Treatment for Dry Skin | Essential Info about Dry Skin.
Dry Skin? Dry Lips? Dry Hair? Dry scalp? What’s going on?
Treatment for Dry Skin | Essential Info about Dry Skin. Essentials
Causes: Impaired water-lipid barrier function of the skin
Why it occurs: Anywhere you have skin, that’s where is can occur. Symptoms are more likely to be noticed on element exposed skin.
Where it occurs: It’s multifactorial with hormonal, stress, genetical, medication and lack of moisturization and proper daily skin care underlying reasons.
Treatment: Multiple options for symptomatic improvement - this include machine led treatments and lifestyle changes. The first thing to do is identify why symptoms are there, and repair the water-lipid barrier function of your skin.
This is one of the most commonly misdiagnosed skin conditions, mainly because the outward symptoms appear to be nothing more than parched and cracked skin. Often, there is more at play.
What is dry skin?
People consider their skin to be ‘dry’ when it’s hard, flaky, rough, dull, tight or irritated. Dry is a term people ascribe to their skin for a multitude of reasons.
Actually defining dry skin is a lot harder and most of the medical literature would point to barrier function issues as the root cause for each of the above. Many dermatologists would say that truetype dry skin is seen only in their eczema, dermatitis and psoriasis patients.
“Dry Skin” | Truetype Dry Skin |
| Flaky, dry texture, rough, dull, tight symptoms related to moisturizing factors in the skin – mainly the liper water barrier function | Medical causes |
What is the cause of skin that appears dry?
When people come to us with this concern, we first establish if it is actually dry or in fact it appears dry because the barrier function performed by their skin is somehow impaired. True dry skin will most likely have an underlying medical cause (eczema, dermatitis or psoriasis) whereas skin described by our clients as dry will more likely be down to their lifestyle or incorrect or unsuitable product use.
How can I tell if I have dry skin, or if I have a condition?
The differentiating factor between true dry skin and impaired barrier function which presents as dry, is sustained itching. If you are finding yourself scratching at your skin necessarily, and quite frequently, then there’s a good chance it’s a condition.
If your skin is not accompanied by consistent itching, then an impaired barrier function is more likely the cause.
How can I fix it?
First things first is a correct diagnosis. If your skin is dry due to a medical condition we would recommend a trip to a specialist dermatologist.
If your skin’s dry condition is due to impaired function, we can certainly help. We would recommend a skin consultation with one of our Skin Health Specialists.
Treatment | Aim | Desired Effect |
| Skin Consultation | To identify the reasons for your symptoms | To help our specialists investigate your skins condition and determine a course of action |
| Hydrafacial | Reset the skins renewal cycle | To clear the skin of debris and dead cells, hydrate and reset the skins renewal cycle. This will allow us to determine if your dryness is medical or barrier function related |
| ZO Skin Health | Barrier Repair Function | Depending on what’s required we can offer a regime that will firstly repair you lipid-water barrier function, strengthen it, and maintain it. |
| ZO Stimulator Peel | Exfoliation and maintenance | This anytime no downtime peel provides your skin with the little kick and hydrating glow it needs to fight off the symptoms of dry skin. |
How do you moisturize?
Moisturizing is important but it can come at a cost. By over moisturizing you can trick your skin into believing its cells are working better than they are and are more hydrated than they are. So on the surface of things your skin is in good condition, the natural process that regenerate your skin are not working the way they should. In time this can only lead to more serious problems.
The trick to moisturizing is to ensure you are using the correct moisturizer, and applying it in the correct amounts, at the correct intervals. Most people over or under do it.