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The major cause for skin ageing is sun, a new study finds. UV rays are responsible for around 80 per cent of skin ageing which includes wrinkles.

Study also confirms that effects of UV rays on the skin increases with the age.

The study was performed on around 300 women in which 50% of them were sun-worshipers.

Reduction in elasticity, pigmentation and degradation of skin texture are the possible ill effects of the long term UV exposure. Other than UV exposure alone, other factors like gravity, pollution, diet, tobacco, illness and stress can also contribute to skin's appearance.

Faces of 298 women were examined by dermatologists as a part of the research. The other bunch of researchers studies the photographs of individual faces on the screen and estimated their ages.

In the study it was concluded that the effect of UV exposure increases with the age.Further, two percent increase in skin damage aged a face by three years.

"Our study confirms the accountability of sun exposure in premature ageing of the face. Our comparison between two groups of women, whose sun behaviour was different, has allowed us to clearly demonstrate the effect of UV exposure, " said researchers, from L’Oreal Research and Innovation Center, Paris, according to Daily Mail.

The researchers however added that wrinkles found in older faces are more closely related to the long-term effects of gravity.

"It is very hard to distinguish accurately between intrinsic [natural] ageing and extrinsic [environmental] ageing, and this study goes some way to addressing the specific impact of the sun on skin. Effective use of sunscreens will not only limit extrinsic skin ageing but will also reduce skin cancer risk, " said Dr Richard Warren, senior clinical lecturer and consultant dermatologist at the University of Manchester and Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, according to Daily Mail.