Some more dehydrated skin myths
Now that you know that drinking water and scrubbing away dehydrated skin helping dehydrated skin are myths, here are some more myths that should keep you thinking about this skin type. Even spraying a mist of water provides temporary ‘hydration’ to the skin and is not a surefire remedy for the condition.
Myth 1: Diet has no effect on your skin.
Considering the amount of toil and wear and tear your skin has to endure every day, it’s important you take a look at whatever food enters your body, or rather your diet. This is because the food in your diet has a great difference in your skin’s water retention.
Your diet should include essential fatty acids which contribute to the strength and structure of your lipid barrier. EFA deficiencies in the skin leads to dysfunctional lipid barrier, visible skin flakiness and dermatitis and inability of retaining moisture needed for soft and supple skin. While the best moisturizers have these essential fatty acids, don’t depend just on them to replace your skin moisture. Include more of foods containing important and essential fatty acids to your diet like shellfish, eggs, pumpkin seeds, flaxseeds, walnuts and vegetables like spinach and kale.
As your body cannot produce fatty acids unless you eat them, if you feel your diet is lacking in essential fatty acids, you can always supplement through fish oil or flaxseed capsules every day. In case you wonder what puts your skin’s lipid barrier out of balance, it’s basically caused by the constant exposure to the harshness of the environment, poor skin care practices and other factors like smoking, excessive alcohol and other similar intrinsic factors.
Myth 2: Richer moisturizers are a better option.
Fact: One thing a person suffering from parched and dehydrated skin is look for an extra heavy or rich moisturizer, perhaps one with extra emollients. However though this is a good idea if your skin is dry, or rather does not produce that much oil, it will not help solve the problem of your skin not retaining moisture.
In fact, if your dehydrated skin is misdiagnosed as dry skin, then an extra rich cream only throws your skin out of balance wherein you end up using a cream which does not suit your skin type and is conversely, rather dehydrating for your skin. This is why it’s important that you get your skin properly diagnosed to determine your actual skin type. Remember, a beautifully balanced skin needs very little additional moisturizer.
Now that most of the myths about dehydrated skin have been demystified, you can treat your skin much better to soften and smoothen your skin instead of dehydrating it!
