Home Remedies and Prevention for Sensitive Skin
Home Remedies and Prevention for Sensitive Skin
If you have sensitive skin, you will notice it often reacts to triggers like weather, allergies, or certain products. Yours may turn red, dry out, sting, feel itchy or tight, or get bumps, scales, or hives. Conditions like eczema, contact dermatitis, rosacea, and more are often to blame. Sensitive skin is a common issue but not a medical diagnosis by itself. The term generally refers to skin that is more prone to inflammation, but the cause of the inflammation will be different for everyone.
You may be a person that have local reactions to chemicals, dyes, and fragrances that are found in products that come into contact with their skin or from clothing or friction. You could also be a person that are allergic to certain substances and may react on your skin.
Finding ways to avoid potential triggers and soothe irritated skin may help people with sensitive skin find relief and improve their quality of life.
Sensitive skin may also be a symptom of an underlying condition.
A good idea is to keep a journal of the products that you use each day to help identify any possible triggers of symptoms on your skin.
You will have to try to find what is causing the skin sensitivity and eliminate the triggers. You can change certain things at home or use medical treatments.
If you see a doctor, they will ask you about your symptoms and they may try a few different medications, these may include:
Steroid creams: Both over-the-counter and prescription-strength steroid creams such as hydrocortisone may help relieve inflammation and itchiness. Although it is recommended that people should not use them on the face, this was the only thing that the doctors prescribed to me when I had a nasty breakout rash on my face. They just told me not to use it too much.
Numbing creams: these may help reduce itchiness, which could make you less likely to scratch or irritate the skin.
Oral antihistamine: if your sensitive skin is caused by an allergic reactions, these may help.
Home remedies may also help treat or prevent sensitive skin symptoms.
Moisturisers specifically for sensitive skin
Aussenskin moisturisers are scientifically formulated to be great. As I have sensitive skin, I found it hard to find quality, affordable skincare that didn't sting or cause a rash. My business arner and I trial all our products on ourselves before taking to market and we LOVE them!
It is always important to test a product on a small area of skin before applying it to the rest of the affected skin. We offer you a free sample pot to try before you buy
Take short 5 to 10 minute showers with warm — not hot — water.
Hot showers and baths can inflame the skin, causing redness, itching, and even peeling. They also can disrupt the skin’s natural balance of moisture, robbing you of the natural oils, fats, and proteins that keep skin healthy. Dry skin can increase your chances of infection and actually lead to an overproduction of oils in an effort to compensate for the lack of moisture.
Use a gentle, fragrance-free soap and cleansers.
It's important to use natural essential oils and not chemical fragrances in your skincare. Artificial fragrances can cause skin irritation, allergies, asthma, eczema, headaches, hives, nausea, psoriasis, wheezing and contact dermatitis.
Use a gentle, fragrance-free laundry detergent and cleaning supplies.
While laundry detergent is mostly rinsed away in the wash, residues can remain on the fabrics after drying. So, when you get dressed, dry yourself off with a towel or sleep in laundered bedding, your skin is coming into contact with the ingredients.
People with sensitive skin and other skin conditions may experience reactions to formulas containing synthetic dyes, optical brighteners and fragrances. Anyone with sensitive skin might benefit from using a pared-down laundry detergent made with natural ingredients to avoid itching, rashes and other irritations.
Patting rather than rubbing the body dry
If you have sensitive skin, take care to pat your face dry rather than rub after you've cleansed. The tugging of a towel can cause irritation, plus years of tugging at your skin can make it lose elasticity.
What Causes Sensitive Skin?
Even though having sensitive skin is generally not a cause for serious concern, it may make you feel less confident in yourself and be very uncomfortable. It can be caused by minor allergy or underlying skin condition. It seems to run in my family, so it could be genetic for you too.
It's just the way you are born.
If you have sensitive skin with no underlying health condition, your skin may become irritated more easily.
You may find it gets red and irritated when there are changes in temperature, e.g. suddenly very hot or very cold, strong winds or sunlight. It may happen when you have been exercising.
You may be having a reaction to chemicals in your skincare, makeup or clothing.
You may have heard other terms, such as different types of dermatitis, let's explain those:
What is contact dermatitis?
Contact dermatitis is an itchy rash caused by direct contact with a substance or an allergic reaction to it.
What is irritant contact dermatitis?
This non-allergic skin reaction occurs when an irritant damages your skin's outer protective layer. Some people react to strong irritants after a single exposure. Others may develop a rash after repeated exposures to even mild irritants, such as soap and water.
You can get irritant contact dermatitis from products like soaps, laundry detergents, or even from exposure to water. A non-specific, inflammatory skin response happens in reaction to the chemicals in these products. People can also react to jewelry made from metals like nickel.
What is allergic contact dermatitis?
Allergic contact dermatitis is a form of dermatitis/eczema caused by an allergic reaction to a material, called an allergen, in contact with the skin.
If you have been keeping a journal on the substances that you have been putting on your skin and using, then hopefully you will be able to see which product is causing the inflammation.
Other reasons for your sensitive skin.
Your skin tends to become more sensitive as it loses the protective moisture and fat that keep the skin from drying out.
Dry skin may be more likely to appear on areas that have exposure to the elements, such as the hands, face, and arms.
Taking steps to keep moisture in the skin may help keep it from drying out. Using moisturising lotions and facial creams daily may help prevent symptoms.
Rosacea (roe-ZAY-she-uh) is a common skin condition that causes blushing or flushing and visible blood vessels in your face.
Rosacea can occur in different types and cause a variety of symptoms. This can include redness, flushing, irritated and swollen eyes, and rashes that may look like acne.
Learn more about how to manage rosacea here.
Eczema, or atopic dermatitis, is a condition that generally causes dry, itchy patches of skin to appear, though symptoms vary from person to person.
Usually, eczema occurs in children, but it can also happen in adults. The most common areas for eczema flare-ups include the face, elbows, neck, wrists, ankles, and legs.
They are inflammatory skin reactions induced photochemically in exposed areas without an immunological basis. They manifest usually as dermatitis consistent with the symptoms of sunburn reaction.
A reaction to sunlight in someone with photodermatoses could cause a rash, blisters, or scaly patches to appear on exposed skin. The reaction gets worse the longer the sunlight touches the skin.