The 10 Reasons Your Face Is So Dry—and What You Can Do About It
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The 10 Reasons Your Face Is So Dry After 50
—and What You Can Do About It
Is your skincare routine as moisturizing and hydrating as it could be?
Are you experiencing tightness, flakiness and rough patches to the point where you’re constantly slathering your face in moisturizer to try and help get your face to feel hydrated and smooth.
Doing that may not be your best strategy. While creams do help to prevent moisture loss, it’s even more important to ditch the habits that are dehydrating your skin, and switch to a more hydrating routine.
If you have read this far, this article is just what you have been waiting for! Keep reading beautiful…
As we get older, our skin loses moisture on a continuous basis. This happens when the skin’s water content is less than 10%, and its barrier function is disrupted. Along with skin cells, the skin barrier is comprised of naturally-occurring lipids, which—when depleted—become less effective at keeping water locked in and irritants out. A reduction in the skin’s natural moisturizing factors, which bind water, is also thought to be involved.
Here are 10 reason that may be causing your dryness, where you might be going wrong, and what you can do for quenching a thirsty complexion.
1. You’re Over-Cleansing
Washing your face seems like the most basic step in your daily routine... so what could go wrong? You might be using a cleanser that is stripping away your skin’s natural oils, leaving your face uncomfortably tight. This is the most frequent cause of dry skin, and sulfates are usually to blame. "Sulfates is an ingredient that should be avoided in people with dry skin.
What exactly are sulfates?
Sulfates are a type of surfactant, which helps to remove dirt and oil from your skin and thus helps to clean the skin. However, sulfates also disrupt the epidermal barrier, which can make them too harsh, causing your skin to tighten and dry out after washing. Which in turns produces rough scaly patches, fine lines and wrinkles, and dark circles under your eyes. The most common sulfates found in cosmetic products are sodium lauryl sulfate and sodium laureth sulfate, so be sure to avoid them.
2. Your Water Is Too Hot!
Washing your face with hot water—whether at the sink or during a long, steamy shower, feels so good, but it can lead to dry skin. That’s because hot water whisks away the fatty substances in our skin that help it to retain moisture. Using hot water strips the skin of sebum, the healthy fats and oils necessary for skin health, and dehydrates the skin.
3. You’re Not Exfoliating
If you think dry skin doesn’t need exfoliating, think again. Regular gentle exfoliation is essential to remove surface dead skin cells, so that your hydrators can reach the live cells underneath.
If your skin is dry, tight and flaky, it means that you have dry skin cell build-up on the surface of the skin, Rather than putting on extra cream, try increasing your exfoliation…(gently) so that when your cream goes on it hydrates the new cells rather than the dry cells.
4. You’re Exfoliating Too Much
On the flip side, make sure you’re not over-exfoliating, either. When you exfoliate too aggressively or too often, you can create tiny cracks in the skin barrier that lead to more loss of hydration and inflammation. Avoid anything abrasive, like cleansing brushes with nylon bristles or scrubs with jagged particles. Not only can they strip protective oils, they could even scratch and irritate your skin.
4. You’re Exfoliating Too Much
On the flip side, make sure you’re not over-exfoliating, either. When you exfoliate too aggressively or too often, you can create tiny cracks in the skin barrier that lead to more loss of hydration and inflammation. Avoid anything abrasive, like cleansing brushes with nylon bristles or scrubs with jagged particles. Not only can they strip protective oils, they could even scratch and irritate your skin.
5. Avoid Using Harsh, Toxic Ingredients and Alcohols
Many active ingredients can cause dryness, peeling, redness, burning and itching. High concentrations of Vitamin C in the form of L-ascorbic acid can also pose a problem.
Don’t forget drying alcohols like denatured alcohol, ethanol and SD alcohol 40, which are often found in toners. Just like harsh cleansers and exfoliants, they can strip the skin, so switch to alcohol-free products instead.
6. Humectants By Themselves?
As we age, our skin needs Humectants, which are water-attracting ingredients (like glycerin and hyaluronic acid) that draw moisture into the epidermis from the dermis or the environment. But, if you live in a dry climate, humectants could make dryness worse, causing your skin to become dehydrated, by pulling moisture up from deeper layers and onto the surface, where they can evaporate into the air.
For this reason, it is best to combine humectant ingredients with an essential oil, like jojoba, shea butter and rose hip oil. Using a humectant and an oil will help form a protective barrier on the surface of your skin.
7. You Need to Repair Your Skin Barrier
If combining humectants and essential oils hasn’t helped, then you may need additional ingredients to repair your damaged skin barrier. Remember, moisture is oil, hydration is water. If you’re stripping your skin of both, you have to give back both or your skin barrier will give up on you.
To protect the foundation of our skin, we have to keep this lipid barrier healthy. For that coveted dewy glow, a healthy skin barrier is crucial. It’s your line of defense against dehydration and damage. For ingredients that are superstar skin healers, look for ceramides — which are thick proteins already in your skin. Ingredients like Ceramides are essential and widely used to repair skin barriers by “filling” gaps in your skin.
8. You’re Layering Products in the Wrong Order
Maybe you have all the right products to banish dry skin, but you’re applying them in the wrong order. The order of application is incredibly important. The skin’s job is to keep things out, but many of the skin care products we use have ingredients we want to get in. Only a very small amount of these key ingredients can penetrate the skin, even when perfectly formulated and perfectly applied. If you don’t apply products in the correct order, you will not see the best results from your skin care regimen. An easy rule of thumb to follow is to apply your products with the thinnest consistency to thickest, or from liquid to cream. “In general, think thin-to-thick, but you also want to first use the products with the ingredients that are most important to penetrate into the skin (like antioxidants in serums) and finish with the products that need to sit on top of the skin (like emollients and humectants in moisturizers.
Or, many times the biggest mistake is layering too many ingredients that, together, can cause dryness and irritation and, therefore, not allowing the products to work effectively.
9. Your Diet Is Low in Vitamin A
Vitamin A is a key nutrient for regulating skin cell turnover, preventing UV damage and wound healing. But if you’re not meeting your body’s requirements for it, a deficiency could cause skin cells to shed too quickly, resulting in dryness and even conditions like atopic dermatitis (eczema)/. Upping the vitamin A in your diet can help slow down shedding, so that skin cells function longer before they flake off.
10. You Are Going Through Menopause
Many women find their skin becomes drier and itchier when they reach their forties and fifties. Very few women link this dryness to the menopause, despite research showing that skin changes during menopause. In menopause, skin loses some ability to hold water, so skin can get quite dry. This can be especially noticeable when the air is dry.
Skin problems during menopause aren’t only limited to dry skin. Women going through menopause can also experience an outbreak of acne around the lower parts of the face. Many people think that acne is a condition left in the past with puberty. This is no longer the case during menopause, due to the hormonal changes. Menopausal dry skin may exacerbate acne. Dry skin prevents cell membranes’ ‘lipid bilayer’ from blocking bacteria, causing skin cells to build up on the surface. This build-up of dead skin cells on the surface can also trap acne-causing bacteria on the skin. Dry skin associated with menopause can actually trigger acne flare-ups on the body and face.
Now that you know what could be triggering your dry skin,
here’s what you can do about it:
Switch to a Sulfate-Free Cleansers
Cream cleansers
Oil cleansers
Micellar cleansers
Gel and foaming cleansers
Apply a Hydrating Toner
Alcohol-based toner is a big no-no for dry skin, so choose a hydrating version instead. When used after cleansing, it works to remove any leftover cleanser residue, deposit weightless humectants, and prep your skin to receive active ingredients.
Hyaluronic Acid Serums & Moisturizers Are A Must
Hyaluronic Acid in serum or moisturizer form due to its inherent hydrating properties, should be your holy grail to keeping skin hydrated, dewy and glowing. Hyaluronic acid serums and gel moisturizers “work well for all skin types,
Start Gently Exfoliating
Use a mild exfoliation on a regular basis (even daily), rather than doing something more intense less often.
Use a Hydrating Serum, Essence or Mist
Hydrating serums, essences and face mists are all about delivering humectants—the water-loving ingredients that pull moisture into the skin. Try layering one of these underneath your moisturizer and/or face oil
Add Barrier-Repairing Ingredients
To seal the cracks in a damaged skin barrier, look for products with the following ingredients:
Ceramides
Cholesterols
Niacinamides
Fatty Acids
Switch to Non-Drying Actives
When actives cause dryness, it’s sometimes a matter of giving your skin enough time to slowly build up a tolerance.
Finish With a Lotion, Cream or Oil.
A final layer of lotion, cream or oil will act as an barrier to lock in moisture and prevent it from escaping. During the daytime, your barrier can even just be your sunscreen.
Wash with a mild cleanser instead of soap.
Ordinary soaps with strong perfume can be harsh and dry out your skin. Instead, opt for a cleanser that is gentle on your skin.
Invest in a Humidifier
A humidifier will add moisture to the air. During the winter months this will keep your skin fresher and dewier.
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