When you start looking in the mirror every morning and think “I look old”, what makes you utter that dreaded phrase? Is your skin still in good shape? What about your neck? Can you see lines around your eyes or mouth if you stand a normal distance from the mirror? (Leaning in too close is cheating—even the young think “I look old” with every skin cell under scrutiny!)

But there is a part of the body that we don’t usually think about when it comes to aging. Sure, if you have facial wrinkles, you might consider getting a facelift or Botox injection, or at least investing in a heavy-duty wrinkle cream. But what about your ears? They can often say much more about your age than other parts of your body, and are often neglected when it comes to anti-aging treatments. Earlobes age like the rest of the skin; they begin to sag and fall over the years.

While your earlobes will droop on their own over time, there are a few things you can do to drastically reduce drooping. One is to avoid wearing extremely heavy earrings for long periods of time. Earlobes can’t support much weight, and heavy earrings pull and stretch the skin, which can cause sagging. If you wear heavy earrings, you can prevent them from falling off or pulling by only wearing them for a short period of time. The rest of the time, choose lighter earrings or studs, which are the easiest for your ears to hold without damaging the earlobes. You should always remove your earrings before bed, no matter how big or small, to prevent them from stealing your sleep.

Also, you want to treat your ears the same way you would treat any other part of your body: by applying sunscreen to your ears when you go outdoors and by applying anti-wrinkle cream every day.

If you’ve noticed that your earlobes are already drooping, there are a few things you can do to tighten them up so they’ll better hold earrings in the future. There are manual adhesives and products you can use to help hold your earrings in their normal position, but when it comes to repairing your earlobe, you may need to have a minor cosmetic procedure. You can inject fillers into the earlobe to plump up a sagging earlobe and make it look fuller. This is a procedure similar to Botox. If your ear piercing is very tight and stretched due to heavy earrings, you may need to have minor surgery to repair the piercing.

Ear tucks have become more common, especially among patients who have undergone a facelift, as this can affect the placement of the ears if not done correctly. It is often a minor procedure that can be done quickly and easily.