Do you have dehydrated skin or dry skin or both? 🤷♀️
Any skin type, whether it’s dry, oily, or combination, can have problems with dehydration.
A lack of water in skin can lead to irritation, breakouts and dry patches as the skin creates more oil to make up for the missing water.
Although symptoms are very similar, dehydrated skin should not be confused with dry skin. These are two different skin problems.
Dehydrated skin is an actual condition and isn’t the same as having “dehydrated skin”.
Recognizing that you have dehydrated skin is the first step on the path to happy skin.
Dehydrated skin can be caused by lots of factors outside of our control like genetics and hormones but also things within our control like environment, lifestyle, diet and skincare routines.
Water plays an essential role in our skin and acts as a reservoir that other organs can tap into when needed. We have a natural fatty barrier on our skins surface to help curb evaporation process.
If this physiological barrier is impaired, evaporation (called Transepidermal Water Loss or TEWL) speeds up making our skin dry. As water flow in the skin slows between the lower (dermal) layer and the higher (epidermis) this barrier stops functioning properly.
So what can you do to help if you suspect you have dehydrated skin?
- Firstly SPF, SPF and even more SPF.
- Don’t skip the moisturiser even if you have oily skin – opt for both occlusive (think thick barrier creams) and emollient (the type that make your skin feel soft) types.
- Gently exfoliate once or twice a week but no more
- Cleanse with a non stripping cleanser
- don’t go heavy on Hyaluronic Acid without moisturizing. HA is like a sponge that soaks water up from its surroundings. If you supply it with water (in your skincare) it will help hydrate the skin. But if you don’t it will suck up water from the skin dehydrating it further.
- try products with glycerin and panthenol to help stabilize the skin barrier function – repairing the skin barrier is the key to lasting hydration
(C) HarJam Innovations Limited 2022. Image courtesy of TannerVote from Pexels.
