Winter air is notorious for drying out skin. The soft, smooth appearance of skin in the summer turns into red, peeling flakes that can be seen everywhere including your hands, face and feet. While you can easily cover the feet and hands, having dry skin on your face is not so easy to conceal. If you don’t want to spend the next 3-4 months dealing with these harsh effects of winter, then continue reading to learn about the benefits of exfoliating.
Systematic Exfoliation
While regular skin cleansing is helpful, exfoliating on a consistent basis can greatly enhance the results of your cleaning routine. Exfoliation removes the top layer of dead skin cells, which helps the skin rejuvenate itself quickly. Once the skin is rid of those dry, dull and unsightly cells, you will see a smoother, healthier complexion.
Some of the other benefits of exfoliation are:
Using the Right Products
The necessary starting place for exfoliating is using the right products. For instance, you are not going to want to use products designed to exfoliate your body or feet on your face. The ingredients in products for full-body exfoliation will be too damaging to the extremely sensitive facial skin. Let’s take a look at the types of exfoliants:
Physical exfoliants: Physical exfoliants are used to scrub dead skin from the body by using friction. Loofahs, wash clothes and body wash infused with scrubbing beads are the most common physical exfoliants.
Chemical exfoliants: Chemical exfoliants are found in facial and body cleansers containing mild acids (such as salicylic acid) that work to gently remove dead skin cells.
Exfoliation is for Everyone
Exfoliation can be used on all skin types. Dry, normal, oily and even sensitive skin can benefit from a mild exfoliation once or twice a week. By visiting a skin care professional, you can receive an examination and a guideline for how much exfoliation is needed for your specific needs. Pairing your normal cleansing routine with a scheduled exfoliation treatment can reduce the number of clogged pores you experience and can give your skin a refreshed and clean feeling.
At-Home Products vs. Professional Treatment
While exfoliating your skin at home can go a long way to helping your skin appear smoother and more youthful, it can’t always help with deeper skin issues. Sometimes our skin needs a more intense treatment that requires the help of a medical professional. Treatments such as microdermabrasion, enzyme treatments or a HydraFacial can get deep into the pores to cleanse and remove dead skin cells from the harder to tackle places. These treatments provide a more effective exfoliation experience than what you can receive from over-the-counter products.
There are many sites that offer products for exfoliation at home. While some of these products are fine for at-home use, there are others than can do a lot of damage to your skin if used incorrectly. For a deeper cleanse, it is important to let a professional medical esthetician do the work. Estheticians have extensive training and know how to tailor treatments to meet the needs of each individual client.
Don’t Forget the Rest of You!
Yes, you can cover up every other part of your body, but you still want to have healthy skin underneath the layers of clothing. Exfoliating your entire body is the best way to do that. You will want to provide a more intense exfoliation on the areas that get the roughest patches of dry skin, which are normally the hands, elbows, knees and feet. The rest of the body will benefit from a mild scrub before showering.
Our med-spa offers a variety of skin care treatments for the face, hands and body. We can help you to attain clear, smooth and hydrated skin throughout the entire winter season. We also offer medical-grade skin care products that help you maintain a regular routine using superb products that are personalized just for you. You can contact our office today to schedule an appointment for our med-spa, or if you need further skin evaluation, you can visit with our in-house board certified dermatologist.
You can have beautiful skin all year long by visiting the med-spa at Associated Plastic Surgeons of Kansas City.
(913) 451-3722