Essay on the relationship between beauty and skin health

Beauty and skin health are not a one-way subordinate relationship in which "the former serves the latter", but a two-way dynamic relationship of mutual construction - beauty behaviors that conform to the physiological laws of the skin are effective auxiliary means to maintain skin health and delay aging, while beauty operations that violate the logic of skin metabolism are the core inducements that destroy skin homeostasis and induce various skin problems. The core link between the two is the "dynamic balance of the skin barrier."

Last month, I picked up a 22-year-old girl from the skin management studio I work with. I had just graduated and saved three months’ salary. I followed the trend and bought a complete set of Internet celebrity “powerful medicine kits”: high-concentration prototype VC, 1% retinol essence, and home-based fruit acid peels twice a week. After half a month, my face was swollen like a freshly steamed peach. It became red and hot when exposed to heat. There were also dense backlight rashes on my cheekbones. I went to the hospital to check that it was aggravated by contact dermatitis and the barrier was severely damaged. She sat across from me and shed tears, still feeling aggrieved: “Don’t I just want to have beauty treatments to make my skin better? Why is your face so bad? ”

In fact, I encounter this kind of question every day. The two most quarrelsome factions in the skin care circle right now happen to be at the two extremes of this issue. One group is the "efficacy-first party" who insists on ingredients. They believe that products without efficacy are not beautifying. Skin care should focus on active ingredients. The higher the concentration, the better the effect. Any product that cannot brighten or shrink pores within three days is an IQ tax. ； The other group is a fan of "minimalist skin care" and believes that all skin care products and beauty programs are marketing scams. Washing your face with water and applying nothing is the only way to maintain skin health. The two groups have been arguing for six or seven years without reaching a unified conclusion.

In fact, there is no need to argue. The data presented here is the most objective. The "Survey on the Current Situation of Skin Sensitivity among Chinese Residents" released by the Dermatologist Branch of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association in 2023 shows that 46.8% of acquired sensitive skin originates from improper beauty procedures, among which excessive exfoliation, abuse of high-concentration functional ingredients, and medical beauty procedures in informal institutions rank among the top three. ； At the same time, 20.7% of the respondents have suffered from photoaging stains, dry eczema and other problems in advance because they have not done any basic skin care for a long time (including not applying sunscreen or moisturizing products). To put it bluntly, both extreme choices will ultimately harm skin health.

When I was following up at the Dermatology Department of the Provincial People's Hospital, I met a 52-year-old aunt. There were almost no obvious spots or deep wrinkles on her face, and her skin was more delicate and stable than many 30-year-old young people. When asked about her beauty habits, she said she only has three things: wash her face with a mild amino acid cleanser every night, use a basic moisturizing lotion every day, wear SPF30 or above sunscreen all year round no matter it is cloudy or sunny, go to a regular medical beauty institution 3-4 times a year for basic photorejuvenation, never use niche brands recommended by Internet celebrities, and do not follow the trend of "deep cleansing" or "lymphatic detoxification" projects. Her logic is very simple: "The most important thing is that my skin is comfortable. If it feels dry, I will apply more lotion, and I will reapply sunscreen after being exposed to the sun. I will never make it suffer." ”

Many people have a biased understanding of "beauty" and believe that it must have "immediate results": after using skin care products, they must be whiter, and after completing the program, their pores must be invisible. But healthy skin has its own metabolic rhythm. The normal epidermal metabolism cycle is 28 days. If you have to use strong acid to peel off all the cutin on the surface, of course it will look whiter and brighter immediately, but the cost is that the cuticle will become thinner, the skin's ability to retain water will decrease, the transepidermal water loss rate will soar, and subsequent problems such as redness, sensitivity, and acne breakouts will come to your doorstep, which is not worth the gain.

Of course, this does not mean that all functional beauty products are a scourge. Last week, a 24-year-old boy with oily skin came for consultation. He suffered from recurrent inflammatory acne and closed lips. My advice to him was to wipe his T-zone with low-concentration salicylic acid pads once a week, and go to a regular institution for red and blue light anti-inflammatory treatment once a month. In three months, 70% of his acne has disappeared, and his skin condition is much more stable than before. You see, if your beauty behavior matches your skin condition, it can actually help you solve health problems.

Not long ago, a 30-year-old girl came to me to repair her skin. She originally had healthy normal skin. She followed the trend and went to a street beauty salon to get a "deep cleansing annual card". She went there once a week. Every time, she had to use a scrub to exfoliate her skin, and then used a very strong suction device to suck out the blackheads. After three months of treatment, her skin became severely sensitive. When the air conditioner was blown in the winter, she turned red like Guan Gong. She became allergic to different skin care products. It took almost half a year to recover. The so-called "beauty" that completely ignores the physiological laws of the skin and only pursues instant pleasure is essentially punishing the skin.

To be honest, the relationship between beauty and skin health is really not that complicated. To put it bluntly, it is like the relationship between eating and keeping fit: if you eat junk food that is high in oil and sugar, you will definitely get gastrointestinal problems if you eat too much.； Excessive dieting and eating nothing will lead to malnutrition, yellow complexion and thin skin. Only eating a diet that is suitable for your own physique and comfortable is good for your body.

The same is true when it comes to skin. There is no one-size-fits-all beauty formula, and there are no absolute "good" or "bad" beauty products. You must first find out what kind of temper your skin is, whether it is dry, oily, tolerant or sensitive, and follow its metabolic rules. Beauty will be a bonus for healthy skin, otherwise it will only make your face more beautiful and worse. After all, your original intention of doing beauty treatments is to make your skin more comfortable and healthier, right?