In order to avoid the many activities that jeopardize your skin’s health, it is important to identify the many factors which results to the unwanted condition.
Avoid Using Soaps with Harsh Ingredients – Regular soaps such as anti-bacterial and
deodorant soaps, which are moisturising, dehydrate the skin and rob your integument with
essential oils which locks moisture from your body.
Products containing alcohols also dissolve skin lipids and cause the skin’s moisture to
evaporate resulting to skin dryness. Water and oil-based products are perfect for your skin.
Use Dove Olay and other soap substitutes available at your local drug-store
Washing with Hot Water – Although water is an effective moisturising agent, it also strips your skin with valuable oils or lipids which are responsible for retaining moisture from your skin.
Frequent bathing, especial y with hot water, removes valuable oils and exposes your skin
to infections by destroying your body’s first main line of defence
Once this is lost, your skin will become more prone to organic attacks by pathogens and
sometimes cause irreversible damage to your skin.
If you are used to bathing with hot water and cannot resist the temptation, try replacing it with lukewarm water to lessen the effect of skin dryness.
Frequent Washing – Frequent washing and bathing, usual y more than once a day
depletes your body with moisture and natural oils. Also, limit your bathing time within 15
minutes.
Weather – Winter is one major factor in the development of a dry skin. The use of
humidifier, in most cases, solves the problem of the effect of the climate. It compensates
for the insufficient humidity needed for the preservation of skin moisture.
This is because cold air cannot afford to hold adequate amount of water to serve skin’s
moisture demands. Warm air on the other hand holds enough humidity to keep the skin
moisturised at a certain level.
Patients under medication – People taking diuretic drugs remove water from a patient’s body because the kidney will less likely reabsorb the water filtered through it. In this case, frequent intake of water is needed.
Genetic Disease – People afflicted with a rare genetic disease called ichthyosis are likely to develop dry skin. This genetic disease has no cure and the goal of treatment is to
secure the symptoms that manifest along the way.
Effective Treatment
The skin deserves much attention for it manifests your overal health or state of well-being.
It provides you with valuable clues as to how you take care of yourself and how much
attention your skin gets in your daily physical management.
One way to maintain that youthful glow is to subscribe to a skin treatment regimen that will help your skin restore moisture when it’s needed.
Most reasons for dryness are bacterial and fungal infections, which do not go away until
proper prescription drug treatment is administered. But in reasons not tied up above,
products available in the market will help you achieve that goal and maintain a skin that is envied by everyone.
Alpha hydroxyacid lotions are best for dry skin. Oil-based are more effective than water based lotions for they “lock-in” the moisture stored in the skin.
Effective moisturisers are dependent on your immediate and long-term needs. If you
want to relieve itching caused by dry skin, ordinary moisturisers will serve your purpose.
Humectants such as lotions containing glycerine, propylene glycol promotes moisture
retention and al antoin and urea are effective for promoting healing and stripping damaged
cel s on top of the skin.
Barrier creams are effective for people who are in a habit of washing their hands
frequently. For individuals with advanced dry skin condition (pruritus), anti-pruritic agents such as oatmeal and tar-based pine oil are beneficial.
Balanced-diet and exercise cause your skin to produce more oil and maintain a relative amount of oil that keeps moisture in your skin. Drinking plenty of water is also important.
If these and other treatments are not effective in alleviating all the symptoms of drying
skin, it is best that you consult a professional dermatologist so they can closely monitor the cause of dryness.
Chapter 5. Double Whammy - Combination Skin
Skin types vary so as the type of treatment tailored to meet their needs. Some have
normal, oily or dry skin and each remains the same even if temperature changes.
For some, cold, frigid weather could turn an oily face dry in minutes. This is because cold air does not carry enough moisture to moisten dry surfaces, especially the skin, and
eventually makes the skin less damp and more prone to scaling.
There are many skin regimens to preventing double whammy situation to set in. More
often than not, our daily skin treatment and cleaning behaviour influences the way our skin maintains moisture and inhibit dry skin symptoms.
Moisture is the key to a wonderful, healthy-looking skin. Being fair-skinned does not
always suggest good skin tone but the amount of moisture your skin posses implicates
how you take care of your integument.