Choose to smoke and you will increase your risk of suffering from cancer, stroke, heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Substantial damage will also be suffered inside your body from the ingredients found in tobacco smoke.

All of these issues will likely take some time to develop, while a few of the problems may never become noticeable at all. However, the effects of smoking on your appearance will become evident to both those who choose to take up the habit and those around them.

For more details about this, Nicotinell, a provider of numerous products to assist people in their goals to stop smoking, has prepared the following guide…

How may smoking affect my eyes?

We will all develop wrinkles around the outside of our eyes in time —often referred to as crow’s feet. However, they develop earlier and go deeper when you smoke due to the heat from lit cigarettes and also as a result of a smoker squinting in an attempt to keep smoke out of their eyes.

You may also see bags under your eyes on more frequent occasions. In fact, a study by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine previously suggested that those who smoke cigarettes are four times more likely to report feeling unrested after a night’s sleep than non-smokers. The study, which involved the analysis of the sleep architecture of 40 smokers and a matched group of 40 nonsmokers who all undertook home polysomnography, also suggested that smokers spend less time in a deep sleep than non-smokers.

The study’s author Naresh M. Punjabi, MD, PhD, FCCP, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, commented: “It is possible that smoking has time-dependent effects across the sleep period. Smokers commonly experience difficulty falling asleep due to the stimulating effects of nicotine. As night evolves, withdrawal from nicotine may further contribute to sleep disturbance.”

How may smoking affect my hair?

For this point, it may be better to state the effects that smoking will have on your increasingly lack of hair. This is because hair grows from sac-like structures found underneath the scalp called follicles. However, these need oxygen, essential nutrients and vitamins/minerals in order to function correctly and trigger natural hair growth but, as previously discussed, smoking reduces the amount of oxygen and nutrients that get to your skin.

If follicles are unable to function in the correct manner, disruption in the normal hair growth and loss cycle will occur and the consequent result will be hair starts to thin and eventually be lost.

How may smoking affect my skin?

When you smoke, the amount of nutrients and oxygen that can be delivered to your skin reduces. The result of this is that skin will begin to age more quickly, and exhibit a dull and grey appearance. Premature aging of your skin by between 10 and 20 years will also occur from smoking.

Vasoconstriction is also caused from nicotine, with this condition known to narrow the body’s blood vessels and cause the flow of oxygen-rich blood to the small vessels found around a person’s face and other parts of their body to become restricted. The problem of this condition will be seen if you suffer a wound, as vasoconstriction will take it longer to heal and result in scars appearing bigger and redder than those who aren’t affected by the condition.

Many of the 4,000 chemicals which create tobacco smoke will damage the collagen and elastin of the body as well. These are fibres required to give skin its strength and elasticity — lose them and sagging skin and deeper wrinkles will be the consequence, which will be seen especially around the inner arms, breasts and face.

We mustn’t forget to also mention smoker’s pucker. This is an occurrence that comes about as smokers use certain muscles around their lips which cause dynamic wrinkles to appear. Combined with a loss of elasticity to the skin, the result will be deep lines around the lips.