Our board-certified cosmetic and general surgeon, Dr. Farzin Kerendian, with Desired Beauty Surgical and Medical Center, is a skincare specialist who can help you renew and rejuvenate your skin and leave it looking radiant.
What happens if my skin isn’t hydrated?
You can compare skin that isn’t hydrated with a desert, where there’s no moisture and the surface is incredibly dusty. When your skin isn’t hydrated properly, it becomes flaky as dry, dead skin cells peel off.
Your skin is a shield that protects your body from harmful bacteria and pollution from the environment. When the skin is dry, it’s in a weakened condition. Therefore, it’s less able to act as a barrier. Gaps form between the cells, and your skin can become red, itchy, and easily irritated.
In addition, if your skin is frequently exposed to desert conditions (think lack of hydration), you’re going to see fine lines and wrinkles appear before their time. The underlayer of your skin, the dermis, prematurely loses collagen and elastin, key proteins that keep it supple and smooth. With less collagen and elastin, lines and wrinkles begin to form on the surface of your skin as the dermis under it weakens, and cells on the surface shrink and die.
In addition to fine lines and wrinkles, the lack of hydration can cause painful skin conditions as you age. Your body produces less collagen and elastin as you get older, which means hydration is all the more important. Older adults are more at risk of cracked, broken skin that bleeds, which increases the chance of infection.
How to ensure proper skin hydration
Following are helpful tips to keep your skin healthy.
Drink enough water
Roughly one-third of your skin is water. When you sweat, you lose a lot of it. That’s why your body craves water when you’re exercising and why it’s critical to hydrate. Drink six to eight glasses of water a day.
Use a moisturizer day and night
Dr. Kerendian can help you select the appropriate products to keep your skin hydrated. When you use a high-quality moisturizer and other products to take care of your skin, you’ll likely have fewer wrinkles as you age than those who don’t moisturize. Always use a moisturizer after a bath or shower. Try to avoid an extremely hot shower, because it removes the natural oils from your skin.
Avoid sun exposure for extended periods
No doubt you’ve seen skin that looks like leather from too much exposure to the environment’s biggest drying agent, the sun. If you have fair skin, you can get all of the vitamin D you need each day from 15 minutes in the sun. Wear sunscreen every day. Wear a protective hat and UV protective clothing when in the sun for a prolonged period.
Avoid tobacco, and limit alcohol and caffeine
You may love coffee, but have you noticed how often you need to go to the bathroom after drinking it? That’s because it’s a diuretic. Water is the best source of hydration.
If you aren’t drinking water when you drink alcohol, you’re dehydrating yourself. Make sure you have a glass of water at hand and keep it full.
If you want beautiful skin, stay away from tobacco. Nicotine narrows your blood vessels, limiting the flow of nutrients to your skin. Chemicals in tobacco damage your skin’s natural elasticity, causing premature wrinkling.
Call Desired Beauty Surgical and Medical Center, or book an appointment online for expert treatment to keep your skin looking beautiful and radiant.
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