3 Dry Skin Myths Debunked

As someone who has had significantly dry skin on both my face and body ever since I was born, I have definitely heard a lot of common misconceptions about dry skin and how to take proper care of it in my life time. This week, I thought I'd bring to you some of the widest spread myths and share a bit about why they are misleading.

MYTH: You're Not Drinking Enough Water: While drinking enough water is both very important for the skin and something that most everyone struggles with, drinking extra water is the cure-all to dry skin. Dry skin is actually caused by a deficient amount of oil being produced by the sebaceous glands or a thin or sensitized epidermis that does not have a strong lipid barrier to help it retain moisture and guard against environmental exposure. It has nothing to do with how much water you have taken into your body. That said, it is very common for dry-skinned people to also have dehydrated skin or skin that is lacking in water. But dehydration is a skin condition that can affect any skin type at any particular time. Dry skin is a skin type that is largely genetically-based that you will have chronically, especially if not treating it with the right products to protect your delicate skin barrier and to feed it the oil it needs. To test whether you have dry skin or skin that maybe just simply dehydrated, if your skin just looks a bit dull or gray or is lacking in radiance, you likely have skin that is dehydrated. If your skin constantly feels rough or tight and is often red, splotchy-looking, and flaky, you probably have a dry skin type.

MYTH: It Is Impossible For You To Get Acne: Though it is the most commonly thought of cause for acne, the occurrence of acne does not always have to do with having excessive oil production within the skin. When we break out, it is easy to believe, especially if we have thought ourselves to have dry skin that we must be wrong or that we have overmoisturized our skin and caused it to become too oily and are breaking out as a result. Yet, this is rarely ever the case, and the skin is still in as much need of extra oil as it ever was and trying to strip more oil to clear the acne will only make the skin drier and prone to breaking out even more. Acne in large part has much more to do with inflammation within the skin rather than oiliness, and since dry skin in particular is prone to being more sensitive and stressed than other skin types, inflammation is a common side effect of that and potentially leaves the skin likelier to break out.

MYTH: You Should Exfoliate A Lot and Often To Keep the Flakes At Bay: Exfoliation assists the skin in a lot of ways by helping bring new, healthy, vibrant skin to the surface and working through the older, duller, and flakier skin that's on top. But removing that outermost layer too often and too aggressively only further breaks apart the skin's lipid barrier and, therefore, hinders its ability to protect itself and keep any amount of moisture it has locked in. Removing the flakes with a strong scrub day after day may seem like a great idea to eradicate them for good, but doing it too frequently might cause much more damage in the long-term. Slower, more gentle, less frequent, but consistent exfoliation is best, no matter what method you may choose. For more on the easiest and most effective way to exfoliate that I've found, especially for people with very dry and sensitive skin, check out my article here.

Having dry skin is, in many cases, not any easy thing to manage and can sometimes be quite painful and seem quite unsolvable. But as with anything, being armed with the right information and armored against the misleading are critical first steps in learning how to address our skin's individual needs. But no matter what your skin type, always remember to be gentle with it, not too overload it with too many products too quickly, and always be listening to what it is trying to tell you, even in spite of all the rumors out there.