While professional skin care can produce quick, dramatic changes to your appearance, daily home treatment is your most reliable vehicle to healthy skin. Environmental factors continually work to break down skin tissue. Regular tune-ups can restore its natural power. Home skin care really encompasses your complete lifestyle--how you handle threats to skin, such as dirt, dryness and sun. It also includes everyday maintenance to keep your skin, a major body organ, performing well.
Features
The fundamentals of healthy skin care are cleanliness, hydration, exfoliation and sun protection. Bathing, sunscreen applications and facial skin care provide for these basic needs. The American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) recommends twice-daily cleansing and moisturizing. Daytime sun protection for exposed skin is also necessary. Depending on your skin type and condition, home treatment with an exfoliating scrub may be needed to encourage skin cell renewal and to keep your skin looking fresh.
Method
Home skin care, like good medical care, means first doing no harm to normal, healthy skin. Facial skin is delicate; blood vessels near the surface can rupture easily. Avoid excess pressure and abrasion. Follow the manufacturers' directions for makeup removal products. Use just your fingertips--never a washcloth--to cleanse. Always use a gentle, circular motion. Apply your moisturizer while your skin is still damp. This will attract and seal in the water. Towel off by patting the skin; never rub it.
Function
The life cycle of skin tissue involves cell death and regeneration. This can clutter your skin's surface with dead cells and clog pores with waste. Cleansing removes dirt and oil from external sources, such as dust, and internally produced oil from your skin's sebaceous glands. Skin that is damaged or aging is slower to shed dead skin cells naturally, so an exfoliating home treatment may be employed to aid the process.
Significance
The oily sebum keeps skin pliable and soft. Removing excess sebum clears your pores, but it can also dry your skin. Therefore, a moisturizer is needed to rehydrate your skin. Moisturizing lotion is the product most often prescribed by dermatologists for people with skin conditions, such as eczema. Sun damage, also called photo aging, destroys collagen and elastin, the elements that support skin texture and tone. Sunscreen repels ultraviolet (UV) rays that damage skin tissue over time.
Prevention
Avoid damage to healthy skin with sun-safe practices. The AAD recommends using sunscreen with a sun protection factor (SPF) of 30 or higher on all exposed areas of your body every day. Some cosmetics and moisturizers have sunblock built in, but SPF values vary. Diligent home treatment for sun exposure can prevent extreme wrinkling, age spots and skin cancer.
Member Comments