Your Skin After You Stop Drinking

Since you cut back, you've been studying your face in the mirror more than usual. Is the redness around your nose fading? Are the bags under your eyes smaller, or are you seeing what you want to see?

People often mention their skin when they talk about stopping drinking. It is also one of the least studied changes. Here is what alcohol does to skin, and how much of it you can expect to change when you drink less.

What the research can and can't tell you

There is decent research linking drinking to certain skin conditions and to signs of an older-looking face. There is very little that follows people's skin after they stop. When we searched, we found no study that photographed or measured people's skin before and after they quit drinking.

So this article works backwards. It looks at what drinking does to skin and what should change when that stops, and it says how sure we can be about each part. If a website promises you'll look ten years younger in 30 days, it is guessing.

Dehydration: real, but overstated

Alcohol holds back vasopressin, a hormone that tells your kidneys to keep water, so you pee more and end up mildly dehydrated. NIAAA lists this as one of the causes of hangover symptoms. It is easy to assume your skin dries out along with the rest of you.

The evidence for that is thinner than beauty articles suggest. A review of studies on drinking water and skin found the evidence weak, with at best a small increase in skin hydration when people drank more water. Dehydration probably plays a part in how tired your skin looks after a big night. It is unlikely to be the whole story.

Flushing, redness and rosacea

This is where alcohol's effect on skin is clearest. Your body turns alcohol into acetaldehyde, which widens blood vessels in the skin and causes redness. About 36% of people of East Asian descent flush strongly after drinking, mostly because of a gene variant that slows the clearing of acetaldehyde.

Alcohol is also a well-known trigger for rosacea, which causes flushing across the nose, cheeks and forehead, and over time can leave skin red all the time. The NHS tells people with rosacea to avoid alcohol if it makes their symptoms worse. In a US study that followed more than 82,000 women for 14 years, the more they drank, the higher their risk of developing rosacea. White wine and spirits were the drinks most clearly linked to it.

Psoriasis and other flare-ups

The NHS lists drinking alcohol among the triggers for psoriasis flare-ups, alongside stress and smoking, and advises people with psoriasis to try not to drink too much. If you have a skin condition that comes and goes, it is worth noting whether flare-ups follow heavier drinking weeks. A simple diary of drinks and skin over a couple of months can show you.

Sleep is where much of it happens

Alcohol helps you fall asleep, but NIAAA notes that sleep after drinking is broken up and you tend to wake early. Your skin shows it. In a Swedish study, strangers rated photos of sleep-deprived people as having more swollen eyes, darker circles and paler skin.

A small US study compared women who slept poorly with women who slept well. The good sleepers' skin barrier recovered 30% better after it was damaged in a test. Their skin also recovered faster from sunburn redness, and they showed fewer signs of skin ageing.

A word of warning: sleep doesn't always improve straight away. If you drank heavily, sleep can be unsettled for weeks or longer after you stop, and in people treated for alcohol dependence, sleep problems in early recovery are common. Can't sleep after you stop drinking covers what helps.

Heavy drinking and an older-looking face

In a survey of more than 3,000 women in the US, UK, Canada and Australia, heavy drinkers (eight or more drinks a week) rated themselves as having more lines on the upper face and more puffiness under the eyes. They also reported more visible blood vessels and more loss of fullness in the cheeks than women who drank less.

This was a one-off survey where women rated their own faces, so it can't prove that alcohol caused the changes. It also can't tell us whether any of them reverse when you stop. Lines and lost volume probably don't. Puffiness and redness have a better chance.

What people tend to notice, and when

These are patterns people commonly describe. Treat the timing as rough, because no study has measured it.

• The first days: mornings without the swollen, flushed face of a hangover. Puffy face from alcohol explains why that goes first.
• The first weeks: once sleep settles, less swelling around the eyes and a less tired look.
• Months: if alcohol was one of your triggers, fewer rosacea or psoriasis flare-ups. Broken blood vessels usually stay. The NHS says rosacea can't be cured, but treatment helps control it.

A photo every week in the same light makes change easier to see than checking the mirror every morning. For the other changes a month off brings, see what happens when you stop drinking for 30 days.

If you drink heavily every day, stopping suddenly can be dangerous. Talk to a doctor first.

When to see a doctor

See a GP if your face is red most of the time, burns or stings, or your psoriasis isn't settling. Both have treatments, and the NHS says rosacea can get worse if it is not treated. Get medical advice promptly if your skin or the whites of your eyes turn yellow. The NHS lists that as a sign of alcohol-related liver disease, which needs checking whatever your skin looks like otherwise.