Dry skin not only creates inconvenience (the appearance of cracks, a feeling of tightness), but also worsens the appearance. This problem can be solved in different ways: using pharmaceutical drugs, special cosmetics, and using folk recipes. In this case, you need to take into account the properties of the skin. In addition, existing treatments are not suitable for everyone, since dryness can be caused by diseases. In this case, individual therapy is selected.
Let's be honest about dry skin: signs
The sebaceous glands carefully lubricate our skin with sebum. Sebum is a “border guard” that protects the skin from drying out and minor damage. When there is not enough moisture in the skin, sebum weakens. And hello, dry skin.
Let's take a closer look at what signs tell us that the skin is dry. Look in the mirror and compare the condition of your skin with the list:
- You constantly feel dry and tight, especially after washing your face;
- You notice that peeling and redness constantly appear on the skin;
- You feel itching in the areas of peeling;
- You see a lot of small wrinkles on your face;
- I'm not familiar with oily shine.
Troubleshooting Power Errors
If you have dry skin on your face, you should carefully study your diet before getting rid of it.
The lack of vitamins A, C, E and groups B and E leads to a decrease in the synthesis of hormones and other substances that make up the structural elements of the cells and tissues of the body.
All this immediately affects the condition of the skin, on which peeling may appear.
You can eliminate dry skin by including foods rich in the listed vitamins in your menu.
If dry skin appears on your face, how to get rid of this problem? This question is often asked by representatives of the fair sex who do not adhere to a healthy diet. First of all, you need to adjust your diet and consume healthy foods enriched with vitamins.
If for some reason this cannot be done, you should start taking fish oil or vitamin complexes specially designed to improve the condition of the epidermis.
Dry or dehydrated: what's the difference?
Have you noticed many signs of dry skin? Don't rush to diagnose yourself. Many people confuse dry skin with dehydrated skin. But they are fundamentally different from each other.
Both oily skin and normal skin can be dehydrated. When the skin is dehydrated, it behaves as if PMS has overtaken it:
- Dry and oily at the same time.
Moisture begins to evaporate when the lipid layer is broken. Our body immediately activates the border guard sebum. It turns on the sebaceous glands at full power, and you become like an oily pancake. As a result, you get such a vinaigrette of consequences: tightness and itching, oily shine, enlarged pores and rashes.
- Mood color: dull
The skin stops getting rid of dead cells. Do you remember that all efforts are made to protect, not to renew?
- Gets irritated over trifles
The sebaceous glands cannot cope with protection. Therefore, the skin becomes sensitive and very capricious. If she begins to react to her usual care with irritation, this is the first sign of dehydration.
Pharmacological drugs that eliminate dry skin
Severe flaking of dry skin can be eliminated using a cream containing hydrocortisone , the concentration of which is no more than 0.5%.
This drug must be applied once every 14 days. If there is no result, its use should be stopped and contact a professional cosmetologist or dermatologist.
Skin that is chapped or exposed to the sun or frost should be treated with panthenol.
In cases where dry skin is caused by excessive exposure to sunlight, strong wind or frosty air, it is advisable to use Panthenol spray or cream. It not only softens the skin, but also relieves inflammation and accelerates cell regeneration.
Bepanten cream is suitable for moisturizing dry skin. Despite the fact that it is intended for children, the drug has proven itself as a moisturizing and healing agent for skin of any type in adults.
Cleansers for dry skin
Before applying any cream, it is necessary to rid the skin of the keratinized layer of dead cells.
For this purpose, various scrubs and gommages are used. You should understand exactly which of these products are suitable for dry skin, and what their differences are.
Cleansing cosmetics
The scrub can only be used by young women under 30 years of age. Cream-based products that use artificial particles as an exfoliant are suitable for cleansing dry skin.
Natural abrasives (crushed coffee beans, sea salt crystals, apricot kernels, nut shells and others) have sharp corners and edges that can injure the epidermis. But artificial particles have a rounded shape and are not capable of damaging the upper layers of the skin.
You can apply the scrub no more than 2-3 times a week to a pre-moistened face using smooth circular movements , leaving the area of the lower and upper eyelids untouched. Then the product should be washed off with cool boiled water, and a nourishing or moisturizing cream should be applied to the skin.
Mature, dry or sensitive skin is best gently cleansed using gommage , which is a chemical peeling product. This is a thick cream in which abrasive particles are replaced by fruit acids.
After applying the product to your face, you should wait for it to dry completely, and then carefully remove it with rolling movements of your fingers, preventing stretching of the skin. Gommage should be used no more than twice every 7 days.
Causes of dry facial skin
You need to understand that dry skin is a skin type that stays with you for life. But there are reasons that aggravate dry skin and significantly reduce moisture levels:
- Age. We don't get any younger over the years. Our sebaceous glands are no exception. The following pattern occurs: the sebaceous glands stop lubricating us with oil (and dry skin has never suffered from its excess) - there is less water, more dryness, wrinkles are deeper.
- Dry hot air. Be prepared that your skin will not thank you for loving to bask in the sun on the beach and in the spotlights of solarium lamps. You should also be careful in winter. The bacteria that warm our soul and body are also marked “dangerous for dry skin”!
- Incorrect care. We take care selection seriously. Otherwise, a hastily taken cream may aggravate the problem rather than help.
- Internal processes in the body. The skin always turns on the alarm when everything inside is not going according to plan. Therefore, excessive dryness may indicate disorders in the gastrointestinal tract, nervous and endocrine systems. And if your skin suddenly changes color and texture, you may have become a victim of psoriasis, eczema or dermatitis.
- Poor nutrition. The desire to eat something tasty is reflected not only on the scales, but also on the face. If food does not contain the vitamins and nutrients that are needed to keep the skin in perfect condition, peeling and dullness appear.
Competent selection and use of cosmetic products
Often, the wrong selection of cosmetic products leads to the appearance of dry skin on the face. But, not knowing what caused it and how to get rid of dryness, a person tries to eliminate the problem using the same means.
The most common mistake is choosing facial care products without taking into account age category and skin type , as well as tonic and lotions containing alcohol.
There is also such a common mistake as getting rid of the symptoms of dry skin on the face by using fatty nourishing creams. Their action must be clearly differentiated from moisturizing preparations. If the former are created to enrich the skin with fats, then the latter are designed to introduce and retain moisture in the upper and deep layers of the epidermis.
Facial cream should be chosen according to its type and age
The variety of moisturizers allows you to choose the appropriate option depending on the degree of dry skin, its causes and climatic factors.
Skin care products are divided into the following types:
- Products that form a protective film that prevents the evaporation of moisture from the surface of the outer layer of the epidermis.
It can be based on petroleum jelly, which is an artificial fat, or natural ingredients such as marine collagen and aloe juice. Most often, basic winter preparations work on this principle.
- Products that attract and retain moisture. They are based on glycerin, hyaluronic acid and collagen fibers.
It is advisable to apply such creams to skin whose dryness is caused by unfavorable climatic factors and frequent contact with water (especially when swimming in the sea or chlorinated pool water).
Read the popular article in the category: Black facial cleansing mask: how to make a black mask at home. Recipe, application, reviews.
- Products that can penetrate into the deep layers of the dermis , cause an influx of moisture into it and suppress its release from the cells.
The active ingredients of such drugs are low molecular weight components of hyaluronic acid or an extract from Centella Asiatica. They are part of expensive facial care lines or form the basis of professional cosmetics.
- Products containing peptides enhance the natural processes of moisture retention by cells by stimulating the production of its own acidic environment with hyaluron molecules.
They are suitable for mature skin with signs of age-related aging. You should not try to influence young, delicate skin with their help.
Trying to get rid of the problem of tightness and flaking after dry skin has appeared on the face, you should carefully ensure that you apply the day cream in the morning, and apply the night cream before going to bed.
Using day cream at night causes swelling and dry skin. And the night preparation does not provide adequate protection from external climatic factors, and therefore also leads to dehydration of the epidermis.
Timely treatment of pathologies of internal organs
Dry skin can be a sign of hormonal imbalances and pathologies of internal organs, which include:
- dysfunction of the thyroid gland;
- diabetes;
- liver diseases;
- diseases of the gastrointestinal tract;
- insufficient production of female sex hormones.
In this case, it is impossible to make the skin moisturized using external cosmetics.
Dry facial skin can be caused by internal diseases, so if cosmetic products do not help solve the problem of dryness and flaking of the dermis, consult a doctor
To do this, you need to go to the clinic, undergo an examination and a course of therapy. Properly selected hormonal and therapeutic drugs will not only improve the functioning of the affected organs, but will also eliminate the problem of dry skin.
Dry skin of the face, what to do?
- Just add water. Literally. Directly in through your mouth - drink water! From 1.5 liters per day to limits that depend only on the individual needs of your body. No, not tea and coffee (even without sugar), but pure water - only it helps to normalize the water-salt balance and remove various toxins and other harmful substances from the body.
- Remember that you are not a dumping ground for food waste. Carcinogens, dyes, stabilizers, monosodium glutamates and other junk - your skin has to remove all this from the body through itself so that it does not die. And you still wonder why it’s not smooth as silk? Eat normally - vegetables, protein, fiber, “right” fats and definitely collagen! And remember: strict diets are the first enemy of the skin.
- If you have never been tested for vitamin deficiency, be sure to do so. You might need to add A, B, E and C to your diet.
- Change your skincare products: very often dry skin is a reaction to aggressive surfactants, alkaline compounds, allergenic dyes and other chemicals. As an experiment, try using only 100% natural cosmetics for a whole month - from soap and shower gel to lotion and deodorant. See what changes. A huge range of organic cosmetics is available in the online store www.beauty365.ru.
- What do you wear? It is clear that it is not latex 24/7, but pay attention to the composition of the fabric of your clothes - synthetics cause allergies and failure of thermoregulatory processes in the skin. Reading labels is generally a good habit.
- Dry air. Especially during the heating season. Just buy a good humidifier.
Avoiding excessive use of cleansers
Dry skin caused by excessive use of soaps, scrubs, gommages and other cleansers can be eliminated by reducing the frequency of their use.
For people with very dry skin, cosmetologists recommend replacing the washing procedure by wiping the face with special lotions and tonics that do not contain alcohol. If this is not possible, you should use soap with the addition of cream or cosmetic oils.
After washing, you should not wipe your face dry with a towel; just pat it dry with a clean napkin. Then, still damp skin should be wiped with tonic or micellar water and a layer of moisturizer should be applied to prevent moisture loss.
Particular attention must be paid to water quality. To wash your face with dry skin, you should use boiled, purified or melt water.
Common mistakes when caring for dry skin
A million jars in the bathroom will not save you if you make these mistakes when leaving:
- Replacing hydration with nutrition. Dry skin needs hydration! Nourishing creams and masks are good as additional care. Signs of dryness will only worsen if you nourish your skin rather than moisturize it.
- Alkaline soap during cleansing. It is forbidden! Otherwise, your skin may turn into apricot over time.
- Alcohol in toners and other skin care cosmetics. Limit ethyl attacks on the skin as much as possible.
Home Remedies Recipes
Homemade cosmetics are not limited to creams and masks. For dry skin, you need to choose the right foam (or gel) for washing, tonic and scrub. Moreover, they should be used regularly, especially when active peeling of the skin begins. Thanks to the systematic use of such products, very soon the skin cells will have enough necessary moisture and the face will again acquire freshness.
So what can you do to relieve dry skin at home? The following effective recipes exist.
Hot compress
A terry towel should be folded into strips, dipped in fairly hot water (but so as not to burn), placed on your face and held until the fabric has cooled. With this procedure, blood flow increases, all impurities are removed from the skin and muscles relax. It should be done once every two weeks.
Steam bath with chamomile
Three tablespoons of chamomile are poured into three liters of water and boiled for about 15 minutes. Then remove the pan from the heat, place it on a chair and bend over the container, covering your head with a terry towel. You need to stay in this position for 10 minutes. As the broth begins to cool, the face should be lowered lower and lower. Then you need to wash your face with cool water and wipe your skin with a moisturizing lotion.
Oatmeal mask
To make a mask, 1 tbsp. l. oatmeal is poured with 50 ml of hot milk, which should be high in fat. Leave for 10 minutes, after which the mask is applied to the face and kept for 15 minutes. It must be washed off with cool water. This mask almost never causes allergies.
Vanilla scrub
Exfoliation of dead cells and cleansing of dirt from the skin are necessary procedures. With the help of soft scrubs, gentle and very delicate cleansing occurs. It is enough to carry out this procedure once a week. To prepare the scrub, take the pulp of a ripe banana and mash it with a fork, add 3 tbsp. l. granulated sugar, 1 tsp. honey and vanilla extract. to the skin with light circular movements , the face is massaged for several minutes, after which the mixture is washed off.
Homemade tonics
These toners provide the skin with hydration and cleansing. Before applying the cream, the face should be wiped with parsley decoction. The recipe for its preparation is very simple: 200 g of greens are chopped and poured with a liter of water, boiled, cooled and filtered. It is necessary to store the toner in the refrigerator; it gives the skin a pleasant freshness, relieving it of the feeling of tightness. Milk tonic is also quite effective. In this case, the face should be wiped with cool milk.
Cream
It is usually applied after a moisturizing toner. You can make your own homemade cream , which is no less effective than store-bought cream.
The recipe for its preparation is as follows: 1 tbsp. l. of pharmaceutical chamomile, pour 250 ml of boiling water, cover with a lid, cool and filter. You should get 2 tbsp. l. infusion, vegetable glycerin is added to it (less than one teaspoon). Take 1 tbsp. l. margarine or butter, melt, mix with 1 tsp. castor oil, add three drops of geranium essential oil. All components are mixed, beaten with a mixer, transferred to a jar and put in the refrigerator. This cream can be stored for 5 days.
Thus, in order to return dry skin to its normal state, you need full care for it, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and you should also do regular cosmetic procedures at home and in salons. Only in this case, neither time nor various factors will be able to dominate the beauty of a fresh face.
How to care for dry skin?
Stage 1. Dry massage
We get rid of hated peeling with the help of dry massage with a brush. A natural bristle brush from Beauty365 is ideal for this massage. It helps exfoliate dead skin flakes and also improves blood and lymph circulation. You can watch the dry massage technique in the video; turn it on before taking a shower and repeat:
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Post from Annette (Anna Melnikova) (@melannett) Feb 18, 2020 at 6:36 am PST
Stage 2. Moisturizing and nutrition
After the shower, generously lubricate yourself with natural cold-pressed coconut oil from Beauty 365. It is ideal for the care of dry, irritated, inflamed and mature skin. With coconut oil, you will definitely forget about flaking and tightness. We recommend this oil with caution to those with problematic and oily skin.