Skin Conditions: Dehydration

Why is it not enough to just know whether you have oily, dry, normal, or combination skin?  Because there are a few other skin conditions that can affect how you should care your skin.  There are about six different ones that can affect your skin and it is possible to have one or more of the ones listed:  dehydration, sensitivity, acne, aging, couperose, and pigmentation.  This week I’m going to talk about dehydration.

I seem to come by dehydration the most.  Everyone and I mean everyone is susceptible to dehydration.  People don’t usually understand what it means to be dehydrated, but it’s pretty simple.  It means your skin in lacking water, not oil, which means even people with the oiliest skin, can have dehydration. 

In fact, I notice more cases of dehydration in oily skin or those with acne than any other skin type and it’s because these people constantly strip their skin of its natural moisture.  They do this by using harsh products, excessive cleansing, and exfoliating too often (a process done to remove dead skin cells). 

What is dehydration?

Characteristics of Dehydration:  dullness, the presence of fine lines, and occasionally flakiness

 A test that you can do at home to see if your skin in dehydrated is simply place your index finger on your jaw line and push up.  If you see a bunch of little horizontal lines, your skin is dehydrated.

Causes of Dehydration:  smoking, drinking excessively, using harsh products, cleansing or exfoliating too frequently.  Also your diet is probably lacking water, fruits, and vegetables.

How do you fix or prevent this?

A quick fix to this problem would be to drink more water and eat more fruits and vegetables.  Also, avoid too much caffeine, smoking, and excessive drinking.  Basically stop doing what you love and do more of what you don’t.

Also use products that have ingredients that will attract and trap moisture to the skin.

Ingredients to look for:

• Essential fatty acids:  help stimulate cell renewal and deeply moisturize the skin
• Humectants:  draw and trap moisture to the skin
• Glycerin:  hydrates the skin and is a solvent for other ingredients (allowing other ingredients to absorb more easily into the skin)

Examples – acai, andiroba seed, avocado, olive fruit oil, papaya, cocoa bean, cocoa butter, fig, green algae extract, jasmine, jojoba seed, lactic acid (derived from milk), macadamia nut, sesame seed, shea butter, sunflower seed, sweet almond oil

The examples I listed are some of the most well-known ingredients to look for, but there are definitely a lot of others.   

Dehydration is easily preventable and easy to fix, but if left untreated it could lead to premature aging.  This is just one of many conditions the skin can have and next week I will talk about another one, acne.

How to Determine Your Skin Type

Hi, my name is Kristyna and I have been a licensed esthetician, aka skin care specialist, since 2008.  I decided to write this blog in order to help people with their skin’s needs and issues.  But enough about me, let’s talk skin.  

The first thing to determine in caring for your skin is what type of skin you have.  There are four skin types:  dry, normal, combination, oily, and sensitive.  In order to figure out which you have, simply grab a mirror, which shouldn’t be hard since most people spend an average of five days a year in front of one.  The second and last step, examine your pores.

You start by looking at the size of the pore from the center of the face (nose, chin, forehead) to the outside (cheeks).  Depending on what you see, it will tell you, your skin type.

1.        Dry:  You will notice little to no pores on the face and if anywhere, the sides of the nose.

2.       Normal:  Medium sized pores in the t-zone (nose, chin, forehead) that dissipate to a smaller size of the cheeks.

3.       Combination: Large sized pores in the t-zone that shrink to a medium size on the cheeks.  Normal and combination skin types are very similar.

4.       Oily:  Large pores all over face.

If you’re sitting there wondering how do I know what’s large and what’s little, don’t worry, because there are other ways to determine what type of skin you have.

Image from:  http://www.123rf.com

The other way is by texture and pimples.  You ask yourself two questions:  How does my skin feel to the touch (rough and flaky, smooth, or oily)? and how often do I breakout? 

1.       Rough and flaky:  this usually indicates dry skin and will most likely not have pimples.

2.   Smooth:  this is usually how normal and combination skin feels and is subject to the occasional breakout.

3.     Oily:  if you touch your face and rub your fingers together and it feels greasy, you have oily skin, which means you are definitely prone to breakouts.

There are other factors in determining on how to treat your skin, such as dehydration, sensitivity, acne, and aging, but we’ll get to that next week.