Andrea Pfeffer, founder of London’s Pfeffer Sal skincare clinic explains, “Dry skin and dehydrated skin share many of the same characteristics, such as tightness, roughness, flaking, scaling, redness and sensitivity, but they are different skin concerns and need to be treated differently.”
You need to perform a mini skin analysis in order to differentiate the kind of skin type you have. For this, you will have to slide your hand up on your cheek gently and see if it feels flaky, rough and dry. You will also have to figure if your skin it tight after cleaning or often inflamed and cracks in cold weather. These are signs for dry skin.
If there are fine lines on the forehead and eyes and your skin looks lacklustre and dull, you have a dehydrated skin. You will also notice that your foundation will keep patching throughout the day.
This type of skin occurs when there's lack of water in the top layer of your skin. An efficient amount of this layer should have 10-15% of water. When this percentage drops down, your skin starts to become dehydrated. There's also a misconception that you must have dry skin in order to experience dehydrated skin, which is not true.
How to treat dehydrated skin?
Lots and lots of water is what you need! When you start feeling parched on a hot day, the skin will feel the same and so you need to provide it with water. Pfeffer explains, "There are so many things that can cause dehydrated skin. Our faces get stripped of moisture by air conditioning, the weather, lack of sleep, not drinking enough water, caffeine, too-hot showers and skipping your gentle skincare routine."
How to treat dry skin?
Try to avoid using products that will scrape off the top layer of your skin which will end up disrupting your skin's pH balance. You need to incorporate vitamin B in your routine as well. Pfeffer mentions, “Vitamin B in its many forms hydrates, rebuilds the skin barrier, and soothes the skin so it’s a must-have for dry skin.”
Pfeffer recommends incorporating B vitamins into your routine, “Vitamin B in its many forms hydrates, rebuilds the skin barrier, and soothes the skin so it’s a must-have for dry skin” and sleeping in nourishing overnight masks (Drunk Elephant's F-Balm Electrolyte Waterfacial is the ultimate thirst quencher for dry skin.)
“You can recognise dry skin as it feels tight and rough to touch. It may also feel itchy with seasonal shifts or be exacerbated by exposure to central heating or air conditioning. Other lifestyle factors that increase dryness include chlorine rich swimming pools, steam rooms or saunas,” Pfeffer explains.
