How to Fix Your Dehydrated Skin
Is your skin tight and dry but also oily? Are you guilty of using harsh products to combat flakes, oil, and acne but they only seem to make matters worse? If so, you might have dehydrated skin. Unlike dry, oily, or combination skin types that we’re born with, dehydrated skin isn’t a skin type, it’s a skin symptom. A symptom caused by using harsh products that damage your moisture barrier and throw off the balance of your skin. But the good news is that dehydrated skin isn’t permanent and it can be solved!
What’s dehydrated skin?
Dehydrated skin is commonly confused with the combination skin type (skin that is naturally dry and oily), but dehydrated skin is much different. Combination skin is typically oily and acne-prone in the T-zone (forehead, nose area, and chin) but feels tight and dry on the rest of the face. However, dehydrated skin can feel dry, tight AND oily all over with acne popping up in areas outside of the T-zone. When your moisture barrier is damaged, your skin has a hard time keeping hydration locked in which causes dryness. A damaged moisture barrier also affects healthy shedding of skin cells, causing them to clump up and create flakes. Your skin recognizes that something’s up and does it’s best to nourish itself by over-producing oils. Except for that extra oil, in combination with clogged pores from all that flaky skin, means extra acne. Now you’re left with skin flakiness, accompanied by zits and a layer of oil on top - yikes. As far as dry vs. dehydrated skin goes - dry skin lacks oil and dehydrated skin lacks water.
What Causes Dehydrated Skin?
Since dehydrated skin is a symptom and not a skin type, it’s most likely that dehydrated skin is caused by the harsh products you use in your routine. We all have this cool thing called the stratum corneum (the outermost layer of the skin), it’s made up of about 15 layers of flattened dead skin cells called corneocytes that protect us from dehydration, bacteria, infection, environmental factors, and chemicals. The stratum corneum is often referred to as the moisture barrier because it’s a waterproof barrier held together by lipids, fatty acids, and cholesterol that keeps the deeper layers of our skin hydrated. When the stratum corneum is compromised by harsh products, it’s unable to keep that moisture locked in, which causes dehydrated skin and all those problems that come along with it.
There are a few common ways you could have damaged your moisture barrier, the first one being the use of a high pH cleanser. For more on why pH matters in skincare, check out this post. If you’re too lazy to read that post, the gist of it is that your skin needs to be at a healthy, low pH to function properly and high pH cleansers disrupt the acid mantle and moisture barrier causing dehydrated skin. Other things like over-exfoliation via physical or chemical exfoliants and using products with denatured alcohols, concentrated essential oils, etc., will damage your moisture barrier as well.
How To Fix Dehydrated Skin
To fix dehydrated skin and heal your moisture barrier, the most important thing you can do is treat your skin as gently as possible. To fix dehydrated skin you should follow these steps:
Ditch your harsh cleansers and replace them with a gentle low pH cleanser.
Stop using any type of exfoliation, whether physical or actives for about 6 weeks while your moisture barrier heals. “But my skin is flaky I NEED to exfoliate??” Trust me, once you solve your dehydration problems, the skin flakes will slowly start to disappear. If you really just can't live without some type of exfoliation, try using a product with Urea - it’s an ingredient we naturally produce in our bodies that’s moisturizing, exfoliating and safe for dehydrated skin!
Avoid undiluted essential oils. Using something like a 100% tea tree oil all over your face consistently can cause serious damage to your moisture barrier and even chemical burns.
Add a hydrating toner to your routine. Hydrating toners are packed with hyaluronic acid and will give your skin a dose of hydration that it’s been begging for.
Moisturize with ingredients like ceramides and fatty acids (the same things from the diagram above that keep your moisture barrier intact).
Use an occlusive as your final moisturizing step to lock everything in and keep the hydrating ingredients from evaporating so that your moisture barrier can use them to heal.
After you’ve healed your moisture barrier by being gentle with your skin and stopping the use of harsh products, you’ll be able to reassess your skin type and create a routine that treats your true needs!