Why Your Skin Looks Worse After Quitting Smoking (and What to Do About It)

The list of potential diseases and ailments brought on by smoking makes for some of the most macabre reading you will ever digest – the sheer number of boxes that are ticked as a result of this awful addiction is truly quite shocking. 

While most vices result in one or two negative health consequences, smoking hits the ball out of the park with what feels like almost every terrible disease imaginable. At last count, there are fifty-plus diseases waiting to pounce on smokers. 

However, the various diseases are so alarming that many ‘lesser known’ ailments are not mentioned too frequently. Vascular disease or osteoporosis, for example, are both very common in smokers, but most people are unaware. The reality is that illnesses such as heart disease, stroke, and lung cancer fill the common narrative, with these ‘lesser’ diseases taking a back seat.

You can also add nasty skin conditions to the list of ailments that are often treated less seriously than those ‘serious diseases’.

Bad Skin

Suffering from bad skin – in one form or another – is an extremely common symptom of smoking, ageing smokers beyond their years causing wrinkles, acne, and oily skin. 

But a strange phenomenon exists in which many people do not suffer the full effects of skin conditions until they have quit smoking. Surprisingly, it is not uncommon for someone to smoke for many years only to find their skin looks worse after quitting smoking.

Through this short blog post, we are going to explain why it happens and what you can do about it. But first, let’s take a look at the various illnesses and afflictions directly correlating with smoking cigarettes.

Skin Conditions Caused by Smoking

Smoking cigarettes exposes your skin to an incredible seven thousand plus harmful chemicals, all of which can cause illness in many different ways, affecting all parts of the body.

These chemicals can also affect your skin health, contributing to various skin conditions in the following ways:

• Skin Ageing: Chemicals in cigarettes damage collagen and elastin, leading to faster skin ageing. Smokers often experience earlier onset of wrinkles and sagging skin.
• Complexion Changes: Nicotine constricts blood vessels, reducing oxygen to the skin. This can result in a dull, uneven, and sometimes even an awful yellowish complexion.
• Impaired Healing: Restricted blood flow due to smoking impairs the skin’s ability to heal, increasing the likelihood of scarring.
• Increased Cancer Risk: Arguably the most serious of all skin conditions related to the habit, smoking doubles the risk of squamous cell carcinoma, a common skin cancer.
• Buerger’s Disease: Quite a nasty one, this. Increasingly linked to smoking, this vascular condition causes inflammation and narrowing of blood vessels, affecting skin health.
• Spider Veins: Smoking can cause dilated small blood vessels, visible as spider veins (especially on the palms).
• Psoriasis and Eczema: Nicotine affects immune responses and skin cell growth, increasing the risk of conditions like psoriasis and eczema.
• Acne Variants: Smoking is linked to specific types of acne (such as atypical post-adolescent acne and smoker’s acne), mostly characterised by blocked pores and non-inflammatory lesions.

Why Does Smoking Cause Skin Issues?

As you might imagine, the reasons are quite complicated, although smoking’s impact on the skin can be traced back to two primary mechanisms. First and foremost, smoking increases the oxidation of sebum, which is the oily substance in pores that contributes to stubborn, deeply ingrained blackheads. 

This oxidation happens when free radicals attack the healthy fatty acids in the sebum. This, in turn, gradually leads to bacterial growth, creating an environment conducive to acne. The perfect breeding ground for blackheads, in other words. 

Smoking also slows down the production of vitamin E, an absolutely crucial antioxidant that greatly helps to fend off the damage caused by free radicals. When there are low levels of vitamin E, this growing legion of free radicals continues to harm the sebum, which only perpetuates the cycle of oxidation. 

This is why people who smoke traditional cigarettes are far more likely to experience acne compared to those who don’t smoke. Up to four times more likely, actually.

What Happens to Your Skin When Quitting Smoking?

The good news is that in most cases (but not all), quitting smoking brings immediate and long-term benefits to your skin, beginning with increased collagen levels. Also, reduced inflammation in the blood vessels immediately benefits circulation and oxygen flow to the skin, getting to work on much-needed cell regeneration and rejuvenation. Seriously, it really helps. 

This improved oxygen supply and normalised collagen production help reduce dark spots and improve skin elasticity, gradually slowing down the ageing of your skin and preventing further wrinkle development.

Why Does My Skin Look Worse After Quitting Smoking?

When you stop smoking, your body may show various nicotine withdrawal symptoms owing to its regular nicotine intake being taken away. Without it, you will probably face various challenges like anxiety, cravings, irritability, headaches, stomach discomfort, and symptoms resembling the flu.

Acne flare-ups are not frequent, but they can also occur after quitting with some people. It really depends on the luck of the draw – some people see immediate skin benefits when quitting, while others suffer. 

Essentially, as your body begins to adjust to a life without cigarettes, it might experience stress, leading to inflammation, potentially causing or exacerbating acne outbreaks. Most people feel worse after quitting smoking to some degree, but a minority may also suffer from a disrupted hormone balance, leading to increased oil production in the skin.

In addition, the probable changes in your diet post-quitting also influence your skin’s condition. Consuming foods rich in iodine (like soy, dairy, and shellfish) can be a major acne trigger. 

These factors all add up to the possibility that your skin looks worse after quitting smoking in some (but not all) cases.

What Can You Do About It?

To be honest, not very much. Your skin will get better with time, so this is just a case of riding it out and waiting for the benefits of quitting smoking to materialise. In most cases, the skin will improve almost immediately. Unfortunately, others face the opposite fate, as their skin looks worse after quitting smoking for a certain amount of time.

To ease the transition away from smoking while maintaining better skin health, one popular option is to consider NEAFS, our tea-based smokeless alternative. Used with the TEO device, NEAFS sticks provide the familiar sensation of smoking without harmful smoke, ash, or tar. 

They are a wonderful choice for gradually reducing nicotine intake and, therefore, minimising skin-related withdrawal effects. Plus, NEAFS also offers a nicotine-free option, allowing a seamless shift to a completely nicotine-free lifestyle.

Choose NEAFS for a smoother, cleaner smoking alternative today!