Few Manifestation of Skin Dryness and Remedial Treatment

Skin care regimen or skin care routines help to get the best treatment for a sensitive skin. There are some factors which generally decrease oil layer of your skin and increase dry skin problems. We illustrate here these factors precisely and recommend some useful skin care tips to protect it from dryness.

Sensitive skin needs special care and treatment from dryness. (Photo by Lenka Fortelna)

Familial and Genetically Determined Dry Skin

Dry skin may be found in families as a genetic factor. Usually people face problems of skin dryness and also get worse when exposed to adverse weather conditions round the year. If you or your family member is facing asthma or nasal allergy, your skin is apparent more sensitive and dry.

Newborn Baby Dry Skin

Newborn Baby's Skin Dryness. (Photo by Nadine Doerlé)

In most newborn babies, oil producing glands are so embryonic that they can’t produce enough oil as per body requirement. As a result, thick scales and crusts appear on scalp and red patches or rashes on baby’s face or body.

Best Tip. Apply regular and frequent oiling (massage) on scalp or skin of baby till endogenous oil production develops with increasing age to optimum level at puberty. This is a best solution for infant’s dry skin.

Aging Skin Dryness

Old aged persons also face skin dryness. It is observed that oil production in skin decreases during old age. A survey revealed that skin of women gets dry earlier than men. Normally, significant dryness is observed around 60 years of age.

Best Tip. Anti-aging supplements be used to protect aging-skin dryness.

Cold Weather Rash

Harsh weather conditions such as cold, dry and windy weather during winters also exacerbate our sensitive skin. The rashes on skin due to cold weather let symptoms mostly on face. Similarly, direct air from heaters or air conditioners also effect sensitive skin. The heat in rooms absorbs moisture from air and causes loss of water from our skin. Some people face skin dryness in winters and some face in summers. Sitting in front of sun for prolonged hours also cause skin dryness.

Best Tip. To avoid these circumstances, room temperature must be kept between 68^oF to 75^oF and humidity level must be maintained between 40 – 50% by using artificial humidifier.

Dry Itchy Skin on Vulnerable Parts of Body

Dry itchy skin found on some most vulnerable parts of your body like hands, feet, legs and arms is apparently due to less oily. As skin of these parts has lowest amount of oil and used repeatedly for washing and also effects badly due to adverse weather conditions.

Best Tip. Use additional amount of moisturizers frequently on body parts with dry skin.

Hot Water Shower

Frequent showering or bathing, when your showers are hot and you take bath long, it breaks down the oil barriers in your skin. So taking bath for more than 10 minutes washes away natural oil from your skin and it badly affects sensitive tissues of your skin.

Best Tip. Always take a bath with Luke warm water for 5 – 10 minutes and never for more than 15 minutes. However, taking bath with cold water especially in winters is not harmful at all. Frequent swimming exercises in chlorinated pools is the best and suitable to keep your skin smart and oily.

Itch Scratch and Rubbing

Scratching or rubbing body parts repeatedly results into never ending itch scratch cycles most of the times at subconscious level. The parts being scratched continuously becomes rough, thick or sometimes it may bleed. These issues may happen on easily accessible parts of body like legs, hands, arms and neck etc.

Best Tip. Apply anti-allergic lotions or oiling on effected parts of your body after seeking advice from your physician.

Much Advertised Antibacterial and Antiseptic Soaps

Today, there are much more antiseptic soaps, antibacterial soaps, and anti-germs soaps being advertised and used in our daily life which are mostly damaging our skin. These soaps should not be used until prescribed by Skin Specialist. In routine life, don’t use Dettol soap, Lifebuoy and Safeguard frequently on a sensitive skin until recommended by the physician. In fact, normal skin does not required any antiseptic or antibacterial soap.

Similarly, perfumed soaps and the soaps having Lauryl Sulphate are also harmful to a normal skin. Likewise, harsh detergents used for washing clothes such as washing powders and surf are much harmful to sensitive skin. Contact of such agents with hands, especially in house-wives, results in dryness, itching, chapping and cracking of skin on hands. After washing clothes with harsh detergents, the cuticle of nails gets damaged and harsh chemicals of these detergents get trapped under the nail fold causing pain and swelling of the nail folds. Once the cuticle is damaged, it will take months to recover.

Best Tip. Don’t use perfumed or antiseptic soaps frequently on normal skin until recommended by the physician. Use special gloves on your hands while washing clothes or contacting directly with harsh detergents.