women and their skin for decades, and one of the shifts I find particularly difficult is seeing increasingly young women worrying about wrinkles they don’t even have yet.

Botox is now discussed as preventative.

Expression lines are something to get ahead of.

The natural movement of a young face can become something to monitor before aging has even begun to visibly change it.

I don't say this to judge anyone who chooses Botox, injectables or other cosmetic treatments. What a woman chooses to do with her face is entirely her own.

It’s the fear underneath the culture that troubles me.

The idea that we should begin preventing the evidence of aging before it arrives.

What are we teaching women about the face they will inhabit at 40, 50, 60 and beyond if they are already being encouraged to fear it at 25?

And what are the repercussions of doing so, so early in life.

I still want beautiful skin

Moving away from anti-aging — and even from pro-aging — doesn’t mean pretending that appearance doesn’t matter.

I love beautiful skin.

I want my own skin to feel vibrant and look luminous. And I understand completely when a woman wants her skin to look smoother, fuller, brighter and less tired.

There is nothing superficial or contradictory about that.

But I think we can pursue those things without making younger the measurement of success.

When skin is deeply hydrated, well nourished and protected by a healthy barrier, it behaves differently.

It can appear plumper. Lines can soften. Texture can improve. There can be more luminosity, resilience and vitality.

That is meaningful skincare.

But none of it requires us to declare war on age.

The face is more than skin

This thinking also reflects the way I work in the treatment room.

I don't see the face as a separate surface to correct.

I see skin, fascia, muscle, lymphatic movement, circulation, the jaw, expression, tension and the nervous system.

A face carries our habits and our experiences.

It moves when we laugh. It tightens when we're stressed. The jaw can hold tension. Fluid can stagnate. Fascia can become restricted. Skin changes with hormones, seasons, health and time.

So my work isn't about making a face look as though none of that has happened.

Through facial reflexology, lymphatic work, fascial techniques and intraoral work, I'm interested in helping the face function well.

To release where it is holding.

To move where it has become stagnant.

To nourish where it is depleted.

To support the skin rather than continually asking it to become something else.

My formulations come from exactly the same philosophy.

Perhaps we don't need another aging label

Maybe I don't need to call Sage’s Sparrow anti-aging.

Or pro-aging.

Or age-positive.

Perhaps aging simply doesn't need to be the category at all.

I would rather talk about skin health.

Resilience.

Hydration.

Nourishment.

Comfort.

Movement.

Vitality.

And the pleasure of caring for the face you have today.

There will always be another treatment, another trend and another promise to make us look younger.

I’m simply no longer convinced that younger is the direction we need to be moving toward.

I want to help women have beautiful skin.

Not because their age needs correcting.

Because their skin deserves to be cared for.

Beauty is something we tend, not something we chase.