How do cigarettes cause wrinkles?

Do cigarettes REALLY give you wrinkles on the face??? If so, how? How much older do they make you look... I've been smoking marlboro reds for the last 6 years... I don't look like I'm 30. (I'm 22).

These wrinkles are causes by the constant inhailing and sucking in and blowing OUT of the cigarette smoke. The wrinkles form heavily around the lips under the nose and your cheekbones... you can always tell people who smoke or HAVE SMOKED by looking at all the wrinkles around their mouth when the speak..... this is MOST prevalent when someone puckers their lips as if they are going to kiss someone--the wrinkles become VERY DEEP... Dryness DOES help promote wrinkles, but you will NOT get rid of these "SMOKING WRINKLES" by moisturizing, or exfoliating or anything... once you get smoker wrinkles they are here to STAY. I quit smoking 9 months ago COLD TURKEY after 35 YEARS of it... SHOULD have quit 30 YEARS ago when it would have been easier... Please CONSIDER QUITTING asap---for your face, and for your HEALTH and for your LIFE... I have two smoking related terminal illnesses that will get me very soon and I'm only 56... don't let the same thing happen to YOU TO. My Mother is 80 years old and quit smoking over 30 YEARS ago but never lost her "smoker's wrinkles" on her face and mouth.

Typically it makes your skin dry and dehydrated. Wrinkles usually appear around the mouth and lower face, but of course can occur anywhere. You're 22 too young to see wrinkle formation really, but keep smoking, you will soon enough.

This isn't something I have any expertise in, but I was curious too. Google found me this website that offers some answers to that question: http://www.ash.org.uk/html/factsheets/ht...

Give it a couple more years. It hits hard and fast. Stop smoking for two weeks. Take a picture before than after. You will truly be amazed. I had a former that said they stopped smoking and I could tell by looking whether it was true or not.

The chemicals in the cigs dry out your face...smoke is all over your face as you puff and will dry out the natural oils in your skin, and the more you smoke..the longer you smoke..... the more you are doing damage to the natural oils. Wrinkles happen no matter what...age has a tendency to do that, but when you smoke you dry out your face quicker. You enhance your bodies natural aging by 10 years...you may not look like it now, but it will catch up with you if you smoke. I heard that if you exfoliate and wash you face with good cleansers and then moisturize it helps restore those oils and prevents the wrinkles from coming sooner!

Schuyler has a point. Smoking causes the dehydration and also clogs the pores of the skin with its smoke. It also has other health effects other than wrinkles.