Dehydration

By Sarah Jefferson*

Almost everyone has some level of dehydration in their skin, and dehydration has more causes than we realise. A lot of us think we simply need to drink more water if our skin is dehydrated. However, if the skin has no way of retaining water, is heavily dehydrated or has regular exposure to harsh products or weather extremes then this simply isn’t going to be enough.

The first step with dehydration is identifying the difference between dehydrated skin and dry skin. The easiest way to describe the two is: dehydrated skin lacks water, while dry skin lacks oil. The best way to have dehydration diagnosed in your skin is to go and see a skin specialist who can help you identify your skin problems, find the cause and create a plan to treat your skin.

Dehydration can cause the skin to feel tight, and creates feathery fine lines (dehydration ridges) which become deeper and more permanent the longer they are left untreated. Causes such as harsh cleansers or an impaired barrier which cannot retain moisture can cause the skin to age prematurely, so finding out and treating the cause is so important.

Avoiding everything harmful to the skin in this day and age (from UV rays, pollution, chemicals in products and foods to extremes of temperature and changes in climates) is practically impossible, but before our skin became damaged it was able to properly rehydrate itself by creating a substance called hylauronic acid. Hylauronic acid attracts and draws moisture from the air and surrounding tissues into the skin, and can hold up to 1000x its own weight in water. As our skin declines and we create less hylauronic acid and our skin barrier weakens causing moisture loss, we need to provide the skin with replacement hylauronic acid and a replacement barrier to properly repair, rehydrate and protect.

*Sarah, who has been with us 4 years, is an experienced Therapist who's specialism is cosmeceutical skincare and in-depth skin knowledge. We're delighted she has returned after adding to her family. She is also our Instagram queen.