Skin Care Basics:
If you have not noticed, more and more skin care products are being promoted over the literal and virtual markets that are supposed to enhance “natural” skin glow and health.
However, no one is giving much importance to the fact that in order for skin to acquire that so called “natural” state, the person’s skin must be healthy and undamaged in the first place. Undamaged skin means that the epidermis or the outermost layer of the skin remains pretty much intact. This is its most natural state. Unfortunately for many of us, undamaged skin is almost a rarity because we tend to harm our skin by thinking that the products we use or the skin care methods we are routinely performing are helpful (when they are really not.)
Skin conditions vary greatly between individuals. However, one of the leading causes of skin aging is actually due the effects caused (or propelled) by our harmful everyday routine that damages our skin. We sometimes do enough damage, that even with all our best efforts to take care of our skin, we still show all the signs of skin aging such as wrinkles, large pores, dryness, acne breakouts and sagging skin. Here are some truths about how we actually damage our skin and possible ways of avoiding these situations.
1. Keeping our skin in constant contact with harmful detergents. These detergents can be found almost everywhere – at home, at the office or even just walking down the street. The cleaning solutions we use or are being used by the people around us contain enough ionic detergents such as ammonium laureth sulfate, ammonium lauryl sulfate, sodium laureth sulfate (SLS,) and sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) to cause epidermal damage. It would be best to steer clear from these cleaning solutions or at the very least, protect your skin against them by wearing gloves or staying out of range where people are using these said products. Even window glass cleaning solutions contain these, and may become airborne if the application is used via a squeeze spray.
It would also be prudent to check the shampoo and skin care products you are currently using if these contain the aforementioned chemicals. If they do, then you need to immediately switch non-ionic products like glycerin based soap and non-irritating baby shampoo.
2. Steaming hot water baths and showers may seem like a wonderful way of “refreshing” yourself after a long hard day. However, this is one of the leading causes of epidermal damage at home. “Why so?” you ask. It’s really the combination of chlorine in tap water and the high temperature. Chlorine, as you know, is an oxidative agent that helps clear the waters of bacteria. Unfortunately, the higher the temperature of chlorine laced tap water, the greater the damage it causes the skin because the chemical reaction of the chemical also rises in potency.
