Bath bombs can add a luxurious effect to your baths, while offering some skin benefits of their own. While they help create the perfect bath, what more should we know about what they do to the skin? Hear Dr. Alexandra Bowles’ insights on what steps we should be taking for the skin after a bath bomb. Read the full article in Byrdie!
How Long Should We Be in the Tub?
Staying in the bathtub for too long starts to strip away your skin’s natural oils and leaves the barrier feeling dry. To avoid this, try to limit your bath to around 10-15 minutes. This leaves just enough time to enjoy the fizz and fragrance without it overly-drying your skin. If you want to stay in longer, top the bath with cooler water to keep things gentle for your skin. This adjustment can help your skin stay soft and hydrated for longer after you towel off.
Balancing Bath Water’s pH
Our skin has a delicate pH that tap water isn’t always perfectly balanced for. This can affect how well the natural skin barrier holds up. Mixing in a tablespoon of baking soda will gently neutralize the water and help your skin retain its natural acidity! This not only maximizes the moisturizing benefits of your bath bomb’s oils and butters, but also reduces the chances of post-bath tightness or sensitivity.
A Quick Rinse
After your bath, taking a quick rinse in lukewarm water can help wash away any lingering dyes, fragrances, or shimmer that can sit on the skin and cause irritation. This is a step that Dr. Bowles always recommends, especially if you’re prone to breakouts or clogged pores on your chest, back, or arms. It is like a post-soak reset, which is refreshing and kind to your skin!
It’s Not All About the Face: How to Rejuvenate Your Hands
We often focus on our face when it comes to anti-aging, but we don’t want to forget about areas such as our neck, chest, and hands, which can show similar signs of aging as our face, but are often neglected. This summer, board-certified dermatologist Dr. Mona Foad will share how to prevent and reverse aging during a three-part series, “It’s Not All About The Face.” In Part One, published in the June issue, we focused on how to rejuvenate and protect the neck and chest. In this issue we will look at the hands. Be sure to read Part Three in the August issue, where we will cover body rejuvenation!
How to Rejuvenate Your Hands
Even if we take great care of ourselves, we often forget about our hands, which, if neglected, are a tell-tale marker of aging. Our hands are an area of skin that commonly shows signs of sun damage, including brown spots and precancerous changes, as well as signs of collagen loss, with crepe texture and volume loss. The good news is that there are many products and treatments available to rejuvenate the hands, and often, treating the hands is more affordable than treating other larger areas of the body.
Hand Sun Damage & Skin Texture
Products
Skin care is an easy and affordable way to prevent damage and treat some of the effects of the sun. Always use a broad-spectrum sunscreen on your hands, especially when driving. Ultraviolet A rays can get through window glass and go deeper into the skin to cause more damage and aging. To further protect your hands from the sun’s damage, consider adding an antioxidant serum, and if brown spots are a concern, a skin brightener can be helpful. You may even want to consider purchasing a pair of driving gloves, which can be both stylish and functional for sun protection.
Treatments
If you are already seeing the signs of sun damage on your hands, you may want to opt for a chemical peel, a laser treatment, or a light treatment. An IPL (Intense Pulse Light) or BBL (Broadband Light) is a great no-downtime way to treat brown spots and help even out skin tone on the hands. Deeper damage may require a resurfacing laser, which has the added benefit of building collagen and treating sun damage and has been proven to actually decrease the risk of skin cancer formation. A word of caution with resurfacing lasers if you are considering this as an option: make sure your provider is an expert in laser resurfacing, because not all lasers are appropriate for treating the delicate skin on the back of your hands.
Hollowing & Visible Hand Veins
Collagen and elastin, which are important building blocks in our skin, decrease with age and sun exposure. The skin on the back of our hands is thinner than in other body parts, so we see the loss of collagen and elastin more readily in this area. You might notice crepey skin that is not as elastic, as well as hollowing and more visible veins.
Products
Consider applying products such as growth factors and peptides to the backs of your hands to slow down aging and build collagen. Retinoids, such as OTC retinols or prescription retinoic acids, can help prevent collagen loss and have the added benefit of stimulating cellular turnover. If adding in a retinol, start with a couple of days a week and slowly increase frequency to avoid irritation.
Treatments
Fillers are a great, no-downtime way to treat the volume loss and soften the appearance of visible veins and tendons. It is not painful and can instantly create a more youthful appearance. Resurfacing lasers are an effective way to address crepey skin and help rebuild lost collagen, but as mentioned above, make sure you are seeing someone who is a laser expert. My personal favorite resurfacing laser for the
hands is the Fraxel Dual.
Quick Fixes to Hand Dryness and Skin Texture
As we get older, we lose our ability to make hyaluronic acid, and our skin becomes drier. Hand washing further aggravates this on the backs of our hands, leading to more pronounced dry skin. Consider using a barrier hand cream to protect your hands during frequent handwashing, and add a hyaluronic acid to help to boost your skins hydration in one easy step. Consider mixing your hand cream with a hyaluronic acid serum for one easy step.
Not sure where to start? Schedule a consultation with one of the providers at Mona Dermatology!
