There are hundreds of ways alcohol abuse can negatively affect your life: damaged relationships, career failure, financial hardship, poor health, and much more. But one side effect of alcoholism that most people don’t consider is their appearance. Take a look below at 7 ways that alcohol makes you ugly:

Accelerated aging process from drinking too much alcohol

Dehydration after a long night of drinking has much worse long-term effects than a parched throat and a raging headache. Alcohol disrupts the production of antidiuretic hormones. This forces your kidneys to remove excess water from your body—including your skin—twice as fast. Perpetually dry skin not only wrinkles faster, but it can also develop a pale or grayish tone that’s worsened by alcohol-diminished vitamin A (which regulates cell renewal). The result? You end up looking far older than you actually are.

Permanent face redness from drinking alcohol & binge drinking

In addition to severely drying out your skin, heavy drinking can cause permanent facial redness—and not the cute “rosy cheeks” variety. Alcohol increases blood flow and dilates your capillaries, which are the tiny blood vessels closest to the outer layer of your skin. Excessive blood flow can cause the capillaries to burst, causing unsightly redness on your face, particularly your chin, cheeks, and nose.

Bloodshot eyes from being an alcoholic

The same broken capillaries that redden the face of alcoholics can also appear on the surface of your eyes. This causes a perpetual bloodshot look that most people will interpret as sleep deprivation, sickness, or drug abuse—not the best look for making first impressions. But that’s not the worst thing alcohol abuse can do to your eyes. Alcoholic optic neuritis results from a lack of nutrients required to maintain eye health, and not only can it lead to impaired eyesight, but it can also cause blindness.

Excessive bloating from excessive alcohol drinking

Aside from the well-known “beer belly,” alcohol abuse will also make you look and feel bloated most of the time. As dehydration from drinking robs your body of fluids, your system will respond by storing as much water as it can from the food and beverages you ingest. This causes tissues, particularly in the face, to swell, so you end up with “chipmunk cheeks”—and again, not the cute kind.

Permanent “tired” face from repeated binge drinking

As if alcohol isn’t hard enough on your face, it also leads to sleep deprivation and even insomnia in extreme cases. We all know what a lack of sleep does for our looks: baggy eyes, pallid skin, and dark spots. In addition to how bad sleep deprivation makes you look, it makes you feel much worse, sapping your energy and good spirits and making you generally unpleasant to be around.

Damaged hair from drinking too much alcohol or beer

Dehydration is as bad for your hair as it is for your skin, causing weakness, brittleness, and plenty of split ends. Heavy drinking also deprives your body of zinc, which can lead to hair loss. And unlike getting a bad haircut that will “just grow back,” alcoholism-related hair loss isn’t easily reversible. Quitting is the only way to stop the shedding, and there’s no guarantee the hair you already lost will grow back.

Bad body odor from alcohol abuse & alcoholism

Drinking alcohol changes your body’s pH balance, which is the acid-alkaline balance in your fluids and tissues. Different parts of the body require a different balance. For example, the skin should be more acidic to keep bacteria away, while saliva is more alkaline. Alcohol throws certain balances out of whack, including in the skin and glands responsible for body odor. So while a strong, foul body odor isn’t technically part of your appearance, it certainly plays a large role in overall attractiveness.

Don’t wait for alcoholism to rob you of your beauty. Get help today.

If you’re suffering from alcohol abuse and can’t seem to stop, despite the havoc it’s wreaking on your life and your appearance, seek help. There are many resources available to help you overcome your addiction, so reach out and begin your road to recovery today. Give us a call at (858) 784-7867.