Why Does My Neck Look So Much Older Than My Face?

Q: Why does my neck look like it’s aging twice as fast as the rest of me, and what can I do about it?

Neck skin tends to age “faster than almost any place else on the body,” said Dr. Theodora Mauro, a professor of dermatology at the University of California, San Francisco. The skin on your neck is “particularly vulnerable” to damage, she said; poor posture, insufficient skin care, sun exposure and the natural weakening and decline of your neck muscles can all lead to accelerated aging.

The skin on your neck also doesn’t heal as well as it does elsewhere on the body because the skin there is less durable and has fewer stem cells and other structures that help repair it, said Dr. Katie Given, a board-certified dermatologic surgeon in the Bay Area who has written about skin aging in the lower face and neck. When it comes to slowing the aging process for neck skin, she said, “the trick is prevention, prevention, prevention.”

Your neck needs sun protection

“Sun is your neck’s enemy,” Dr. Mauro said. Many signs of aging on the neck can be traced back to sun exposure. When your skin is exposed to even a little sunlight, she explained, ultraviolet A waves reach the dermis, or the skin’s inner layer, and damage the cells that are responsible for producing collagen and elastin.

Collagen and elastin are two proteins that are essential for keeping your skin’s structure intact, said Dr. Oma Agbai, an associate clinical professor of dermatology at UC Davis Medical Center. “Collagen helps to maintain firmness of the skin, and elastin helps it resume its original shape after it has been stretched,” she said. The dermis, which comprises these proteins, “tends to be thinner on the neck compared to other parts of the body, like the face and the upper arms,” she added.

Prolonged exposure to the sun can lead to a “more crepey and more wrinkled” appearance, as well as skin discoloration and sunspots, Dr. Agbai said.