Skin Care For Dehydrated Skin       

What Is The Cost of Neglecting Your Skin Hydration?

Skin dehydration can affect up to 98% of the population at one time or another in one's lifetime.  The skin that has surface dehydration, is skin that has moisture depletion in the epidermal skin cells, called the horny layer of the skin.  Suface dehydration has short term and long term effects on the skin.  The dehydrated skin symptoms can appear to be tight or stiff on the surface.  The skin cells that make up the horny layer of the skin become shrunken or taunt and begin to pull together creating that tight feeling.  The skin loses "plumpness" and flexibility, similiar to a dried fruit. Think of a piece of fresh fruit that is put in a "dehydrator" to dry out the moisture.  The skin becomes less plump, less elastic and less flexible. The slight dewy, smooth skin begins to vanish.

Due to the lack of moisture in the skin layer, the wrinkles and fine lines can be more pronounced during facial expressions or when the skin is at rest( no facial expressions or movements).  The short term effects of skin dehydration, is that the skin becomes almost chapped or flakey and the skin cells dry up, therefore collecting in the pores.   As a result of this, the pores become clogged, and there can be an increase in blemishes and blackheads, especially if the skin is oily or combination-oily.   Quite often people will turn to exfoliants, scrubs, peels, and drying masks to lessen the breakout only to find that the skin feels tighter, flakey, with more blemishes. The skin has become out of balance and people refer to their skin as "oily dehydrated skin" or "dehydrated oily skin".

Long term surface dehydration, called chronic dehydration, can lead to early signs of lines, because the skin never gets to recover or bounce back. The skin over time starts to appear older looking, although the person may be chronologically young.   If long term dehydration is not addressed properly, then deep, severely dehydration of skin can occur, resulting in visible wrinkles and loss of skin firmness, due to the chronic shrinking or drying out of the epidermal skin cells. 

Dehydrated skin is a common problem and the causes of dehydrated skin is generally linked to poor cleansing/skin care habits- using the wrong cleanser, using too many exfoliants or scrubs, astringents, toners, ; the use of drying products to control acne and blemishes; the incorrect moisturizer for the skin.  Individuals may also attempt to have glycolic peels to help alleviate the dehydration, only to leave the skin progressly worse.  Lifestyle issues such as climatic changes, such as humidity(Florida) or lack of( Arizona desert); medications, illness, hot showers, diet, smoking and alcohol can affect the skin.