Skin Care - Skin Problems and Treatments

We begin life with the soft, smooth, beauty silky skin of a baby but how many of us can vouch for a finely textured skin by the time we reach 30? Most of us take the skin the largest organ in the body, covering it from head to toe very much for granted. But the skin like any other bodily organ can be abused, overworked and fatigued. It deteriorates as we grow older.

Antiaging skin care is more popular among people. The most important tip of beauty skin care is, how you clean it and how you keep it in condition with exercise and the proper food and drink determines the front you present to the world. This, and other aspects of skin care, applies as much to men as it does to women. You cannot alter your basic skin type or coloring but a daily routine carried out when you wake up in the morning and before you go to bed at night will keep your skin healthy and clear. The basic difference between the average person's looks and those of a much admired photographic model lies not so much in appearance but in the way the two care for their skin.

A model's beauty skin programme is not necessarily time consuming, the most important thing about it is that it is never sporadic or neglected. You can cleanse, stimulate and nourish your skin in just a little longer than it takes to clean your teeth. Try it, time it and see for yourself. High quality cosmetic skin care products are available in the market. Before you start remembers that cleansing helps to clear the skin. Most cleansing routines are either short lived, neglected or performed with the wrong equipment. Keep face cloths clean and soft or better still use a soft baby brush on your face.

Always use good quality mild soaps on the skin. Start a program of washing your skin thoroughly with soap and water to rid it of the dirt and grime it collects from the atmosphere. For a woman this daily routine removes traces of old make up which clog the pores and keep them from "breathing." Use soft circular motions of the fingertips working soap or creams upwards rather than in a downward gravitational direction. Can the numerous cosmetic and cleansing agents for skin care on the market help your skin? The answer is yes, but only if they are chosen knowledgeably and not willingly after the recommendation of a friend. To be effective they must be used regularly. Examine your skin in a mirror and decide which type of skin you have. If you have oily skin with a shiny surface and a tendency to open pores then washing with soap and water should be followed by a light tonic cleanser and then astringent to close the pores.

Light creams can be used to nourish and moisturize an oily skin. Dry skin which is papery, taut and stretched to the touch with a tendency to flakiness should be washed with a cleansing cream or special lotion in place of soap and water. Freshener which is less harsh than an astringent is more suited to a dry skin, this can be followed by a good rich skin food. If you have a combination of oily and dry skin treats each area separately with the routine applicable to each skin type. The oily panel usually runs down the centre of the face with the cheeks being dry or normal. For effective skin care, mild soap is preferred. Mild soaps that are not perfumed should be used on sensitive skins, gentle skin tonics and water can be used for toning followed by a rich cream to nourish the skin. There are many special cleansing products especially prepared, for sensitive and allergy prone skins but use them on the advice of a trained beauty skin care adviser.

Ageing skin should be cleansed with cleansing cream rather than with soap and water followed by a tonic lotion and generously nourished with creams to restore the secretions lost as the body functions begin to slow down. The human skin needs moisture to prevent the formation of excess lines and wrinkles. Moisturizing creams really can help the tissues draw natural moisture from the body and from the air. It is all the more important if you want to keep a youthful skin to stay out of harsh sunlight. No matter how glamorous the appeal of a deep tan may be it dries the skin's normal oils and can prematurely age the skin. Extend the skin care you take on your face to the rest of the body. Soften bathing water with oils and bath salts according to your skin type. Try to keep bathrooms warm, for moisture encourages the pores to open. You can stimulate and tone skin by massaging your body from toes to chin with a soapy lather. Use a body brush to break down the more fleshy skin tissue of the body. A loofah and pumice stone help to soften hard skin often found on feet, knees and elbows. Like the skin on other parts of the body the face needs exercise too.

The best skin care of the face supple and prevent flabbiness and sagging is with daily facial skin care exercises which encourage mobility and lessen frown lines and wrinkles. Once lines and wrinkles appear, and they can start in your twenties, they cannot be undone or wished away. But by exercising and learning to relax the muscles you can do much to lessen their effect. Treating the skin, is like any other treatment only second best to prevention. If you understand how your skin is made and how it does its various jobs, skin care becomes at once more logical and more readily undertaken. It will enable you all the better to make active use of your skin, in relating more positively to the world around you and in communicating with your fellow human beings. For the skin is a paradox. It is both a barrier surrounding and protecting your body and a means of contact with your environment.

One of its prime jobs is to regulate body temperature by reducing or increasing loss of body heat from its surface. Another is to prevent agents, such as germs and poisons from invading vulnerable bodily tissue, just as important is its task of preventing the loss of vital body fluids. Yet at the same time as it forms a near waterproof physical barrier, it is an active organ of excretion, helping to rid the body of wastes in the form of sweat. Perhaps the most paradoxical fact of all, though, is that the outermost layer of this outer barrier of the body is, completely "dead." This only applies to the very outermost layer, however, which consists of flattened, horny flakes, dead cells filled with a material called keratin, which is also responsible for the hardness of nails and hair. The horny cells are constantly worn away, to be replaced from below. Dandruff consists of no more than abnormally large amounts of horny skin that have flaked off the outermost layer. The job of replacing the constantly worn horny layer is performed by the Malpighian layer. When exposing skin to rough treatment take simple beauty precautions. Use rubber gloves and protective creams and moisturizers.

The Malpighian and layers together make up the epidermis, the outer part of the entire skin. Below it lies the dermis, the really active part of the skin containing sweat and sebaceous (oil) glands, blood vessels, sensitive nerve endings, and the follicles (tiny pits) in which hairs are rooted. Below the dermis is a layer of fat. The spaces between these are filled with muscle fibers and connective tissue, which gives skin its strength and elasticity. The surface where the dermis and epidermis meet is corrugated. This corrugation is apparent on the outer surface of the skin where it can be seen as fingerprints and other skin patterns that remain unchanged and constant for life.

The skin varies in thickness from as much as a quarter of an inch on the soles of the feet to only a fiftieth of an inch on the eyelids. The variation is mainly due to differences in the horny layer's thickness, and this depends on the treatment the skin gets. Hard wear as on the soles of the feet and the palms of the hands, especially those of manual workers results in a deep horny layer of tough, hard, rough skin. Over the soft parts of the body, where there is less abrasion, much fewer horny cells are formed, and the skin is soft and pliant. Skin softness is related to its fat and moisture content. Normally, the horny outer layer very effectively repels water, aided by the oil secretions of the sebaceous glands. Long immersion in water, particularly if it contains detergent, can however break down these barriers. Then water can seep in and make the skin swell. This simple principle is used to our advantage in the remedy of softening corns by soaking feet in hot water. But you should remember that the skin's waterproof qualities are very important in helping it resist infection, while its oily secretions, which are removed by detergent, are antiseptic.

It is the removal of natural oils, not actual lack of moisture, that makes the skin "dry". The main benefit of moisturizing creams is that they replace the natural oils that have been lost from the skin's surface. They may also contain a mild antiseptic, which will help to combat any infection that penetrates the barrier of skin, Start wearing rubber gloves when you wash dishes or a barrier cream to prevent your skin from becoming over saturated with water and losing its oils. Loose cotton gloves can be used for dusting and polishing. Manual workers, too, should take precautions, for the harsh hand cleansers that remove grease and grime also take away the hands' natural secretions. Whatever the adverts for washing up liquid say, no detergent ever actually improved your skin!

The sun, too, can damage the skin. Even though a tan may look attractive. Individuals acquire tans at a different rate. Until a deep protective tan has formed, strong sunlight can cause severe injury, and this is why one should, at first, sunbathe only for short periods. A good quality suntan oil or cream screens the most harmful rays, but it needs to be applied thickly to be effective. "Instant" tanning preparations merely stain the skin and do not tan it. Other creams should be used as well. However healthy and well you feel with a golden suntan, the sun on your skin does you little actual physical good. However, sunlight, particularly ultraviolet rays, kills bacteria on the skin; this is the basis of ultra violet therapy used for cases of severe acne.

A hot sun causes perspiration even more rapidly than tanning. Your whole skin has about three million sweat glands, forming tiny coiled tubes in the dermis that lead up to the surface. The glands are closest together on the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet. A special kind called apocrine glands are found in the armpits and crotch, and also in the outer part of the ear. Sweating is a continuous, normal process. In cool weather you hardly notice it because little sweat is produced. But in hot conditions, large amounts are poured onto the skin. When this evaporates, it cools the skin; thus sweating is a means of regulating body temperature. This can only be effective if the sweat is actually able to evaporate, it helps therefore, to wear loose light clothing for comfort in hot weather.

Apocrine sweat is fatty, and when bacteria that live on the skin get to work and decompose the fatty material, the result is body odor. There are various ways of dealing with this. Either washing very frequently, so that stale sweat cannot collect; or using deodorant, which both masks the smell with perfume and kills the bacteria with antiseptic. An antiperspirant, which stops the glands from excessive secretion may also be used. The only problem is that by masking and cleansing away the unattractive smell of body odor you may also be interfering with natural body functions and odor messages that attract male and female.

The sebaceous glands present a special problem. Special skin care techniques should be used to treat this problem. Most of these open into hair follicles, and since they produce a semisolid secretion called sebum rather than a liquid, they can easily become blocked. The result is a blackhead. If, as a result of the blockage, the hair follicle should become infected by germs that cannot escape, a pimple or boll may result. Acne is common in adolescence because the sex hormones, which are first produced by the body in large quantities at this time, boost the activity of sebaceous glands, and these almost inevitably become blocked. The best prevention is frequent washing with plenty of hot water and soap. For more details about this distressing problem see overleaf. Hairs greatly increase the sensitivity of the skin to touch. The slightest movement triggers nerve fibers surrounding their roots to send messages to the brain. The whole sense of touch is extremely complex. It is made up of many separate but closely linked senses, including heat, cold, sharp pain, dull pain and pressure, as well as straight forward touch. It is so complex that biologists have still not sorted out how it all operates. It is just one more aspect of the paradox of the skin that the sensation of touch that attract two people to each other should be so closely allied to the sense of pain that warns of an attack on the body's outer defensive barrier.

Best Skin Care

Of the antioxidant nutrients, Vitamin E is particularly beneficial in beauty skin care and anti aging skin care. Since Vitamin E is one of the main ingredient of most skin care products, some of the dermatologist prescribes it. Pick up a 'natural' skin care preparation and you find that Vitamin E will often be included in the formulation. It is due to the moisturizing properties of Vitamin E. Applied directly to the skins in the form of creams, lotions and oils, it water loss and maintain this skin's elasticity. It penetrates easily to the deeper skin layer, protecting nerve tissue, collagen, glands and blood vessels used in preparation in concentrations of up to 20%,it is non-irritating and non-allergenic even to the most sensitive skins. Vitamin E is also found to be effective in healing the skin as well as keeping it looking good.