Things You’re Doing Wrong In Your Skincare Routine
Updated: May 31, 2021
Skincare is a topic that not many are interested in, but just a little more knowledge than the average Joe is enough for you to survive a Rudolph nose just fine.
Drying After Washing Your Face
You heard me right.
Drying your face after you wash it is a big no no, especially if you have dry or sensitive skin. Of course, this rule doesn’t apply if you have hard water where you live, or if you’re washing your face in a pond.
Drying your face after washing it dries your face out a little more, and doesn’t leave your face as nicely hydrated than if you leave the water on.
What you should be doing:
Slap it in! Patting your face encourages blood circulation to your face. Don’t pull, don’t drag, just a few gentle pats will do. Apply your moisturizer as per normal. This helps to increase the water content of your skin, and minimizes transepidermal water loss by layering on an occlusive moisturizing layer.
Using Fingers To POP That Pimple
Hands contain the most bacteria and germs, so it’s most likely common sense that you don't use your dirty hands on an inflamed, angry pimple on your precious face.
“But I wash my hands!”
No! Dirt collects under your fingernails, and most of us probably aren’t washing our hands thoroughly enough to kill the bacteria and germs that cohabitate on our hands.
What you should be doing:
Invest in a pimple popper which has a sharp, needle end. Use the needle end to poke a hole in the offensive crater on your face, and use a Q-tip to apply pimple cream, or disinfecting solution.
Follow up with a hydrocolloid patch to absorb your yucky face juice.
Not Moisturizing After a Shave
Shaving your hair off sometimes takes your skin off, and leaves your lower jaw looking like a baboon’s bum because of how irritated your skin is.
Aftershave balm doesn’t do much for the skin most of the time because it’s heavily loaded with skin sensitizing ingredients like fragrance and denatured alcohols, which can further irritate your already irritated skin.
What you should be doing:
Use soothing products such as aloe vera gel, or just your wife, mother or sister’s vitamin E moisturizer to calm your angry skin down.
Over Cleansing Super Oily Skin
Sometimes, oily skin is your body’s way of telling that you’re doing it wrong. Often extremely oily skin is a sign of dehydrated skin. The skin doesn't have enough water content, so it produces more oil as a response to try to hydrate and moisturize the skin, leaving you with extremely oily skin.
As an effectual response to the oiliness, many people end up using overly harsh and stripping products which further dry the skin out, feeding into this vicious cycle of oily skin.
What you should be doing:
Use cleansers with a pH level of 5.5, and try to integrate a hydrating toner and a light moisturizer into your routine. Stay away from squeaky clean skin! Your skin is not your toilet floor.
Not Changing Your Pillowcase
If the heading wasn’t obvious enough, not changing your pillowcase spells all kinds of bad news for your skin.
Bacteria, sweat, oil and dead skin cells collect on your pillowcase everyday which makes it a hotbed for bacteria and thus pimples, maybe even cysts if you’re unlucky.
What you should be doing:
Stop leaving dirty pillowcases on your bed!
The bed is a sanctuary we should all preserve the cleanliness of, and that includes the cleanliness of your pillowcase. Leaving a dirty pillowcase to fester in that your bed is not only unhygienic and dirty, it’s not sexy and will be the new radioactive breeding ground for Covid-21.