Don't rush to exfoliate in dry and cold weather
Beijing has started the "dry and cold" mode. The cold air makes the skin dry and peels, and exfoliating skin care products are on fire again.
But, is removing these stratum corneum really "skin care"?
Wrong, the cuticle still has to be!
The skin is divided into the epidermis and the dermis. The outermost layer of the epidermis is the stratum corneum. The outer part of the stratum corneum is mainly the epidermal cells that have been keratinized and dead. Therefore, many people think that removing this layer of dead skin is considered a thorough cleansing. In fact, this method is harmful to the skin. Unprofitable.
What's more tragic is that the cuticle will become more and more oily.
In addition to the stratum corneum, the outermost layer of the skin has a lipid membrane formed by emulsifying the oil secreted by the sebaceous glands and the sweat on the skin surface.
Generally, we will temporarily wash off this layer of oil when we wash our face, but the sebaceous glands will secrete it again.
Many people may think that this layer of oil is useless except greasy, but in fact the sebum film still plays an important role.
First of all, it is moisturizing effect.
Although the lipid film cannot absorb water, it covers the face like a cling film to prevent water evaporation, reduce water loss, and achieve a moisturizing effect.
Secondly, the active ingredients in the lipid membrane, such as fatty acids, ceramides, etc., maintain the skin surface environment to be weakly acidic. At this time, various normal flora and epidermal physiological and metabolic functions are in a normal state. Destroying this environment will cause the skin to resist external erosion. decline.
Therefore, if products with strong oil removal ability are used for a long time or the cleaning is too frequent, it will destroy the epidermal lipid membrane.
In turn, the stratum corneum cells lose water, their structure becomes disordered, and their moisturizing ability continues to decrease. The stratum corneum cells with disordered structure are easily shed to form molting, especially bathing and scrubbing, and the damage to the skin stratum corneum doubles.
The process of skin repairing the stratum corneum is very slow, so emergency measures will be adopted-to make the sebaceous glands secrete more oil to replenish the lipid membrane layer. This is what we often say "the more you wash, the more oil."
The correct approach is to choose cleaning products suitable for your skin type, the water temperature during cleaning is not higher than body temperature, and to reduce excessive washing, and replenish moisturizing oil in time after washing.
Text/Zhao Dayu (Beijing Shijitan Hospital)