Healthy skin that glows from the inside out requires two essential components in a unique balance. To be truly healthy, your skin requires a healthy balance of oil and water, two things we typically think of as being counterproductive. Natural oils within your skin keep it hydrated and protected from the outside elements. Water keeps your skin from becoming overly dry and showing signs of aging faster. While many people think that dry and dehydrated skin are the same condition, this is not the case. They’re two entirely separate issues with different causes and different solutions. Let’s look a little deeper into what happens with each of these conditions.
What is Dry Skin?
When we classify skin into various types, we tend to use the classifications of dry, oily, or combination skin. Dry skin is simply a variation of skin types indicating that the skin is lacking essential lipids that keep it hydrated and protected. Dry skin doesn’t necessarily lack water, but it does lack natural oils that typically are present in order to protect the skin and keep it supple. To further complicate the matter, it is possible for dry skin to also be dehydrated at the same time, but the two conditions are not one and the same. Think of dry skin as a skin type in which the protective layer of natural oils that typically exist has been reduced or is absent, resulting in skin that is uncomfortably tight and shows signs of aging easily.
What is Dehydrated Skin?
Dehydrated skin, on the other hand, is not a skin type. Rather it is a temporary skin situation, much like when an individual becomes dehydrated overall due to a lack of fluid intake. Simply put, dehydrated skin is not lacking oil. So it can totally be fixed, yay! Dehydrated skin is lacking water, both from the inside and the outside. If you don’t consume adequate amounts of water or you engage in activities that make you sweat a great deal, you can develop dehydrated skin. This usually results in skin that feels tight, lacks radiance, and is missing the suppleness that accompanies hydrated skin.
Correcting Dry or Dehydrated Skin
Once you determine what problem you are dealing with, you can learn specific ways to address and correct the issue. Dehydrated skin can usually be corrected from the inside out. Simply drinking an adequate amount of water consistently will usually address the issue within a relatively short period of time.
Since dry skin is a specific skin type, it tends to be an ongoing issue that needs to be tackled in a different manner. For example, using the wrong skin care line for your skin type can make dry skin worse or lead to further problems. Correcting any issues with your skin care routine can drastically influence the condition of your skin overall and help to correct existing dryness. Replacing missing lipids with similar natural oils found in high-quality skin care products can alleviate much of the discomfort associated with dry skin and bring it back into a healthy balance once again.
