Know Your Skin Type
As it is with everything else, knowing the condition of the different parts of your body is the first step in caring for it. Skin is no different. Knowing your skin type is the beginning of giving your skin the proper treatment to maintain good skin tone and condition.
Your skin type is a general description of how your skin feels and behaves. The most common types used for commercial products are normal, oily, dry and combination skin. Other categories include blemish-prone, sensitive and sun-damaged skin.
Convenient as these skin type categories are in choosing products, it is not exactly the best way to know and understand your skin on a level that will really help it. This is perhaps the reason why, even though the “right” products have been used for your designated skin type, you still experience either dryness, oiliness, acne and other problems.
Why is this so? First of all, you have to remember, like any part of your body, you skin is never the same all throughout. It goes through all sorts of conditions depending on several factors, some of which include your genes, your lifestyle and habits. Add to this the fact that the problems you are experiencing may not be simply the result of lack of care. There are cases when skin diseases are the reasons.
So from here on end, it will be good for you to forget what beauty magazines, cosmetic salespeople, and aestheticians tell you about the four skin types. It’s about time you go beneath the surface and really know what your skin is about.
Skin Type Factors
First off, know the factors that Influence your skin type. This can get tricky since almost everything can influence your skin and the condition it’s in. Just looking and feeling your face is not enough to determine your skin type. To get an effective evaluation of your skin, consider the following.
The first set of factors affecting your skin are those within your own body. Hormonal changes brought on by your body’s development influence your skin to a huge extent. For women, the menstrual cycle can cause drastic changes on the skin. The same goes for periods of pregnancy and menopause. Men are also subject to these influences, especially in the puberty stage as hormones causes the body to develop.
Your genes also influence the propensity to acquire a certain skin condition that is characteristic of your parents’ own skin types. However, as their skin is also influenced by different factors, your skin and theirs may not necessarily be the same.