skin hydration – Top Health Today

Keeping your skin hydrated is one of the important ways of taking care of your body, it helps your skin stay soft, fresh, healthy and young. Sometimes you may not know whether your skin is dry or not, you can simply find out by scratching a small area on your leg with your fingernail and check if a white mark is left there or not. If a white mark is left there, that means your skin is dehydrated and that is not good for your skin.

Keeping your skin hydrated helps you stay young and beautiful; and here are some ways in achieving that:

Use creams containing vitamins

The type of cream that you use has a great effect on your skin. To keep your skin hydrated, the best creams to use are creams containing vitamin C and E. These vitamins are a natural source of antioxidant which protects the skin from premature aging, help it fight against the damaging effect of the environment and keep the skin moisturized. Make sure you use these types of body creams and stay away from harsh, fragranced creams.

Avoid hot baths or showers

Cold showers are healthier for you than hot showers. The hot shower might feel pleasing and relaxing, but you should not spend too much time in it because hot water dries out the skin and strip it of its protective oils.

Drink water

The most common and easiest way to keep your skin hydrated is by drinking plenty of water. Water plays important roles in our body; apart from hydrating our body, it also helps the kidneys and heart to perform their works more effectively. Therefore make sure your take two or three liters of water daily in order to get back the water you lose through sweat and urine.

Eat fresh fruits

Most fruit contains high water content; make sure you add fresh fruits to your daily meal to increase your water consumption which will help your body in staying hydrated. Fruits also contain vitamins which are important for maintaining fresh and healthy skin.

Try face mask

Face mask is a natural and effective way to moisturize your face, using it will make your skin softer and smoother. You can easily make the face mask by combining, one teaspoon of raw honey, half banana or avocado and one teaspoon of oil mashed together; the oil may be coconut oil, avocado oil, rosehip oil, sweet almond oil or sesame seed oil. The mask should be applied on the face for about five minutes before washing it off. Before using this facial treatment, make sure you are not allergic to any of the ingredients.

Use humidifier

Humidifiers help to moisturize the air, running a humidifier in your room will add some of the moisture back into the dry air and therefore create a more suitable environment for your skin to stay hydrated. It also helps to breathe the moist air more easily.

Use moisturizer

All the above methods help a lot of people to maintain moisturized skin but some people still end up with a dry skin after following these ways, if you fall among this set of people then the best thing to do is to use moisturizer. Keep a spray-on bottle of moisturizer in your bag in order for you to be able to use it anywhere at any time, and re-apply the moisturizer whenever you notice your skin is getting dry in order to keep it hydrated.

Talk about any beauty routine, the first thing that comes after cleansing is moisturizing. Is this habit of using a moisturizer doing any good? Do moisturizing lotions really improve the skin hydration?

Why do people recommend a moisturizing lotion?

Soon after you shower, apply a moisturizer.
When you step out in the cold winter, apply a moisturizer.
When you exfoliate your skin, apply a moisturizer.
Apply a moisturizer when you do this, and when you do that!

That is the amount of hype given to the use of a moisturizer for your skin. But not all experts agree with the statement that you should never skip the moisturizer.

The debate:

Few doctors argue that using a moisturizer would only rid the skin of its natural tendency to hydrate itself.
There are claims that moisturizers clog the pores and cause the buildup of dead cells.
The heavier the moisturizer one uses, the lazier the skin becomes. The human skin has the tendency to balance the moisture levels and hydrate its upper layer of skin. But using a moisturizer regularly can make the skin stop doing this.

The science behind the concept of moisturizers:

The use of moisturizers is justified with the following biological explanation. The blood supply to the skin is only up to the dermis. The epidermis layer which is the actual layer exposed does not get the direct circulation of the blood. Water from the dermis reach the epidermis and hydrates that layer. This keeps the skin from getting dry due to exposure to the rough environment. But the moisture reaching the epidermis tends to evaporate easily, thus leaving the skin dry again. So a moisturizing lotion traps the skin’s natural moisture and keeps it hydrated.

Moisturizers fall under 3 broad classifications and lotions fall in the emollients category. These consist of moisturizers that fill gaps between the cells of the epidermis. The gaps are due to the dead skin cells. So, on exposure to air, the lotion particles cover the gaps and prevent the skin’s natural moisture from escaping.

Moisturizing lotions are mainly composed of fats or lipids, proteins, and water. These are the entities that are required to protect the outer layer of the skin. They provide insulation to the body and the inner cell layers. When a moisturizer containing all these is artificially supplied to the body, the body might stop taking efforts to produce them. In the long run, this would make the body totally dependent on the moisturizing lotion. So your skin would start drying out if you skip the lotion even once.

What are the other ways to hydrate your skin?

Ideally, the moisturizing lotions are for those with extremely dry skin. The others can skip on the moisturizing lotion. Here are few other ways to hydrate the skin besides using a lotion:

Drink enough water for stay hydrated. This is obviously no surprise. Dehydration causes dry skin.
Choose a gentle soap. Sometimes a harsh soap can dry out your skin. Any skin care product that has too much chemical composition can cause dry skin.
Wear climate friendly clothes. Tight and suffocating clothes during the summers can cause excess water to escape as sweat and thus can dry your skin. Not wearing warm clothes in winter can also rob your skin of the moisture left and lead to lower hydration.

Unless you have a very dry skin, skip the moisturizing lotion whenever you can. Use the other methods to keep your skin hydrated.

Ways to keep your skin hydrated