Washing, exfoliating and moisturizing your skin treats the outermost layer of the skin called the skin barrier. The skin barrier keeps water in and environmental toxins out of your skin.
If the skin barrier is compromised, it can eliminate the skin’s microbiome, leaving you prone to invasion of harmful organisms. This can result in skin conditions like psoriasis, rosacea, or breakouts.
A compromised skin barrier can have negative effects on your skin’s overall health.
What is Skin Barrier?
The skin barrier is the most top layer of our skin that protects our face. This makes it a great and essential part of our body. You can examine if your skin barrier is healthy when your notice that your skin is firm, smooth and plump.
Causes of Skin Barrier Damage
Our skin barrier can be damaged because of different possible reasons. When it is damaged, the firm arrangement between the cells of the skin is lost. When this happens, external irritants will get in your skin easier, leading to more water leaving your skin.
Here are some things that can indicate your skin barrier is compromised:
- Your skin feels super tight, try and feels inflamed or flaky.
- Your skin tends to look flat and dull.
- You are having breakouts all over your body, even in places you do not normally break out.
- Your skin itches and stings when you apply skin products.
- Compromised Skin Barrier Remedy
It will require a lot of care and time to mend the skin barrier once its role is compromised. The specific length relies upon numerous factors, including the degree of injury and encompassing aggravation of the skin.
Outside of your skincare routine, lifestyle can also play a vital role in mending a compromised skin barrier. You should avoid bad practices and activities that could further damage the skin barrier.
Here are some of the external factors that can cause damage to your skin barrier:
1. Over-exfoliating
There are hundreds if not thousands of exfoliating products available in the market available today. And it makes it easier to add different products to your skincare routine that could cause over-exfoliating. Unfortunately, this problem is very common these days.
You are removing unwanted dead skin cells on the top most layer of your skin when you over-exfoliate and the functional skin barrier itself that protects you. This is why it is essential to check the ingredients of your exfoliating products.
2. Over-washing
Overexposure to harsh cleansers and water could damage your skin barrier. It can remove the natural lipid barrier on your skin. Thus, it can damage the skin’s first line of protection.
3. Lack of Sleep and Stress
Having a bad skin day when you did not get a good night’s sleep is pretty common. The lack of rest or sleep can cause damage to your skin barrier, leading to increased transepidermal water loss. So sleep, and get some rest because it plays an essential part in keeping your skin beautiful and healthy.
4. Pollution
Research says that dry air and pollution could affect your skin barrier layer. This is why it is pretty common for people to get itchy and sensitive skin when the air quality is poor in their area. If this is the case, we recommend that you limit outdoor activities because of the pollution.
If you should go outside, you must wear protective masks and the right clothing outdoors. You could also use a good air purifier in your living room to keep the air clean inside your home. Doing this will not only make your skin barrier healthier but your overall health in general.
Team
