Dry Skin Causes, Symptoms, and How to Fix them Fast

If you’re dealing with dry skin, you want to get rid of it—and you want to get rid of it fast. But before you can fix your dry skin symptoms, you need to figure out your dry skin causes. Because the best way to treat dry skin? It completely depends on where your dry skin is coming from.

Let’s take a look at some of the leading dry skin causes, how to deal with dry skin symptoms, and how to transform your dry skin into a more calm, hydrated complexion:

Dry Skin Causes

As mentioned, before you try to figure out how to tackle your dry skin, you need to figure out what, exactly, the cause is.

There are a number of dry skin causes that could be causing your complexion to look and feel parched, including:

Dry skin type

One of the leading causes of dryness in the skin? Having a dry skin type.

Your skin type has to do with how much oil (or sebum) your skin produces. If your skin is oily, you produce too much oil; if your skin is normal, you produce a fairly ideal amount of oil; if your skin is combination, you produce oil only in certain areas of the face (typically the forehead, nose, and chin); and if your skin is dry, you don’t produce enough oil.

When your skin doesn’t produce enough oil, it can compromise the skin barrier, making skin feel more tight, sensitive, and—you guessed it—dry.

Dehydrated skin

If you find yourself sitting at home, googling "dry skin surface but oily underneath" - don't fret, you're not alone. It can be confusing when your skin feels dry and is oily at the same time, and hard to know what is causing it, or how to fix it. If your skin typically produces oil but you’re still feeling dry, your skin is likely dehydrated. Unlike dry skin types, when dryness occurs from underactive oil production, dehydrated skin occurs as a result of not enough water in the skin.

If your skin feels oily on the surface but tight, dry, or irritated underneath, you’re likely dealing with dehydrated skin.

Weather issues

Winter weather—including dropping temperatures, wind, and cold, dry air—can also cause dry complexions. In addition, indoor heaters—which many people use throughout the entire winter season—can remove moisture from the air, causing further dehydration of the skin.

How To Fix Your Dry Skin Symptoms

How you treat your dry skin symptoms is going to depend on what’s causing your dry skin.

Here are a few cause-specific ways to kick your dry skin to the curb:

If you have a dry skin type, use a face oil

If your dryness is a result of your skin not producing enough oil, you need to replenish that oil yourself. Facial oils are incredibly hydrating and nourishing—and, as a bonus, many have anti-aging benefits (so you can kill two skincare birds with one stone).

If your skin is dehydrated, use a hyaluronic acid serum

If your dryness is a result of a dehydrated complexion, you need to replenish your skin’s water supply. And the best ingredient for that?

Hyaluronic acid.

Hyaluronic acid is a humectant that binds moisture to the skin (it can bind up to 1,000 times its weight in water!). By incorporating a hyaluronic acid serum into your daily skincare routine, you’ll start drawing more water into your skin—and as your skin becomes less dehydrated, it will also feel less dry, tight, and irritated.

And A Few Dry Skin Best Practices To Keep Your Skin Hydrated And Healthy (No Matter What Culprit Is Behind Your Dryness):

Hydrate

Your skin is the largest organ in your body—and if you don’t properly hydrate your body, your skin won’t stay properly hydrated either. Studies show that high water intake has a positive impact on skin physiology, including hydration—so, if you want your skin to stay hydrated, make it a point to drink at least eight 8oz glasses of water per day.

Moisturize regularly

Drinking water hydrates your skin from the inside out—but moisturizer hydrates your skin from the outside in. Make sure to moisturize (either with an oil or a gel or cream moisturizer) at least twice per day.

Make SPF a non-negotiable

Sun damage can cause a cascade of negative changes in the skin, including a loss of moisture and oils, which can lead to dry skin. If you want to avoid dry skin, then make sure to keep your skin hydrated and healthy, make SPF a non-negotiable with a SPF moisturizer.

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