In order to avoid the misunderstanding of “barrier repair” for all skin problems, and to let fat people with real skin damage problems understand more about their own skin so that they can better match products. In order to avoid the misunderstanding of “barrier repair” for any skin problem, and to let fat people with real skin damage problems to understand their own skin better so that they can better match the products, this time we will systematically explain what is “barrier repair” to repair? And how to repair it?
Before we can understand how to repair the barrier, we need to know what is the barrier?
1. Understanding the “skin barrier”
The skin barrier includes physical barrier, pigment barrier, nerve barrier, and immune barrier. What we usually call “barrier repair” generally refers to the “physical barrier”, which is also known as the “stratum corneum”.
The physical barrier is a unique brick wall structure. To build a wall, you need bricks + cement; if there are only bricks, it will fall down when you push it, and if there is only cement, it cannot be built into a wall at all.
Bricks refer to keratin cells in the stratum corneum, one keratin cell is equal to one brick; keratin cells are inanimate dead cells, they make up the bricks in the brick wall structure. The layers of “bricks”, together with the “cement”, form a solid physical barrier.
Cement refers to the oil between the gaps of keratin cells. The keratin layer is not completely tightly connected, but has many tiny gaps, and these gaps contain “intercellular lipids”, which are the “cement” that holds the bricks together.
▷▷Intercellular lipids are produced by the living keratin-forming cells in the spiny layer, and as the cells divide, intercellular lipids are released into the stratum corneum to act as cement.
▷ Intercellular lipids are mainly composed of a variety of ceramides, cholesterol, and free fatty acids, and they are extremely important members of the skin’s physiological lipids, as well as an important factor in maintaining the health of the skin barrier. Most of the skin care products in the market that focus on barrier repair also mimic physiological intercellular lipids as a way to repair the skin.
So, what does the skin barrier do?
The skin barrier is hard-won for human evolution, as all land mammals have a similar skin barrier.
The skin barrier is the first line of defense of the human body. The skin barrier can resist external pollutants such as: air pollution particles, dust, fibers. Allergens such as pollen, insect wing powder, dust mites, ultraviolet rays, bacteria and viruses, and other external stimuli.
The core of skin care concepts such as “prevention is better than cure” and “sun protection is anti-aging” is “protection”, that is, to reduce the occurrence of skin diseases and expose the skin to fewer factors that cause aging. This is the key to healthy skin and slowing down aging. Therefore, it is more important to build a solid foundation of the skin barrier than to repair the east wall, and then to carry out more advanced maintenance and care, in order to greatly enhance the efficiency and significance of care.
2 “Barrier damage”
❓ What are the signs of skin barrier damage? What problems will it bring?
1. The skin’s ability to store water and moisturize decreases, resulting in external oil and internal dryness, abnormal oiliness, dryness and peeling, tingling, and dryness and itching.
2. More prone to inflammatory reactions, prone to pimples, inexplicable redness, aggravated rosacea, seborrheic dermatitis, etc. Many people will mistakenly treat pimples as closed mouths by brushing acid, cleansing masks, etc. The results are often counterproductive.
3. Reduced defenses make it easier to become allergic to pollen/willow/dust, allergic to pet hair, allergic to used skin care products, skin discomfort after sun exposure, and severe skin redness after exercise and sweating.
Since both dryness and inflammation are important causes of accelerated aging, and the barrier is in a weak state, the loss of protection against external stimuli and the opportunity to add fuel to the fire of inflammatory factors can lead the skin into a vicious cycle of dryness, sensitivity, excessive stress, and inflammation.
The most worrying thing is that most of the barrier damage is caused by improper care, and the most common cause is – over-cleansing!
Over-cleansing is not only related to the gentleness of the cleanser formula, but also the time the cleanser is left on, the amount of cleanser used, the strength of the cleanser, whether other tools are used, the temperature of the water, the number of times a day the cleanser is used, the cleansing technique, etc. All these factors have an impact.
So it is not true that if you choose an “amino acid” cleanser, you can just use it without any problems. If you wash your face for a few minutes, and then with hot water, face wash brushes, cotton pads to wipe the skin and other actions, even a mild cleanser for sensitive skin can become very irritating.
On the contrary, even if the formula is not so mild cleanser, it is possible to reduce the irritation and become more mild by using a reasonable amount, cooling the cleansing water temperature (close to body temperature is appropriate), shortening the dwell time, being gentle, and avoiding wiping actions as much as possible.
In addition, each person’s skin condition and environment are different, and so are their cleansing power requirements, so each person’s “excessive” standard is bound to vary. For a healthy oily skin, occasionally using a slightly stronger cleansing power, even if it is a little stressful to the skin barrier, is better than the negative effects of inadequate cleansing.
So you need to make adjustments according to the actual situation, and carefully observe the changes in the state of the skin, the skin to give you the answer is the most accurate.
Besides over-cleansing, problems such as over-rejection of moisturizing products (hate a hint of stickiness), blind over-brushing of acids, over-use of masks, over-use of exfoliating products, failure to cooperate with reasonable care after medical treatment, blind massage of skin, frequent use of makeup remover to wipe skin, and exposure to sunlight can also lead to skin barrier damage.
❓Why is the barrier condition getting worse without any change in daily care?
I often see friends say that the same product was stable when they used it before, but recently they actually got acne/allergy/stinging with it, why is that?
In fact, you can’t just blame the product, the reason why this happens is related to the fact that people are constantly changing. As we have already said before, the barrier is a line of defense to protect the body, so maybe the barrier is always under pressure and stimulation, when the skin is subjected to stronger stimulation and we ourselves continue to give more stimulation to the skin, the skin will eventually be unable to bear it.
▷ Let’s take an analogy, if you have originally healthy skin and use a lotion containing exfoliating ingredients to wipe your skin every day, initially your skin is becoming more and more delicate after using the exfoliating ingredients because your skin is healthy. After continuous use, it is possible that the stratum corneum recovers more slowly than the exfoliating one, and eventually the skin barrier cannot function properly due to too weak stratum corneum, bringing various problems.
Secondly, even if there is no change in the skin itself, changes in internal and external stimuli are inevitable. Unknowingly, the air quality around us, water quality, our own mental stress, insufficient nutritional intake, body aging and other problems may be occurring, and changes in some factors may also bring about stimulation of the skin.
3. How to use skin care products to repair the barrier?
To solve the problem, we need to find the cause of the problem and prescribe the right medicine to avoid further aggravation of the skin problem.
Each person’s skin type, habits and environment are different, so the specific causes need to be investigated one by one from their daily habits.
Since there are so many conditions that can cause problems, it is recommended not to obsess if a particular part of the process is wrongly caused, and all possibilities and irritants should be avoided during this period, because even the original acceptable level of irritation may be extremely challenging for the now fragile skin.
Therefore, it is recommended to avoid excessive cleansing, use of masks, excessive acid brushing, use of overpowering products, massage, medical aesthetics, etc. until the barrier is healthy again.
2. Use products that can form a closed protective film on the skin surface to temporarily help the stratum corneum to “isolate” and reduce direct contact with irritants.
A damaged barrier is inevitably accompanied by a thin stratum corneum and reduced defenses. The use of closed ingredients is a key point in the defense structure of many barrier repair products. Providing a minimum of containment to skin with a damaged barrier prevents the loss of skin moisture on the one hand, and also has the effect of replacing the function of the stratum corneum, which is equivalent to isolating the skin from external irritants and preventing the skin from external damage.
There are many types of such ingredients, and here we give you examples of common ones.
Lipids: mineral oil, mineral grease, squalane, shea butter, isohexadecane, olive oil, cetearyl ethylhexanoate, cetearyl alcohol, caprylic decanoic triglyceride, etc.
Silicone oil: cyclopentamethylsiloxane, polydimethylsiloxane, etc.
Polymer gum: xanthan gum, bioglycan gum, micronucleus gum, sodium polyglutamate, sodium hyaluronate, etc.
Waxes: beeswax, ground wax, small candle tree wax, etc.
For skin, stratum corneum protection is a must; for barrier repair skin care products, closed protection is a must. Therefore, when we choose barrier repair products, it is better to choose nourishing and closing ability, and products that are particularly refreshing and non-sensitive will generally have weaker protection.
However, because some particularly oily skin type, acne skin, especially seborrheic dermatitis patients are really not very suitable for the use of too moist products, you can choose a slightly lighter lotion / cream according to their actual situation, do not because they are more oily to completely do not use moisturizing products.
3. Add physiological intercellular lipids such as ceramides/unsaturated fatty acids/cholesterol to consolidate the fragile stratum corneum and accelerate the recovery of the physical barrier.
Physiological lipids such as ceramides/free fatty acids/cholesterol are different from the aforementioned oils. Physiological lipids themselves are secreted by cellular lamellar vesicles, which are highly compatible with the skin and have better penetration; these ingredients can penetrate deep into the base of the stratum corneum/granular layer surface and play a role in adhesion to the stratum corneum, hydrophobic defense against chemical irritation, defense against bacterial attack, and certain anti-inflammatory ability.
Simply put, without the presence of physiological lipids, the keratin cells of the stratum corneum would be looser and easier to shed, making it more likely that the barrier would be damaged.
Although the skin itself can secrete physiological lipids, when the barrier is damaged, the synthesis of lamellar vesicles is insufficient. Exogenous supplementation of physiological lipids at this time can maintain the normal function of lamellar vesicles; achieve the effect of fast and direct barrier consolidation, which is equivalent to accelerate the barrier recovery cycle.
Ceramides: There are 12 types of ceramides found so far. But the important one for skin is type 1/3/6 ceramide, which is also a common ingredient in skin care products. Also phytosphingosine is considered a ceramide, which is a precursor of ceramide.
Cholesterol: cholesterol, phytosterols.
Unsaturated fatty acids: linoleic acid, linoleic acid, and vegetable oils rich in linoleic acid and linoleic acid
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
