Intro To Skin- Skin Types

***Read note at end***

Intro To Skin

The beginning of any good skin care regimen is to first know your skin. Often people assume they have a certain skin type and choose products accordingly, then nothing changes, their skin is just as bad as before if not worse.

It seems easy right? Dry? Oily? Unfortunately it’s a bit more complicated then that. But it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. With the right knowledge and help you can find your skin type and make products work much better for your skin.

Don't be discouraged if you are not finding what's right for you. Everyone's skin is different and needs to be treated differently depending on many factors including skin type, skin conditions, other health conditions, weather, climate etc... I will discuss many if these things in subsequent articles to help you begin to find products that work for you.

SKIN TYPES:

To begin, there is one basic fact and common myth, you must understand when treating your skin: Skin type NEVER changes. You’re born with it, it is what your skin IS.

So what are the basic skin types?

DRY- Dry skin is characterized by a lack of oil being produced in skin. Other indications are small pores and can even experience flakiness..

OILY- On the opposite side of the spectrum, oily skin is pretty easy to determine. BUT I have to warn you, there’s a lot of people who might be mistaken when they automatically think they have Oily Skin. There tends to be a lot of oil-phoebes who think their skin is oily when it’s really combo. Oily Skin is characterized by an excess of oil production that can cause build up on skin. A good indication to finding out if you have oily skin is looking at the pore size down the center of your face (forehead, nose chin) known as the T-zone as well as around your temples and additionally larger pores in general.

COMBO- Combination skin can be really annoying. Skin will often be oily and dry at the same time. Take a look at both of those skin types. If you experience both most likely you have combo skin. You will generally experience oiliness in your T-zone. And have larger pores in those areas. Other areas of the face will be dry and or flaky and have smaller pores.

NORMAL- Normal skin has a good balance isn’t too much of anything. It can sometime be more oily or less (but any skin type can). Pores tend to be small and breakouts are not common.

SENSITIVE- YES! Sensitive IS a skin type! And it’s not to be confused with “sensitized” which is a skin condition (I will address this in another article). Characteristics include: Redness, irritation, often people with fair skin, eyes and hair (red heads, blonde/blue) have sensitive skin. Skin can look delicate, suffer from severe allergies, and can known to blush.

With this foundation you can get started in the right direction. Next time I will go into greater detail and talk about skin conditions, treating them and how they differ from skin types.

About me:

I am a licensed Esthetician or Skin Therapist (as we are called) and have been for 5 years. My training is from Paul Mitchell The Skin Academy and continued education from The International Dermal Institute. I have a passion for skin care and enjoy sharing what I know and continue to learn. I hope you will gain something from my knowledge.

***This article was written by me for a company to help customers make make more informed decisions on their skin care choices. I have decided to go ahead and post this here along with follow up articles and tips etc.

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If you have a very specific question email me by clicking on the "email me" link on the upper right corner of the page. If you do email, I will most likely post that question to give further info to readers. At your request I will leave it anonymous or put a link to your blog. ***