What is Dry Skin and What Are the Common Causes?

If you think you may have dry skin, you’re probably searching the internet for ways of identifying your skin condition, why skin becomes dry and itchy and most importantly, what skin care products you can use to help treat your dry skin.

At Sönd, we develop and sell effective skincare products for all kinds of skin issues from eczema and dermatitis, to acne and rosacea.

But we don't just want you to buy our products. We want you to know why our skincare products can help your stressed out, contrary skin. We supply detailed and scientifically backed information on all skin conditions, why they might be affecting you and how our products can help.

Dry skin is a common condition that can either come and go, or linger around longterm. If you experience dry skin, you'll know that it can be frustrating and uncomfortable. Applying moisturiser to the top layer of skin may improve dry skin. But without understanding the symptoms and causes of skin dryness, it's unlikely to fully recover into happy, healthy skin.

So here’s our overview of what it is to have dry skin and how you can develop a skin care routine that will treat dry skin at the root cause.

We’ve also included some helpful links at the end of this page to more useful information on managing dry skin.

What is Dry Skin?

Dry skin, or xeroderma, the medical term for dry skin, is a common skin complaint. It's essentially skin that loses water too quickly, causing it to dehydrate, or skin that doesn't produce enough natural oils.

It can affect anyone, or any age or gender and can appear anywhere on the body or face. It can perhaps be most distressing if you develop dry skin on your face. Dry skin can be caused by a number of different factors, ranging from genetics to the weather, and is typically characterised by patches of skin becoming noticeably dry and uncomfortable where the skin loses moisture and/or oil.

Dry skin may affect you seasonally, where external or internal environments cause a loss of moisture from your skin. Or you may have severe dry skin all year round.

What Does Dry Skin Look Like?

Identifying dry skin isn’t too tricky. As well as looking visibly dry and flaky, dry skin types can also feel irritated and parched, from the outside and from the inside.

What Are the Symptoms of Dry Skin?

The main symptoms of dry skin include:

• Roughness
• Parched dry patches of skin
• Flakiness
• Itchiness
• Redness
• Inflammation
• Cracked skin
• Scaly skin
• Skin that has the appearance of crazy paving

Dry skin can also feel tight, especially after getting it wet, for example after showering, bathing, swimming or washing your hands.

You may have all of these symptoms all of the time, or some of them, some of the time. Dry skin can affect the skin anywhere on the body or face. For example, you may have small patches of dry skin on your cheeks or forehead, Or, you may suffer with large patches of severely dry skin that spreads along the whole of your shins and itches.

What Causes Dry Skin Symptoms?

Dry skin is caused by a number of different factors - you may have one cause or there may be multiple factors that make your skin dry.

The following factors can all cause the skin to dry out:

• Long, hot baths and showers
• Very windy, cold and dry weather conditions
• Central heating or air conditioning that lead to dry air
• Harsh skin care products that strip your skin or it's natural oils
• Genetics
• Certain health conditions such as kidney disease and diabetes
• Skin conditions such as eczema
• Certain medications such as some laxatives, blood pressure drugs and antacids
• Being dehydrated

Are There Different Types of Dry Skin?

Dry skin is common to many people and essentially, all dry skin is the same - if you lack moisture in your skin or if your skin produces too little oil, your skin will feel dry. Damage to the skin barrier can also dry your skin and you may develop skin irritation.

However, the severity can vary from person to person. If left untreated, dry skin may become inflamed and infected. Getting dry skin diagnosed might feel a little trivial, but if your skin is bothering you, or it's not getting any better despite your best efforts, speak to your GP. They can diagnose dry skin and recommend remedies for dry, irritated and cracked skin.

Why Does Skin Crack and Look Flaky When it’s Dry?

If your skin feels extremely dry, it may begin to crack. Imagine a very dry, arid landscape such as a parched, dried up river bed. As the earth loses water, it begins to crack. The same can be said for our skin.

As it loses moisture, the skin cells become more and more dehydrated and begin to shrivel up. As the cells get smaller, they move further away from each other and therefore tiny cracks begin to form.

Over time, these tiny cracks become bigger and more noticeable. As a consequence, very dry skin is often accompanied by skin infections and some cases of dry skin will therefore require antibiotics or use an antibiotic cream.

The signs of infected skin include redness, heat, yellow crusting and oozing or bleeding wounds with or without a foul smell.

What Does Dry, Itchy Skin Mean?

Often, having dry skin can cause the affected skin to itch. Itching is the body’s way of telling you that your skin is stressed and dehydrated.

This is usually because the oils that should be present in the skin are not, due to one of the many causes of dry skin.

Scratching dry skin can make it feel worse, even though it gives immediate relief. Scratching irritates already irritated skin, so try to avoid it where possible. Use the tips of your fingers to gently squeeze the skin to get some relief and make sure you always moisturise well.

Also, scratching at your dry skin can cause skin lesions where you accidentally open the skin and make it bleed. This can also lead to skin infections that will require treatment, as mentioned above.

Is My Skin Dehydrated or Dry?

When it comes to skin, the terms dehydrated and dry are often used interchangeable. But technically, they are different, although they both result in the same symptoms of skin that needs to be moisturised.

As a general rule, dehydrated skin occurs when your skin lacks water and dry skin happens when it's lacking in natural oils. But either way, the skin is still dry and needs moisture.

Drier skin may lack water and become dehydrated because you are – that is, you’re not drinking enough water and clear fluids each day. Or you may be eating too many salty foods or drinking a lot of alcohol and caffeine which all dehydrate the body and cause the skin to become dry.

Dry skin is skin that’s lost much of its natural oil, called sebum, which keeps the skin moisturised. This may be down to using harsh, oil stripping products on the skin, showering or bathing too frequently and in water that’s too hot, age or genetics. Although dry skin may be due to a combination of these possible causes.

Is Dandruff and Dry Skin on Your Face the Same Thing?

Dandruff is characterised by white flakes of skin that fall from your scalp and end up sitting on your shoulders. Although it comes from your head, it’s actually nothing to do with the health of your hair – people with bald scalps can still get dandruff.

Instead, it’s to do with the health of the skin on your scalp. Dandruff is essentially flakes of dry skin, coming away from your scalp, so really, it’s a dry skin problem.

The causes of dandruff can be the same as the cause of dry skin anywhere else – dry, harsh, cold winter weather may mean that scalp skin can become dry.

Or, they can be different. Dandruff can also be caused by a tiny fungus that lives naturally on the skin surface of the scalp, that some people form an immune reaction to. This leads to a drying of the scalp, and those familiar white flakes of skin often associated with dandruff.

Is Dry, Flaky Skin Bad for Me?

On the whole, dry skin isn’t technically bad for you. It’s more an annoying affliction that takes time and dedication to manage.

But extremely dry skin can be a sign of more serious health problems, ranging from dehydration to hypothyroidism. Some medications such as diuretics and topical products for acne can also cause dry skin. If you’re worried about your dry skin, or it appears suddenly, speak to your GP.

Dry skin, if left untreated, can also lead to cracking and peeling. These can lead to open wounds which can then be at risk of infection. So it’s a good idea to take steps to keep dry skin under control by listening to what your skin needs.

What is the Best Treatment for Dry Skin?

Dry skin occurs due to many factors including dehydration, dry, air conditioned or centrally heated rooms or by using harsh skin products.

If you've developed dry skin, taking steps to change these factors can help. For example, drinking more water, using a humidifier and switching to a more gentle skincare routine will all help to soothe dry skin and keep your skin soft and healthy.

How to Prevent Dry Skin

We have detailed pages on caring for dry skin, topical products for dry skin and supplements for dry skin.

Sometimes, dry skin can’t be prevented, and instead it needs to be managed. We completely understand the frustration of problem skin and have developed a range of alkalising skincare products designed to support and nourish dry skin. Our skin care range contains our unique combination of alkalising silica salts that respect the needs of stressed out, contrary and dry skin. They nourish the skin, deep within the lower layers, helping to prevent and treat dryness.

Using our range of cleansers, serums and moisturisers (especially when applied to damp skin) may well be the answer to your dry facial skin so give them a try and join the army of Sönd skincare lovers who have turned their skin fortunes around!