Dry Skin 101: Everything You Need to Know

Dry skin can be frustrating and painful to deal with. It can also make you feel self-conscious. But know that dry skin happens to almost everyone at some point or another. While some people may be more prone to having dry skin, luckily there are several solutions to help replenish your skin so it can look healthy and glowing.

What is
Dry Skin?

Dry skin occurs when skin loses moisture. This can be caused by both internal and external factors, like allergies, irritants, skin conditions, products, and more.

Discovering your best skin starts with knowing your skin type.

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Signs you have dry skin

In most cases, dry skin is pretty easy to spot or feels different. Here are a few ways dry skin may show up.

  • Flaky skin
  • Cracking
  • Peeling
  • Scales
  • Ashy look on darker skin tones
  • Itchiness
  • Tightness
  • Rough feel or look to skin

Why is your skin dry?

The difficult thing about dry skin is that there usually isn’t just one clear cause — it’s often a combination of things. Here are a few of the reasons why your skin could be dry.

  • Harsh Cleaning

    In many cases, it comes down to cleaning. Using harsh products on your skin, whether you’re washing your hands or taking a shower, strips your skin of its natural oils, leaving your skin vulnerable. Additionally, if you take long showers with really hot water, you’re more likely to irritate your skin.

  • Medical Treatments

    Unfortunately, a lot of medications have side effects — including drying out your skin. Major treatments like dialysis also pull water from your body and chemotherapy treatments aggressively target cancer in the body, leading to drier skin.

  • Weather/Climate

    If you live in a desert or at high altitudes, your skin will dry out a lot faster from sun exposure or lack of humidity. You also may notice that during the winter, your skin gets dry quickly, especially on more exposed areas like your hands or face. This is because when temperatures drop, there’s less moisture in the air.

  • Vitamin/Mineral Deficiency

    When your body lacks certain vitamins or minerals, your skin will often show it. Here are some of the nutrients your body may be lacking: vitamin A, vitamin B, vitamin D, zinc, and iron.

  • Age

    Getting older has its perks and downsides — one of those downsides being that skin isn’t as resilient as it once was. Maintaining healthy skin requires a bit more work because your body creates less oils.

How to Treat
Dry Skin on Face

This is one of the most obvious, and more vulnerable, places that dry skin shows up. But don’t worry — we’re here to help you out. How you treat dry skin depends on the severity, so here are a few tips for each stage of dry skin.

Slightly Dry Skin

If your skin is flaky without being painful or scaly, you may benefit from exfoliating once a week. This will help remove the top layer of dead skin cells, helping hydrating products sink into your skin more.

Moderately Dry Skin

If your skin is so dry that it’s starting to crack, you’ll want to be gentle with it. Instead of exfoliating, focus primarily on moisturizing with quality products. Not everything you find in the grocery store will be beneficial to your skin’s health. You’ll want to look for products with ingredients that will lock in the moisture your skin desperately needs.

Extremely Dry Skin

If you have dry, red skin on your face or it’s itchy all the time, you may be dealing with something more serious. See a dermatologist.

Best Products to Treat Dry Skin

A gentle, hydrating cleanser. A lot of cleansers will leave your skin more dry than before. Oil-based cleansers are a great choice, but anything creamy and non-abrasive will most likely be beneficial. As the American Academy of Dermatologists suggests, avoid any cleansers with alcohol.

A product with hyaluronic acid, like our Anti-Aging Serum. It’s made with Argan stem cells that keep your skin hydrated, firm, and youthful (goodbye, wrinkles).

A moisturizer with ceramides or colloidal oatmeal. It should also be free of dioxane or petroleum.

Best routine for best results

If you want to banish dry skin from your face, try out this ritual (works for slightly to moderately dry skin).

Daily

Start with a cleanser of your choice. Remember, gentle and hydrating is key.

Follow up with hyaluronic acid.

Lock in the product by adding a moisturizer. For best results, use a device that uses ultrasonic waves to push the product further into the skin (like our JenuPlus).

Apply sunscreen with at least SPF 15.

Don’t forget to protect and moisturize those lips too.

Weekly

Use an exfoliator. This can either be scrub or a med-spa quality microdermabrasion device. The benefit of using microdermabrasion tools is that they remove the top layer of skin so that moisturizers and other products don’t just sit on the surface of your skin.

How to Treat
Dry Skin on Body

If you’re dealing with dry skin in other areas — like your hands, legs, or feet — there are a few ways you can help keep skin healthy.

Avoid Scratching

We know, we know… easier said than done. But scratching those itches will only damage your skin more.

Use a humidifier

If you live in a dry climate or are currently in the winter season, use a humidifier and set it to 60% to replenish your skin.

Avoid fragrances

Use fragrance-free cleansers when showering. Additionally, toss those fragrant laundry products, since they’re often the culprit for dry skin conditions like eczema or contact dermatitis.

Use products like coconut oil, shea butter, pure aloe vera gel, or an ultra-moisturizing lotion.

Daily. When it comes to dry skin, you can’t moisturize too much. You’ll want to moisturize your face twice a day (after cleansing), but if you feel like it’s dry during the day, you can apply more moisturizer. If the skin on your body is dry, apply lotion when you wake up, before you go to bed, and immediately after showering.

When to See a Doctor

If you’ve tried everyday care and your skin isn’t responding (or is getting worse), don’t hesitate to
see a dermatologist or doctor. You may have a more serious condition, like eczema, which can be
treated with prescription creams.

References

https://www.aad.org/public/diseases/a-z/dry-skin-causes

https://www.aad.org/public/everyday-care/skin-care-basics/care/face-washing-101

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/324935#moisturize

https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/9-ways-to-banish-dry-skin

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/contact-dermatitis/symptoms-causes/syc-20352742