The skin is the largest organ in the human body, a conveyer of messages regarding our health, and the first impression we give to most people. For this reason, keeping our skin clear tends to be an important task in our day-to-day life. It helps us feel more confident, affects how people perceive us, and can actually help us be healthy in more ways than simply appearance. While there are a lot of factors that go into how our skin behaves, we are going to outline a few tips for achieving clear skin this year.
1. Cleanliness Leads to Clarity
If you want clear skin, your first step is ensuring that you have clean skin. First and foremost, you need to be washing your face when you wake up, and before you go to sleep, as well as after any heavy physical activity that may cause excessive sweating.
This, however, is only the tip of the iceberg. Keeping clean skin goes beyond just the aspect of washing, and relies largely on how you wash your face. Likely the best surface you can use to wash your face is your hands—so long as you have clean hands. Washcloths and rags can get dirty, and may actually introduce more bacteria to your skin as you wash. Additionally, fibers can irritate your skin and cause inflammation, which can keep your skin from being clear.
Next, you want to avoid traditional soaps for cleaning sensitive areas, such as your face. Many soaps can significantly dry out your skin, which can lead to red and cracked areas, which welcome the introduction of bacterias. Use dermatologist approved products, or diluted natural soaps that exfoliate your skin without drying it out or being too harsh.
Following these cleanses with a moisturizer can help ensure that your cleaning procedure does not damage your skin.
2. Diet
Our skin is a message board to our bodily health. It typically tells us when we are inflamed, irritated, or even ill. Because of this, diet has a huge effect on the health and clarity of our skin.
The first step to ensuring that your diet is helping your skin health is to make sure that you don’t have any dietary sensitivities that are hurting your skin. For instance, many people with a gluten intolerance have reactions such as hives, or acne breakouts from gluten consumption. A diet that is heavy in saturated fats, trans fats, and sugars may lead to clogged and oily pores that produce acne and irritation. There are plenty of other sensitivities that cause skin reactions, so make sure that you avoid any of these in your diet.
While your diet can hurt your skin, it can also help it. Certain foods help our skin better heal, help to produce new skin cells, and lead to overall healthier skin. Most fish, for instance, are fantastic for skin health.
If you cannot shift all of your meals for your skin health, you can also consider taking vitamins for clear skin. A fish oil or Omega-3 supplement, for instance, is a great way to help your skin clear up, and skin health improve.
3. Stay Hydrated
Dehydration can actually be one of the greatest enemies to clear and health skin. It leads our skin to get dry and crack more easily, and it hurts our overall health. When our skin is dry and cracked, bacteria is able to grow within our skin, or our skin becomes inflamed due to severe dryness. All of this can cause breakouts such as hives, acne, or even sores.
While this should be a part of your lifestyle regardless of your skin health, make sure that you are staying hydrated.
4. Climate
Depending on what type of climate you live in, your skin health may vary. Dry climates like the Rocky Mountain region have particularly dry seasons where humidity levels drop below 10%. These climates can be hard on the skin, and can lead to seasonal breakouts. If you live in a climate like this, ensure that you are regularly moisturizing and paying attention to how your skin is reacting to the world around you.
If you are in a high-humidity climate, remember that your sweat is being sealed into your skin more easily, and thus washing your skin becomes all the more important.
Lastly, your local climate is just as crucial. Ensure that where you live is prepared for skin health. Keeping clean bedsheets, and having a humidified space can help you avoid breakouts and allow your skin to heal for longterm clarity and health.
While everyone’s skin is different, if you follow these four pieces of advice, you will quickly find that your skin not only begins to heal and clear, but is far more prone to stay that way.
