There are many causes of dull, undernourished skin. Both men and women are likely to have facial skin problems. Men just seem to have more of them. Here’s why.
The primary cause of a dull appearance is excessive dryness. Sebum helps to hold moisture in the skin’s cells, but every day people wash it away.
Men not only wash it away, they scrape it away with their razors. They allow wind and sunlight to dry it out. They follow the advice in television commercials and use the harshest soaps to wash their faces and bodies. It’s a wonder they have any sebum left.
Sebum is produced by the skin’s sebaceous glands. It is primarily composed of fatty acids.
When a person has an oily complexion, which a lot of men naturally do, they worry about pimples and looking too shiny. Women can use facial powder to dull the shine. Men usually use harsh cleansers or astringents to dry up the shine.
It’s interesting that drying up the skin’s sebum tends to stimulate the skin’s sebaceous glands to produce more. Ideally, there would be some kind of balance.
Hyaluronic Acid
Hyaluronic acid is another component of the body that helps to maintain the skin’s moisture balance. Research has shown that the skin’s hyaluronic acid content decreases with age. That’s one of the reasons older people tend to have dull, undernourished skin, while younger folks have a soft glow.
Nourishment – Daily Diet
Then there is the issue of nourishment. No matter how hard we try, most of us have failings in our daily diets. We fail to eat enough fruits and vegetables, fail to get enough antioxidants and fail to eat enough protein. It depends on the man of course, but I know a lot of guys that never eat anything green.
Not only are our diets involved, there is the problem of how the skin’s outer layers receive nourishment. Most parts of the body receive nutrients via the bloodstream. There is no blood supply to the outermost layers of skin. They receive their nutrients through osmosis.
Sebum and hyaluronic acid help to carry nutrients to the skin’s surface. Perspiration
carries moisture and trace minerals to help provide nourishment. We wash all of these things away.
This is not an anti-hygiene article. Good hygiene is important for good health. It has more to do with the cleansers people choose to use.
Dermatologists see more facial skin problems caused by over-cleansing than anything else. The main reason for this is public misconception.
Over-Cleansing
Lots of people still believe that acne and oiliness are signs of poor hygiene. Over-cleansing actually worsens acne by causing irritation and inflammation.
A lot of people still believe that blackheads are dirt. They are actually composed of particles of sebum and dead skin cells that blacken due to oxidation. The cosmetic companies help to perpetrate the myths by recommended the daily use of scrubs and exfoliants.
There are good gentle cleansers and other solutions to the problem. You’ll learn more about the solutions for dull, undernourished skin in my next article.
Please see the author/resource box below for How to Rejuvenate Dull Looking Undernourished Skin.