How Does Humidity Affect Your Skin?

Have you ever noticed a change in your skin when you travel to a new place? Or at the onset of a new season? Well, it’s because of the changing humidity levels.

Besides your hair, humidity can deeply affect your skin’s health too. So every time there’s a fluctuation in the humidity levels, be prepared to combat its adverse effects. Wondering how?

In this article, we tell you how humidity levels affect your skin and how you can minimize its effects to sport a youthful and glowing skin.

Highlights:

• How Does Humidity Affect Your Skin?
• Other Health Concerns Due To Effects Of Humidity
• How To Take Care Of Your Skin In Humid Weather?
• Is High Humidity Good For Your Skin?
• What Is The Ideal Humidity For Human Skin?

How Does Humidity Affect Your Skin?

Humidity is the measurement of water droplets present in the air. Your skin needs a perfect balance of humid and arid conditions. Excessive humidity or too little of it can have negative effects on your skin. For example, if you are living in places with too low humidity levels, your skin is likely to feel dry and scaly. On the other hand, your skin might get prone to acne and rashes if you are living in places that have high humidity levels.

1. High Humidity

A. Excessive Sweating

You may have noticed that humidity makes summer unbearable. The normal temperature feels extreme when the place is highly humid. The combination of high temperature and humidity makes you sweat even more. The worst part is, the sweat evaporates due to excessive heat and the moisture stays on your skin, making you feel even worse.

B. Acne Breakout

Since excessive sweating is a common outcome of high humidity, it brings a lot of skin issues along with it. One such skin concern is acne breakouts. Sweating clogs your skin pores, resulting in painful bumps on your skin. Acne causes redness, itching and discomfort. [1]

C. Anhidrosis

Anhidrosis is a skin condition in which a person is unable to sweat. Such a skin condition is more prevalent across hot and humid places such as the southeastern USA and Gulf State. Due to extreme environmental humidity, your skin’s ability to sweat slowly reduces. When the sweat cannot evaporate, it stays back and blocks the sweat ducts. The blockage does not allow your skin to sweat. Naturally, sweat glands do not function properly. [2]

D. Heat Rash

Just like acne, excessive heating and sweating leads to development of heat rashes. Heat rashes occur when your sweat ducts are closed due to excessive perspiration. Small red bumps appear all over your body making you feel itchy and uncomfortable. [3]

2. Low Humidity

A. Dry Skin

Low humidity means lack of moisture in the air and that is also a bad state for your skin. Any type of skin would need moisture to be soft and supple. Low humidity makes your skin run out of its natural oils. Lack of moisture makes it extremely dry and flaky. In severe dry conditions, you may also face cracking skin and bleeding.

B. Allergy Symptoms

If you are prone to skin allergies, low humid weather can make them worse. When the humidity level drops, it makes your body dry. Your nasal passage also becomes extremely dry. In the case of allergies, you may find your nose bleeding. Nose bleeding can lead to a sinus infection as well.

Other Health Concerns Due To Effects Of Humidity

A. Asthma

High humidity worsens the situation for asthma patients. In high humidity, the air becomes heavy with moisture, and people who have asthma may find it difficult to breathe. This kind of situation increases the chances of getting an asthma attack.

B. Frizzy Hair

Another disadvantage of imbalanced humidity is that it takes a toll on your hair’s health, making it dry and frizzy.

C. Heat Stroke

Overheating of your body due to prolonged exposure to high temperature or failure of your sweating mechanism can cause a condition called heatstroke. It happens when the temperature of your body rises and fails to cool down, leading to heat exhaustion. You may get heat stroke after heat exhaustion. [4]

How To Take Care Of Your Skin In Humid Weather?

A. Knowing Your Skin [5]

To save your skin from humid weather, start with knowing your skin. Understanding your skin type will help you determine what kind of precautions you need to take for extreme weather conditions. Among a plethora of products available for different skin types, choose the one that is best suited for your skin type. That way you would be able to prepare your skin for the humid weather.

B. Keep Your Skin Clean

If you are someone with oily or combination skin, humidity is certainly a factor that would cause your skin to feel worse. Make it a point to keep your skin clean at all times to prevent acne breakouts or other skin rashes. Use a non-comedogenic cleanser. Also if you have acne prone skin, use cleansers formulated with salicylic acid and benzoyl peroxide.

C. Moisturize Daily

Moisturizer is a must irrespective of the humidity level. For high humidity conditions, you may choose a soothing lightweight moisturizer that keeps your skin soft and hydrated. If you are living in places with low humidity, your skin becomes dry and itchy. In such cases, it is better to apply a body lotion or body butter to protect it from being dry and dull.

D. Wear A Sunscreen

No matter what the weather condition is, applying sunscreen is compulsory. It is the best way to protect your skin from extreme weather conditions, besides shielding it from the harmful UV rays. Remember to wear sunscreen wherever you go out in the sun or you opt for a swimming session. Choose a sunscreen that suits your skin type and provides you with the maximum benefits.

E. Try A Humidifier

You can get a humidifier to control the environment of your home. A humidifier will help balance the air hydration by forcing moisture into the atmosphere. If you can control the environment around you, then you can control your skin as well. Humidifiers are extremely useful, especially during winter or summer.

F. Indulge In Weekly Facials

Choose to do weekly facials to keep your skin pores unclogged, clean, and free of oil, sweat, and product buildup. Also, suitably exfoliate your skin with homemade scrub or baking soda. Facial steam too works great on your skin. In fact, taking a facial steam before your exfoliation process, would help in opening your pores and cleaning them from inside. You can use a face mask also to absorb excess oil from your skin.

G. Stay Hydrated

Hydration is key to achieve healthy skin. Keep your body adequately hydrated by drinking sufficient amounts of water, eating a balanced diet, and using products that hydrate your skin from within.

Is High Humidity Good For Your Skin?

• Both too high and too low humidity levels are not suitable for your skin.
• Your skin prefers more of a balanced humidity level.
• Extreme high humidity can cause issues like excessive sweating, acne breakout and heat rash.
• Dermatologists suggest adjusting the humidity level of your house using a humidifier.
• Set the humidity level above 40 but below 50 to keep it comfortable.

What Is The Ideal Humidity For Human Skin?

The ideal humidity level varies from person to person. It depends on multiple factors such as age, genetic, skin type, surrounding environment. But according to dermatologists, an ideal humidity level of human skin stands somewhere between 30 and 50%.

Wrapping Up

Your skin can go through a lot of potential issues in both high and low humidity. But few effects are major and hard to avoid. Still, if you take precautions on time, it would be easier to protect your skin in both the climate. Use best-suited products for your skin, adjust the humidifier, keep your skin moisturizer, and you are all set to fight the humidity war!

Begin By Knowing Your Skin