How to Properly Exfoliate?

How to properly exfoliate?

In the cognition of many people, exfoliation is equivalent to rubbing. Just rubbing out the dirty things can make the face clean, but in fact, many people do not know much about the real principle and specific operation of exfoliation.

Especially with the accumulation of our skin care experience and the more and more products we use, we will gradually discover that exfoliating is not so omnipotent, and it will make the skin worse if you are not careful.

Is exfoliation still necessary? Or how to effectively exfoliate it?

So today I decided to share with you about exfoliating with a scientific and rational attitude.

"Keratinocytes" are the most important cell components of the epidermis, and keratinocytes are born in the basal layer at the bottom of the epidermis.

In the process of migration, the nucleus is pyknosis, there is no nucleus, and keratinization occurs, so it can be regarded as dead skin.

From a medical point of view, it takes about 41 days for cells to divide to become the stratum corneum that protects us. If the stratum corneum is normal for renewal and metabolism, it can be left alone.

Under normal circumstances, it is 41 days. As the age increases, the growth rate of keratinocytes will decrease year by year, and it will take longer to grow a layer of healthy keratinocytes.

If excessive exfoliation or improper protection, the original stratum corneum will be damaged, so that the new stratum corneum cannot be well protected, and it will affect the cells in the deep layers of the skin and even the skin barrier for a long time. Move the whole body in one shot.

Furthermore, the stratum corneum is the outermost defense layer of our skin, which can block chemical penetration, UV damage and microbial invasion, as well as block the loss of water and electrolytes in the body.

Therefore, we should take good care of the stratum corneum instead of trying to get rid of it.

That being the case, why do we still need to exfoliate?

To be precise, what we say about exfoliation every day should be to remove waste cutin. When the old waste cutin cannot peel off and accumulate on the skin surface, it will finally block the pores, resulting in the pores being unable to absorb and metabolize normally.

For acne-prone skin and oily skin, use some products that can promote metabolism to help exfoliate the old stratum corneum faster, promote the rapid renewal of keratinocytes, and promote the penetration of other active substances.

Let me summarize the four most puzzling misunderstandings when exfoliating.

1. No matter whether you are rubbed out of the "mud strip" from the face or the soles of the feet, it is not keratin, but a mixture of the product's viscous agent, glycerin, and xanthan gum.

2. Not everyone needs to exfoliate. For non-sensitive skin and dry skin, you need to exfoliate properly only when the skin cannot absorb skin care products, or when the makeup is powdery or not compliant.

3. It is not recommended to use exfoliating products for sensitive skin, because the skin barrier of sensitive skin is thinner than that of healthy skin. What it needs is to repair and thicken the barrier, which will outweigh the gains.

4. It is generally recommended that exfoliating once a month is a reasonable frequency. In fact, it still has to be decided according to the individual's usage. Excessive exfoliation not only does not make the skin look delicate, but also leads to damage to the skin barrier, redness, sensitivity and other problems.

In terms of mechanism of action, there are three main types of exfoliation methods: physical exfoliation, acid exfoliation (keratolytic substances and natural exfoliants) and enzymatic exfoliation.

Physical Exfoliation

By mechanically rubbing the skin, it removes dead skin and makes the skin smoother and finer.

The most common ones are various "scrub" products, such as scrubs, facial cleansers containing abrasive particles, etc. However, the quality of scrub products on the market is uneven, too large particles or too much use will damage the skin, and excessive use is not recommended.

Relatively speaking, it is a relatively mild scrub, which does not contain alcohol and preservatives, and is friendly to sensitive skin.

Acid Exfoliation

The use of chemical exfoliating substances acts on the entire stratum corneum, making the connection between the stratum corneum cells looser and easier to peel off.

Natural Exfoliant

The use of natural exfoliants to release the connection of the underlying keratinocytes is used for the dense layer of keratinocytes at the bottom of the stratum corneum, so that the entire stratum corneum is removed in the form of "peeling" and promotes the process of natural skin metabolism.

Natural exfoliants are gentler than exfoliating substances, and have certain moisturizing and anti-aging properties.

Enzymatic Exfoliation

By decomposing the protein components in the stratum corneum by papain, the connection between the keratinocytes and the cells is cut off, so as to achieve the effect of peeling off the old stratum corneum.

It is gentler than the above exfoliation methods, but the effect is slow.

The above is the science of exfoliation today. Finally, I will say that exfoliation is not a panacea. If you have skin problems such as acne, peeling or inflammation, you must solve these problems first, and then use exfoliating products reasonably. Exfoliating on this basis can be the icing on the cake, but blindly exfoliating will not be worth the loss.