Habits to Adopt to Prevent Damage to Your Skin

If you’re like most people, you want your skin to look healthy, glowing, and blemish-free. But do you know which habits you should adopt to prevent skin damage?

Here, to put you on the right path to undamaged skin is oculofacial and cosmetic plastic surgeon Dr. Dustin Heringer of Arizona Ocular & Facial Plastic Surgery in Scottsdale, Peoria, and Phoenix, Arizona. He not only has a number of highly effective tips to prevent damage, but he also has treatments to rejuvenate your skin if damage occurs. Here’s the scoop.

Habits that prevent damage to your skin

Use the following habits to prevent damaging your skin.

Wash your face — but not too much

Washing your face — and all of your skin — is an important part of keeping it clear and healthy. But washing more than twice a day will leave it irritated and inflamed, not smooth and radiant. Washing it too much, though, can also strip it of its nourishing oils and make it more vulnerable to things like UV rays and pollutants. The same is true for exfoliating. Use a gentle cleanser and warm water for best results.

Use sunscreen

Yes, getting some sun is healthy — the sun even helps our bodies make vitamin D. But its UV rays are damaging, all year round and to every skin tone. If you repeatedly go out without using sunscreen, your skin will develop signs of aging, such as fine lines, wrinkles, sun spots, and sagging, much earlier than normal. It even raises your risk of developing skin cancer. Using a broad-spectrum sunscreen with SPF 30 or more every day helps prevent skin damage.

Take off makeup before bed

Your skin attracts dirt, pollutants, and oil throughout the day, and if you wear makeup, that just adds another layer of grime. If you don’t remove the makeup before you go to bed, it may lead to skin irritation, clogged pores, and breakouts, and it can turn a healthy glow into a dull-looking surface. Make sure you clean off all the accumulated gunk before you go to sleep to keep your skin looking clean and blemish-free.

Clean your phone

What does your phone have to do with your skin? More than you’d think. Cellphones are a ready-made breeding ground for bacteria, and that can lead to oil and pimples on the side of your face, around your chin, and on your jawline. Make sure to regularly use an antibacterial wipe to clean the screen off.

Get a good night’s sleep every night

Sleep is important for many things, from forming new memories to helping repair cellular damage, and that includes your skin. If you skimp on sleep, your skin turns dull-looking, you develop under-the-eye bags and circles, and you’re more prone to the signs of aging. Look to get 7-9 hours of good-quality sleep every night.

Don’t smoke

Smoking is bad for all aspects of your health, and that includes the appearance of your skin. It causes a sallow, dry complexion that can’t be improved with moisturizing and a regular skin care routine. It also damages the collagen and elastin that give your skin its strength and resilience, resulting in the acceleration of the visible signs of aging. In addition, nicotine narrows the blood vessels in the skin’s outermost areas, impairing the blood flow that brings oxygen and nutrients to the tissue and leading to accelerated signs of aging.

Keep your yearly skin check

While it’s important to monitor your skin from head to toe every month, paying particular attention to irregular-looking lesions, or moles that are new or increasing in size, nothing beats a professional checkup. Your doctor has special tools to magnify areas of your skin that may not be as normal as you thought, and they can get a look at hard-to-see areas, like your scalp and behind your ears. When caught early, skin cancer is treatable.

Treating damaged skin

If you do develop skin damage, whether it’s premature signs of aging, irregular moles or lesions, or acne and acne scars, Dr. Heringer provides a variety of treatments that can refresh and tighten your skin as well as remove blemishes. Treatments include CO2 fractional laser resurfacing, chemical peels, and microdermabrasion, among others. You can discuss which treatment is best for your particular concerns when you come in for your consultation.

If you have damaged skin, it’s time to come into Arizona Ocular & Facial Plastic Surgery for an evaluation and treatment. Give us a call at any of our locations, or book your consultation online with us today.