Cause of Your Dry Skin. Is it Dehydrated Or Unmoisturized? Both Or Something Else?

There are many labels we use to describe skin types. There's aged, oily, sensitive, balanced, dry, dehydrated, hormonal, gender-based, and many more. Often, a person has a combination of labels they can use to describe their skin. For example, a woman in her late 40s who normally has balanced skin but is now also has aged skin. Many products advertised for dry skin don't hit the mark. While much of that is due to the formulation. Different formulas work for different people. A lot of it is because they are targeting different types of dry skin. Dry skin is more complicated than it seems. In this post, I am writing about dry skin. All of it as simply as I can. I am going to go over unmoisturized skin, dehydrated skin, and skin with Filaggrin Deficiency. All of them are related to dry skin, but how?

We are going to start this with some definitions to prevent confusion. The first definition is Sebum. Sebum is simply the oil that humans produce. It is also known as human lipids. This post will call it sebum, oil, or maybe lipids. It lubricates the skin allowing flexibility, is an occlusive preventing water loss, acts as a barrier preventing microbes (and the like) from entering the skin and body, and so many other functions. Now that the simple definition is out of the way, let's poke around "dry skin". Normally, we know of dry skin in relation to balance, or normal, and oily skin types. Dry skin doesn't produce enough oil, balanced or normal skin produces adequate oil, and oily skin produces too much oil. This type of dry skin we are going to call unmoisturized skin. it doesn't sound the nicest but we are going for it. The other main type of dry skin is dehydrated skin. Dehydrated skin has an absence of water molecules. They are both, unmoisturized and dehydrated, considered dry skin. One of the main reasons is that they are two major components of Transepidermal Water Loss or TEWL.

TEWL is a function of the skin so let's discuss skin really quick. The skin, the body's largest organ, is made of three main layers (within those layers are layers). The top layer is called the epidermis and the top layer within that layer is called the Stratum Corneum or the SC. The SC is made up of a corneocyte and lipid intracellular matrix that is commonly described as a "brick and mortar" complex. The lipids (oil/sebum) are interlaced between the corneocytes and form the skin's barrier. The Skin Barrier is also known as the Moisture Barrier and Lipid Barrier. All of this makes up the SC.

The SC protects the epidermis, the epidermis protects the dermis, and the dermis protects the hypodermis, or subcutaneous. This makes up the skin and the skin protects the body. That's the simple version. The SC and the skin barrier work to keep microorganisms, pollution, dirt, and more out of the body and retain hydration in the skin and body.

The body is mostly made of water. Skin like all the other organs has water and needs water to properly function. It can not have enough water because enough water is not consumed, to begin with, or from the TEWL. The TEWL is when water molecules that travel from the lower layers of the skin, with the corneocytes, evaporate from the skin's surface. This gives you dehydrated skin. You can have dehydrated oily skin, balanced skin, and so on.

Dry skin is a shared titled as discussed above. There are two ways to arrive here--not enough oil production and not enough water. Dry skin that comes from not having enough oil production we are going to call unmoisturized skin. Moisturized skin has enough (or too much) oil and the components of oil to prevent TEWL. Oil is necessary to TEWL because the oil works as an occlusive. Occulsives work like "breathable" shields. It blocks a lot of the water molecules from evaporating. Without it, there is little to keep the water molecules from evaporating and leading to dry skin, chronically.

This chronically dry skin is more likely to be permanent or very long-lasting. A few things determine oil production such as genetics, medications, hormones, and a few other things. Medication and hormones could be a temporary change or they could be permanent. Genetics you can't change. It's permanent. It's genetic.

Genetics also affects something called the Natural Moisturizing Factor or NMF. In her book, A-Z of Natural Cosmetic Formulation, Gail Francombe the founder of the School of Natural Skincare describes NMF as a group of "water-soluble chemical components" that are in the intercellular matrix of the skin barrier. They are humectants that keep water molecules in the skin's SC. They are created from a process. Filaggrin is created from the degradation of corneocyte protein. When corneocytes are in the Stratum Granulosum layer of the epidermis, they go from a cell with a nucleus to a flattened cell without a nucleus. During this process, profilaggrin becomes filaggrin. The degradation products of this process are the water-soluble chemical components of the NMF.

The NMF, in summary, are the natural humectants of the skin. This relates to dry skin because dry skin and Filaggrin Deficiency commonly occur together. Filaggrin Deficiency is related to atopic dermatitis, eczema, and rosacea. Ideally, a person would get the necessary genes from both parents. People with these conditions have only one parent who passes it down or none. The result is dry sensitive skin.

Summary:

So let's summarize this. The skin is the body's largest organ and like all other organs, it needs water. It has three main layers and water molecules travel throughout it eventually evaporating at the surface. This is the Transepidermal Water Loss. To prevent this evaporation and to lubricate the skin, the body has the skin barrier. This barrier is made of dead skin cells called Corneocytes and oil called Sebum. This is the intercellular matrix. It significantly slows down the water evaporation. The third main aspect of the skin is the Natural Moisturization Fractor or NMF. It is created by the skin and is a natural humectant. Someone with balanced or oily skin would have all three happening together in peace and harmony. Someone with dry skin is normally missing one of the following:

• Moisturized skin is skin that produces enough sebum to properly lubricate the skin to maintain its flexibility and softness; prevent the evaporation of water molecules; while blocking the entrance of microorganisms, bacteria, and pollution; and protect against UV radiation. Unmoisturized skin does not adequately provide that and gets labeled as DRY SKIN.

• Hydrated skin contains a proper level of water molecules that the body needs to carry on its processes. Dehydrated skin does not and gets labeled as DRY SKIN.

• Skin that has NMF has its natural humectant at levels that can help maintain the skin's hydration levels. Skin that has Filaggrim Deficiency does not produce enough NMF, or Natural Moisturizing Factor, the skin's natural humectant. This happens with atopic dermatitis, eczema, and rosacea and gets labeled as DRY SKIN.

A person can have dry skin because it is unmoisturized, dehydrated, and/or is lacking in NMF. You don't have to have all three simultaneously. You can have dehydrated unmoisturized skin, dehydrated balanced skin, dehydrated oily skin, dehydrated combination skin, and so on. You can also have hydrated unmoisturized skin, hydrated balanced skin, hydrated oily skin, hydrated combination skin, and so on. I think you get the picture. Your skin can do whatever it wants to do. So this kinda explains why some products for dry skin will or won't work for your skin. Some products are mainly attacking one aspect more than the others. But they all get labeled the same thing.

Works Cited:

Coming Soon