'Endless' anti-ageing benefits to sleeping on silk

Should you sleep on silk to fight wrinkles? Photo / 123RF

Forget expensive face creams or treatments, if you're serious about preserving your skin, it's time to consider sleeping on a silk pillowcase.

Once reserved solely for your nana's bedroom, the humble silk pillowcase is now a fixture on the beds of beauty savvy women, reports news.com.au.

One of these particularly savvy women is Melanie Grant. The Australian celebrity facialist, skin expert and founder of Melanie Grant skin clinics in Sydney and Melbourne recently took to Instagram to share the "endless" benefits of silk slips.

Grant, whose clientele includes Lara Worthington and Delta Goodrem told news.com.au that while she's personally been using silk pillowcases for over five years, she's noticed a recent lift in interest.

"We're becoming more educated on taking a preventive approach when it comes to skincare and beauty so sleeping on a silk slip is a no brainer," she explains.

"Silk allows the skin to slide, so it won't pull or tug. This reduces crease lines and marks across your face, neck and decollate."

If you're someone who slathers products onto your face at night, there's more good news - silk won't soak these up as much as other materials will.

"Silk is a non-absorbent fabric so it won't deplete your moisture levels or absorb your precious serums and night creams," says Grant.

Dermatologist Dr Natasha Cook, who operates from Darlinghurst Dermatology Skin & Laser Clinic, agrees that getting your eight hours of sleep on silk puts less pressure on your skin leading to less creases, and in turn, less chance of those creases becoming permanent wrinkles.

The phrase "beauty sleep" has never felt so fitting.

"Silk is a natural fibre and therefore 'breathes' with your skin minimising sweat pimples and irritation," Dr Cook explains.

"They're also great to use after skin treatments like skin peels. They allow the skin to lift and peel off gently, when it is actually ready to, as they minimise trauma, friction and rubbing."

The upsides don't end at your skin, this hero product gets along famously with hair, too.

Celebrity hair stylist and founder of Raw Salon in Sydney, Anthony Nader, says you'll notice the difference in your hair immediately.

"When resting your head on cotton you can agitate and roughen up the hair cuticle ... however, with silk, your strands will glide along the pillow with ease, leaving your hair smoother."

You can expect your blow dry to last a lot longer too.

Thanks to celebrities and experts spreading the word, silk pillowcases have now achieved cult status in the beauty world, with many brands (like Zoe Foster Blake's Go-To Skincare) popping up to meet the demand.

Shhh Silk is proof of this. In the last financial year, the Australian company recorded 430% growth in the local market.

"I've noticed a big spike in sales over the last six months ... people are a lot more conscious of anti-ageing," says Shhh Silk founder and CEO Olivia Carr.

"We've also been lucky and have had the Kardashians as personal fans of our brand - they Snapchat about us all the time."

The Kardashian endorsement has seen the company's US sales grow by a huge 877% in the last financial year. If it's good enough for Kim, right?

While silk pillowcases aren't cheap - you'll be forking out around $70 on average - they'll last you a lot longer than that tub of night cream sitting in your bathroom cabinet.

And besides, how many beauty products grant you hours of comfortable, luxurious shut-eye?