Dry itchy skin during the winter is caused by your skin barrier is damaged. But what exactly is that skin barrier and how can you best protect it? Because if the skin barrier is damaged, this causes skin problems such as itchy skin, dry skin on the face, or other problems.

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Dry skin’s external influences

Actually, you can best compare the skin barrier with a tile wall where your skin cells are the tiles. The skin fats or also called lipids are the cement grout that is between the tiles. In this case, this tile wall should represent the epidermis. When we look at a tiled wall, we can also somewhat compare this to a look at our skin. Just like with a tiled wall, we like it when this wall looks clean and whole and preferably also has a nice appearance. To keep this tile wall beautiful, we have to do something for it, because the tile wall often has to deal with external influences, such as water, temperature differences, and sometimes also weather influences or chemical agents.

For dry skin, the barrier must remain intact

The skin is no different, just like a tile wall, it must provide protection against external influences, including weather influences, temperature differences, allergens, and irritants. In addition, this skin barrier must also ensure that the moisture in your skin is not lost through evaporation, it must keep the moisture inside.

A healthy or unhealthy skin barrier?

When you have a healthy skin barrier, you notice it by the condition of your skin. It feels smooth and soft. This skin barrier can protect you against external influences. It becomes different when the skin barrier is not in a healthy state. Your skin then feels rough, you can have itchy skin and it is often red and irritated. If we then go back to the tile wall, we could say that the joints of the wall have burst open and that the protection of the wall is therefore no longer optimal. The skin can lose moisture through the ‘joints’ and can therefore dry out. But different substances can also enter through the ‘open joints’. All this means that the new technology for skin needs extra care.

What damages the skin barrier?

The damage to the skin barrier can have various reasons, for example too much sun, wrong skin care products, or showering too long and too hot. This often has unpleasant consequences, such as dry skin, itchy skin, rosacea, or eczema. Fortunately, a skin barrier can still be restored. How you can do that depends a bit on the reason why the skin barrier is damaged.

Sun damage

In case of sun damage, it is important that you always protect yourself well against the sun. Always use a good and preferably natural sunscreen with a minimum factor of 15. On very sunny days, preferably a factor of 30 or 50. Wear clothing that covers you and a hat or cap.

The warm water

A hot shower or a warm bath is nice, but certainly not good for your skin. The skin not only evaporates moisture through the warm water but the skin barrier is also affected. Together with the wrong bath and shower products, it affects the natural oil layer of the skin and when there are too few lipids in the skin, the skin loses its moisture and becomes dry. So don’t shower or bathe too long and too hot and use the right products to prevent dry or itchy skin.

Eczema

In eczema, the skin barrier is not properly constructed. This makes it difficult for the skin to retain moisture and you almost always have dry skin. Annoying substances such as allergens can easily penetrate dry skin and cause inflammatory reactions. Especially the eczema skin needs to be well cared for. In the worst cases, this sometimes requires medication. Never just put Vaseline on your eczema, this often only works counterproductive.

To use Vaseline or not?

When you see how the use of Vaseline is sometimes promoted, sometimes even by dermatologists, it really surprises me. It is priced as an all-around moisturizer for your body and face. If you read my explanation, you will understand my warning to be very careful with Vaseline and certainly not to make it a daily care cream.

Chemical products

With an oily, shiny, dull, and dry skin face, it is wise not to use products that contain petroleum. After all, these disrupt the natural fat layer of the body, which makes the skin dull or shiny. Nowadays we pay so much attention to the use of products without parabens, chemical, and synthetic fragrances and dyes, or harmful preservatives. Vaseline is a chemical and synthetic product. It is petroleum/petroleum that is refined and purified. It is precisely that petroleum that is on the list of the 10 most harmful substances for the skin.