Washing your face properly can help prevent dryness, oily skin, irritation, and even acne.
Washing your face isn't always as simple as splashing on some water, rubbing in a little face cleanser, and rinsing. It's important to wash your face thoroughly to remove dirt, dead skin cells, and anything else that might clog your pores. Cleansing your face properly can prevent breakouts, and improve your skin health. However, bad cleaning habits can cause facial skin flakiness, redness, irritation, or even acne.
Generally, how to wash face properly, recommended by expert
1. The water always be lukewarm
For a healthy face cleansing, warm water is the best option. Lukewarm water(not cool water) is good for keeping the facial skin's essential oil and sebum while ensuring that your face washing product is functioning properly to remove dirt and pollutant from your face.
Hot water makes people feel relaxed and comfortable. However, it rids the skin's natural essential sebum, and destroys your facial skin's protective barrier, which is performed to protect itself from external aggressors, pollutants, UV, etc, eventually causing irritated skin.
2. Clean your hand firstly
Before starting the daily routines of face cleansing, wash your hands carefully and be sure that they're clean. As you don't want to transfer any bacteria from unclean hands to your clean skin.
3. Before cleansing, remove your makeup as a separate step.
You can use a mild makeup remover like coconut oil or micellar water before cleansing your face if you have makeup in the daytime.
Makeup remover, followed by a gentle facial cleanser. In this way, make sure skin is thoroughly purified properly. As pores are used to expel toxins during sleep and if clogged, they will turn into acne-prone skin very easily.
4. Use gentle facial cleanser and exfoliator
Cleansing before exfoliating is recommended for most people. Proper cleansing removes dirt, excess oil, pollutant, and water-insoluble makeup, which is better for the exfoliator's access and exfoliates dead cells. Whether for a physical exfoliant or chemical exfoliant, make sure these jobs have to be done gently.
Also, keep in mind that you should not exfoliate too often, but only twice a week maximum. It prevents you from rubbing your face too hard, which could cause your facial skin to become raw or irritated, which is also enough clear pores and get rid of dead skin cells for a fresh glowing & healthy skin.
5. Wash quick
Start with dry skin and clean hands before applying the right daily cleanser for your skin type. Don't spend too long washing your face. Aim for around 30 seconds per wash, because doing longer foaming messages could be too much for your skin clean. Washing too vigorously may cause skin issues such as redness, dryness, and irritation.
6. Pat dry with a clean towel
After washing your face, pat the skin dry with a soft and clean cloth. Don't let any other towels touch your face until you've washed them too, as towels can easily breed bacteria, which can cause inflammation of our facial skin. Therefore, a disposable fine fiber cotton soft towel would be an option.
What should you avoid for face-washing routine
1. Don't wash face with hot water
If you are washing your face with hot water, then you should avoid doing so because this can damage your skin. It dries out the facial skin and makes it more vulnerable. It also strips away natural oils and moisturizers, leaving flaky and dry skin.
2. Don't over-cleansing your facial skin
Wash too much is not a good thing, which means you are probably destroying the skin's natural barrier.
But how to tell you are washing too much? If you feel the face is tight or dry after cleansing, it means the skin is over-cleaned. Instead, the skin should feel soft, refreshed, and moisturized after washing normally.
Put it simply: Don't over-exfoliation, don't exfoliate too often, and don't cleanse too often or for too long time.
3. Don't always use makeup wipes
The makeup wipes can't clean your face well although it's very convenient. Besides, it actually makes your skin more irritated due to the skin-harmful chemicals included.
4. Don't use a used towel unless cleaned and dried
Wet towels are the perfect environment for germs to breed, make sure it is washed with soap and dried before being used. It can cause skin irritation or even infection. So please often clean and dry your towel, or use disposable soft cotton towel paper instead.
5. Don't wait too long before applying toner or moisturizer
Apply skin care products such as toner or moisturizer immediately after patting dry with a clean cloth when the face is still wet. Because the hydration has been well-locked, the wet skin facilitates the absorption of the following products.
Above are the common mistakes we should avoid. By the way, don't forget to keep your hands clean before cleansing and following skincare routine.
How many times should you wash your face daily
Generally, washing your face twice daily is recommended-once in the morning and then before bedtime. Waking up in the morning and washing your face will help get rid of germs from your pillowcase, it will also make you feel fresh and awake. Before bedtime, washing your face helps remove dirt, makeup and pollution, and the extra oil on your facial skin, which also helps the absorption of the following skincare regimen, such as toner, serum, eye cream, moisturizer, etc. If you don't clear your skin regularly, it might cause clogged pores or acne.
Divided by skin types
For dry or sensitive skin types, twice a day thoroughly wash would be too harsh, as this can further dry out and stress the skin. It's recommended to use a gentle foaming cleanser at night and just rinse with warm water without cleanser in the mornings to save natural oil as much as possible on the skin, because the oil secreted by the skin helps to restore our skin barrier.
For combination skin, acne-prone skin, or oily skin types, please wash in the morning and night. Excess oil is prone to get trapped inside your pores which leads to acne breakouts, so be sure to cleanse regularly to prevent acne. However still be gentle at morning wash, a very gentle cleanser with natural ingredients or just micellar water would be the option.
Varies according to the environment
This is about the amount of oil secreted by the skin. During cold and dry winter, the skin produces less oil, and you might want to wash face less. But in the summer season, the weather is hot and humid, you might want to wash more frequently. Even with normal skin, when the humid season shifts to a dry one, you may also want to wash less. Don't worry, be remember that wash your face with warm water(not hot or cold water), this is the key.
More face washing tips
1. Don't forget to wash your cheeks and forehead when you're washing your face.
2. It is important to constantly pay attention to how your skin reacts in order to adjust your washing habits and eventually find the proper cleansing routine for your individual skin type.
3. If you have severe acne and allergic skin, it is recommended to consult a local professional dermatologist.