How to Tell if You Have Dry Skin

If you have dry skin, you may experience one or more of the following:

• Flaky, rough texture: The skin starts to flake off with insufficient moisture.
• Dehydration: Excessively dry skin has more noticeable fine lines.
• Cracks: Dry skin shrinks, causing cracks to form, while deeper cracks may even bleed.
• Itchiness: Dry skin may cause constant itching, making it more challenging to focus on everyday activities, including sleeping.
• Wrinkled: Skin becomes loose and dry with age, causing wrinkles to form.
• Peeling skin: It’s normal for skin to shed dead skin cells. However, people with dry skin experience excessive shedding, leading to peeling.
• Skin infections: Dry skin compromises the outer layer of the skin, allowing germs to enter and leading to a skin infection. Signs of infection include discoloration, swelling, yellow crusts and pus-filled areas.

8 Common Causes of Dry Skin

Skin dryness can happen to anyone, but it can be caused by various factors. Discover the major culprits behind dry skin.

Weather

The colder months can compromise your skin health, triggering eczema and dry skin. The cooler temperatures of fall and winter seasons have low ambient humidity, leading to less moisture in the air.

Once fall weather rolls in, you may notice unwanted dryness or irritation. This is caused by the lack of hydration as the air cools down. Turning the heating on at home removes moisture from the air, exacerbating dryness.

Using the Wrong Products

Just because a popular item is well-loved doesn’t mean it’s guaranteed to work on your skin. If your skin has dried out despite using a moisturizer, it’s a sign your current skin care regimen isn’t delivering your skin’s hydration needs. It may be time to switch to strict skin care for dry skin.

A certain product may also fail to solve your skin issues if it's expired. Most skin care products are safe to apply to the skin for six months to a year, depending on the formulation and the packaging.

Skin Conditions

You’re more likely to experience dry skin if you have a history of eczema or allergic contact dermatitis. It can also be an unfortunate result of genetics, such as allergic diseases in your family.

Water Temperature

Prolonged exposure to water — especially hot water — can damage skin barrier function. If you enjoy long, steamy showers at night, they might be the culprit behind your itchy and flaky skin. Bathing in hot temperatures can strip the skin of natural oils, so try lowering it to lukewarm to reduce dryness.

Aging

Your skin’s ability to retain moisture declines as you age. It stops producing lipids, causing dryness, itchiness and dermatitis. This is a common occurrence all people will experience at some point.

Smoking

You might have the ideal skin care products for dry skin, but if you smoke, you’ll still struggle with dryness. Smoking has been associated with health issues, such as heart disease, lung issues and premature skin aging. It can cause oxidative damage, leading to skin dryness. Smokers are also more susceptible to inflammatory skin diseases than non-smokers.

Excessive Face Washing

While washing your face is crucial to remove oil and dirt, doing it multiple times daily can cause dry skin. No matter your skin type, you only need to wash your face at least once a day using a gentle cleanser to avoid irritation.

Over-Exfoliation

According to Robert Finney, MD, FAAD — a board-certified cosmetic dermatologist — you’re overexfoliating if you feel a stinging or burning sensation when applying lotion to the face. This can also happen when you’re not using the right exfoliator for your skin type. For instance, people with sensitive skin should look for gentle chemical exfoliators instead of physical variants.