Many women smoke. If you’re reading this, you’re likely part of the 16.86% of females in the United States who smoke. While experts say that the number of women who smoke is decreasing, it doesn’t change the fact that past and current smokers will experience harmful effects on their health.
While everyone knows smoking damages lung health and may contribute to the development of heart conditions, you may still be unfamiliar with its effects on your looks. If you’re someone who enjoys skincare, beauty, and looking presentable, here’s how the habit changes your appearance and how you can quit:
How Smoking Affects Your Looks
Wrinkles and aging skin
Collagen is a naturally occurring protein that moisturizes and hydrates your skin, making it feel elastic. The toxins in cigarette smoke damage the collagen in your body, preventing it from doing its job. Consequently, you’ll find more wrinkles around your eyes, mouth, and lips and sagging skin under your eyes and jaw.
Black mucus
When you sneeze, you may notice black mucus in your nostrils. This results from cigarette smoking, as discussed in our post “Can Eyeliner Cause Black Mucus?”; the smoke, tar, and other toxins you inhale make your mucus black. Therefore, you may see black mucus when you sneeze, or the area around your nostril may appear darker.
Stained teeth
Your teeth’s constant exposure to tar will stain them yellow or brown. This is due to the enamel—the hard outer surface of the teeth—being porous, meaning it has many tiny spaces where air or liquid may pass through. The tar that gets stuck in these areas causes teeth staining, damaging your confidence.
How to Quit Smoking
Use nicotine products
Nicotine products are smokeless and tobacco-free. As such, you won’t get the tar, smoke, and other toxins that damage your looks. Some options are pouches and patches.
Nicotine pouches are flavored oral products that are discreetly placed between the lip and gum for a slow nicotine release. Unlike cigarettes, pouches are tobacco-free products with no chemicals that can affect your appearance.
The nicotine pouches from ZYN that are listed on Prilla are completely white inside and out due to having no tobacco, which means they won’t stain your teeth. Moreover, ZYN offers menthol flavors—like cool mint, wintergreen, and spearmint—which may suit you better.
Research by the American Heart Association also revealed that women prefer menthol cigarettes, making menthol-flavored pouches an ideal smoking cessation product for females.
Meanwhile, nicotine patches are placed on the skin for nicotine absorption. The nicotine patches from Habitrol are available in doses ranging from 7mg to 21mg and can be worn for 24 hours for your convenience. This makes it perfect for women who are always busy at home or work. However, they shouldn’t be used by pregnant or breastfeeding women.
Consult a quit counselor
If you’re unsure whether nicotine products suit you, want to try other smoking cessation methods, or need another form of support, consult a smoking cessation counselor.
These professionals will devise a plan that will help you stop smoking, such as undergoing behavioral therapy, joining a women’s support group, or trying medication.
Consultations are perfect for women who want better guidance on quitting yet have no time to research or visit health centers due to home or work responsibilities.
You can try the National Cancer Institute’s LiveHelp online chat service to ask a specialist any questions about quitting the habit, or you may call 800-QUIT-NOW. At this quitline, you can personally speak with a trained quit specialist.
Smoking affects not only your health but also your looks. Quit the habit today by using nicotine products and consulting a counselor to prevent its effects on your physical features.
