Common skin care misconceptions

©Pelsen1961

Most women and a good number of men can relate to skin care being a very important part of life. It is expected though because the state of your skin more often than not, reflects the state of your health. Moreover, great skin gives confidence and that is why taking good care of it is paramount especially for aesthetic purposes. There is a myriad of information all over on skin care. Skin care professionals, manufactures of skin products and even dermatologists bombard us with info on skin health and care. Most of them are true but at times, certain tips and guides are just a mirage of the truth. It is necessary therefore to know what misconceptions exist and learn how to maintain the right skin care.

Some common skin care misconceptions

Starting with the basics, there are so many wrong notions with regards to skin science. Many people have half truths about how our skin functions. One very common misconception is that skin pores open and close. That is not true because pores are meant to be always open since they are openings in the skin that allow sebum to reach the surface. However, use of heavy oils and improper cleaning of the skin can clog pores. These openings can also become bigger due to presence of dead cells or as a result of squeezing blemishes.

On the same note, an interesting misconception is that skin repair only happens at night. In reality, this is not exactly true. Skin repair is an ongoing process but a good night’s sleep is helpful to skin health. Inadequate sleep adversely affects the skin by causing stress, skin puffiness and impaired development of collagen, a component that strengthens the skin.

The third misconception is that signs of damage and aging on skin can be cleared up quickly. Most people would hear such from promotions of an apparently wonder-working skin product. Normally, the repair requires about three skin cycles in order to be reversed. The usual cycle is between 21 and 40 days. Remember, the damage did not happen overnight, it was gradual. In the same manner, repair cannot be magical, it is a process.

Nobody wants to have unhealthy, saggy or puffy skin and so people take measures to prevent its occurrence. It is true that facial exercises are good but they are often overexploited based on the wrong belief that facial exercises are meant to tone facial muscles and hence by doing more exercises a person will appear younger. The truth is that constant facial tugging during exercise contributes to additional lines since wrinkles form along expression lines that are caused by facial movements. The face is a very sensitive part of the body because it is the only part where muscles are directly attached to the skin. A closely related misconception is that cucumbers help decrease puffiness around the eyes. Actually, the biggest component in cucumbers is water which provides the soothing and moisturizing effect. In fact, just a cold compress can provide the same results.

Finally, there are so many misconceptions about skin care products which can be dangerous as these things can either make or break your skin health. One of them is that using larger quantities of a product will give better results. The real thing is that less is more. Excessive amounts can cause skin problems. Moreover, it is not true that packaging is not important. On the contrary, packaging is important for the protection of the efficacy of the ingredients. Packaging is never for the aesthetic reasons only.