Your skin is a really important part of your body. Not only is it the body’s largest organ, but it is also your boundary with the world, and as such it’s something that you need to make sure you are really looking after as well as you can. There are a lot of things that you might want to focus on to ensure that you are doing this, and in this post, we are going to take a look through some of these in detail. As long as you have done all of the following, you should find that your skin is in a much better condition on the whole and that you are going to enjoy having healthier and fresher skin in no time.
Practice Careful Sun Protection
Arguably the single most important thing that you need to focus on is sun protection. Failing to protect your skin from the sun can have some devastating long-term effects if you are not careful or if you get unlucky, and even in the short-term, there are a lot of things that you are going to find that can go wrong from overexposure in this manner. Fortunately, it is relatively straightforward to protect your skin from the sun, as long as you make a point of thinking about it and doing what needs to be done.
The best way is to simply ensure that you are staying out of the sun as much as possible. The official advice is to stay out of the sun between the hours of eleven and three, and that is definitely going to be something to consider if you want to ensure that you are keeping your skin in good condition.
You might have a lifestyle where that is hard to achieve, however, or you might just be on holiday and you want to make the most of it, so what else can you do for good sun protection? An obvious solution is to make use of sunscreen. In fact, good sunscreen safety is all about wearing it during all of the summer months, even if you are also avoiding the sun’s hottest hours. If you can do that, you are going to be able to get your skin to last so much longer at its very best in life.
Finally, avoid sunbeds and tanning stations completely, if you can help it. These are only begging to give you skin cancer.
Avoid Smoking
Easily one of the worst habits you can have for your skin is to smoke tobacco. If you do currently smoke, then you are probably already well aware of the health dangers of doing so, and you don’t need to be told how bad it is for you. But it is good to bear in mind what smoking can do to the skin so that you feel inspired to avoid it as much as possible in the future. So, what exactly does smoking do to the skin, and how can you start to take steps to avoid smoking in the future?
The main effect that smoking has on your skin is that it makes you look considerably older, and it adds to the appearance and number of wrinkles you have over the body. When you smoke, the blood vessels that are in the skin narrow and narrow, thus decreasing the flow of blood to the skin and making you look a lot paler. At the same time, the skin is depleted of oxygen and other nutrients that are central to good skin health.
At the same time as doing all that, smoking damages collagen and elastin, which are the fibers that normally give your skin its flexibility and elasticity, not to mention strength. Plus, the repetitive facial expressions you make when smoking contribute to wrinkles in those areas of the face. Finally, smoking increases your risk of skin cancer.
To stop smoking, you might want to try nicotine replacement therapy at first. If that doesn’t work, seeking therapy around why you smoke can help, as can going to a hypnotherapist. It’s up to you how to do it, but there is no doubt that it’s one of the best ways you can possibly start to take better care of your skin.
Be Gentle With Your Skin
A lot of people feel that they have to cleanse and scrub their skin a lot each day and that this is the way to have good skin. But that is a misnomer, and it’s actually the opposite which is more the case here. You need to try and be gentle with the skin if you want it to be in the best possible condition overall and certainly in your later life. That means putting a limit on how much you cleanse and scrub it, rather than doing it all the time.
In particular, you should try to limit how much time you spend in the bath. Hot baths are lovely and can be a great occasional de-stressor, but they are also a surefire way to remove a lot of oils from your skin. Using warm water rather than scalding hot is certainly better, as is limiting the amount of time you spend in there. Likewise, with showers, you might want to consider turning the heat down a little – there is actually plenty of evidence that cold showers are good for your overall health, so that is something to consider.
Another way you can be gentle with your skin is by taking great care of what kinds of soaps you use on the body. You should ideally try to avoid soaps that are too strong, as these can strip the oils from your skin in the same way that hot water does. You should instead opt for gentler soaps and mild cleansers – and if you combine that with cooler water, your skin is going to be grateful for the change on the whole.
Finally, you can make a point of patting your skin dry rather than vigorously toweling it, thus allowing some moisture to remain on the skin. You can then use a moisturizer to help with that process even further. Do all that, and your skin will be in a much better condition on the whole. Making sure that your skin is clean, is not only the number one target of the whole skincare process. You should always opt for products that will not harm your natural skin barrier while gently cleaning it. Pay close attention to the ingredients while choosing soap for your skin cleaning, because soaps from drugstores contain harsh cleansing ingredients that may harm your skin as they can strip your skin layers of natural oils and moisture. Instead, you can turn to organic products containing all-natural ingredients such as avocado, honey, goat milk, etc. Pure goat milk soaps, and jojoba oil soaps are moisturizing and nourish your skin while cleaning it. You will not get the feeling of dryness and stretched skin when using natural ingredients.
Eat Well
What you eat has a direct and lasting impact on the quality of your skin, so you need to make sure that you are eating well as possible. Overall, this simply means that you eat plenty of fruits and vegetables and other whole foods, you avoid processed food as much as you can, and you avoid eating too much-saturated fats. If you can do all that, you are going to be moving in the right direction. Finally, make sure that you are drinking plenty of water, as this helps to hydrate the skin and keep the moisture in it that it so desperately needs.
Keep Stress At Bay
The last thing that you should aim to do for your skin is to keep stress at bay as much as possible. Stress can negatively affect many parts of the body and of your health, and the skin is a good example of something that can suffer from stress being allowed to run riot in the system. So, do all you can to avoid stress as much as possible, and you should find that your skin is much healthier and more attractive at all times. Get plenty of sleep, don’t overwork yourself, and take the time to do things you enjoy.