“My face looks dull, dull, dull.”

This can happen, no matter what age your hair turns gray. It can also happen if you don't turn gray. It's not your hair. It's your skin. Suddenly you've lost that "radiance" beauty companies talk so much about. There's just no glow.

As a cell goes through its life cycle, it makes its way to the surface of the skin. But dying cells get lazy, they cling to the skin. When that happens, your complexion looks as dead as the cells. The surface of your face can appear ashen or pasty. Worse yet, edges of withered cells tend to curl up, like a leaf, so the skin no longer has a smooth, reflective surface. It looks duller, and feels rougher.

When you’re sixteen, cells turnover every 28 days, and the surface of your skin always looks fresh and radiant. Around 40, it takes anywhere between 38-48 days. And you’re wondering where did the glow go?

The aging of skin is a gradual process. It can start prematurely, with damage inflicted by UV rays, free radicals, environmental pollution. And it can accelerate when a woman's hormone supply is depleted. Menopause accounts for the most rapid changes in the skin, causing it to appear lifeless, older, drier, with alarming speed. Dry skin is like dust, it can't reflect anything. At the same time, damaging enzymes in your skin, like elastane, work to undermine tone and texture, resulting in a pebbly surface feel. Pebbly isn't radiant. Your skin loses its youthful glow, as well as its firmness and vitality. You just happen to be going gray at the same time.