Will My Skin Type Change?
| Another problem with skin typing is
the assumption that your skin (and skin type) will be the same forever, or
at least until you age. That, too, is rarely the case. If your skin-care
routine focuses on skin type alone, it can become obsolete the moment the
season changes, your work life becomes stressful, or your body experiences
hormonal or weight fluctuations or other physical changes, and whatever
else life may bring. To complicate things even more, in any given period you may have many skin types! Over the years, even when using gentle, irritant-free products, I’ve experienced irritated skin patches at the same time I had oily skin, or acne flare-ups along with dry skin around my eyes. It is not unusual for women to have a little bit of each skin type simultaneously or at different times of the month or week. An overview of how your skin behaves and changes is necessary to assess what your skin needs. As far as the cosmetics industry is concerned, every woman can and should have normal skin. Yet acquiring normal skin is like trying to scale a peak with a slippery, precarious slope. Like the rest of our bodies, skin is in a constant state of change. Even women with perfect complexions go through phases of having oily, dry, or blemish-prone skin. In reality, no one is likely to have normal skin for very long, no matter what she does. Chasing after normal skin can set you up on an endless skin-care buying spree, running around in circles trying everything and finding nothing that works for very long. In any case, identifying skin type is highly subjective. Many women have really wonderful skin but refuse to accept it. The smallest blemish or wrinkle or the slightest amount of dry skin distresses them. Or some women see a line or two around their eyes and immediately buy the most expensive anti-wrinkle creams they can find in the hope of warding off their worst imagined nightmare. This is one of those times where being realistic is the most important part of your skin-care routine. Identifying your skin type is made even more difficult by the omnipresent combination skin. Almost everyone at some time or another, if not all the time, has combination skin. The nose, chin, center of the forehead, and the center of the cheek all have more oil glands than other parts of the face. It is not surprising that those areas tend to be oilier and break out more frequently than other areas. Problems occur when you buy extra products for combination skin because many ingredients that are appropriate for the T-zone (the area along the center of the forehead and down the nose where most of the oil glands on the face are located) won’t help the cheek or jaw areas. You may need separate products to deal with the different skin types on your face because you should treat different skin types, even on the same face, differently. The most frustrating aspect of skin type is the fact that it’s often used (by cosmetics salespeople and by the cosmetics industry in its ads) to instill a sense of immediate need. Once your skin is classified as a type that isn’t normal, or if it stops being normal, then panic can set in. Cosmetics salespeople aim this ploy at the 30-something crowd, with the pitch sounding something like “You better do what you can do now to make sure your skin doesn’t get worse.” I’ve listened to or been personally subjected to a salesperson’s scolding about skin-care mistakes that destroy the skin. What destroys skin is unprotected sun exposure, smoking, and using irritating skin-care products. Not using the right skin-care products (other than a good sunscreen) may cause problems, but it does not damage skin in the long run. Determining your skin type will not lead to answers to other skin care needs that may not be apparent on the skin’s surface. For example, sun damage is not evident when you are young, but sun protection is imperative for all skin types. Oily and dry skin that are present at the same time, along with some redness, may be an early sign of rosacea, a condition that cannot be treated with cosmetics and may not be easily diagnosed. Your skin may be breaking out now, but those blemishes took a few weeks to get to the surface. Breakouts begin in the pores, and may involve sebum (oil), cellular debris (dead skin cells), dead hair shafts, and/or bacteria. What you see on the surface of the skin does not always indicate the type of skin-care products you should buy, or even that you need a skin-care product at all.
|
Page Copy-Right 2005-2015
Osteoarthritis, Joint Pain & Arthritis Relief
Arthritis.realage.com offers
valuable information regarding
osteoarthritis, joint pain, and medically
proven steps for arthritis relief.