Dry and oily skin

Does your skin go between dry and oily skin?  Sometimes it’s hard to figure out exactly what type of skin you have because it changes all the time.

Oily skin

Oil on your skin is natural and we actually need the oil to keep our skin from being too dry.  But, that oil can go overboard.  The oil is actually sebum but what is sebum?  This oil is made by our sebaceous glands and it’s a great moisturizer.  Our bodies and skin are amazing because they are built to work perfectly (most of the time, at least).  That’s the great thing about it.  Sebum is made up of 3 things:

• Triglycerides
• Squalene
• Fatty acids

If any of these are out of proportion, you can actually be either too dry or too oily.  It’s all about the balance.

What can you do with dry and oily skin

First and foremost, drinking water is an absolute must.  If you don’t hydrate enough, your skin can actually compensate by producing more oil.  More oil means acne.  Some people don’t like water but water is essential to our lives.  We can’t live without it.  You’re going to have to learn to like it somehow.

In addition, if you don’t drink enough water, you can become dehydrated and this can dry out your skin.  But, it happens in other ways too.  Think about when you have a breakout.  You will do anything you can in order to clear up your skin and that means using products like benzoyl peroxide.  Benzoyl peroxide dries out your skin.  If you use too much of it, your body (skin) will respond by producing more sebum to compensate and you will break out.

Other ways your skin becomes dry

In the winter, if you are running the furnace really warm, it dries the air and then our skin.  There are tips you can use for winter to help your skin.  It’s the same in the summer.  If you keep the air conditioner blasted on high, the air in the home will dry out and so will you.

What about the showers you take?  Do you take a hot, steamy shower?  You’re drying out your skin.  When you are outside, how windy is it?  You’re, again, drying out your skin by not protecting it in these conditions.  Finally, we are all getting older because we all age every day.  Unfortunately, our skin dries out the older we get.  These are all reasons you have dry and oily skin.

Luckily, if we are balanced, our skin will respond with less dryness, less oiliness and thus, less acne breakouts.