Skincare: heat and cold can help you
The beneficial actions that ice and heat can have on skin problems are diverse and varied: we’ll find out more in this week's article.
Benefits of heat and cold for the skin: what does your skin need? Depending on the need, it may require the intervention of both.
and a sunburn at the beach to a bothersome ingrown hair.
An article read in the popular lifestyle magazine Cosmopolitan, cosmopolitan.com, will guide us through the shortcuts for healthier and more beautiful skin.
Sauna, cryotherapy, hot steam, ice packs. These skin beauty treatments have one thing in common: the role of temperature, which makes a difference in the effect on our bodies.
While colder temperatures have an anti-inflammatory and anti-swelling effect, warmer temperatures make the skin smoother and reduce pores.
It is not always easy to know whether our skin should be treated with ice or heat. In this article we will respond to a few doubts and make some of the steps for solving minor skin imperfections more understandable.
Have you got a painful spot? Use ice
Have you ever run your fingers over a spot under your skin and felt pain? These subcutaneous formations are also known as cysts and are essentially small “balloons” that develop inside the follicles and fill up with sebum. The words of Joshua Zeichner, Director of Cosmetics and Clinical Research in the Department of Dermatology at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. “When they get large enough, they can burst and become inflamed. In these situations, ice constricts the blood vessels and reduces inflammation, and can thus prevent swelling. To stop the cyst from expanding, ointments available at pharmacies with the following active ingredients can be applied: 1% cortisone, 2% salicylic acid and 2.5% benzoyl peroxide. This combination, together with ice, will give excellent results”, continued Dr Zeichner.
Use the action of heat for ingrown hairs
Surely you have noticed annoying and unsightly ingrown hairs on your skin - some can even be painful! Don’t make the mistake of pinching them, but use a warm compress for 5 to 10 minutes: this is dermatologist Melissa Kanchanapoomi Levin’s suggestion. The benefits of heat will allow the inflammation to dissipate and relieve pain in the affected area of your skin.
A small amount of benzoyl peroxide two times a day or a little cortisone cream will help until it is completely healed.
Sunburn: ice is your ally
Did you notice a bad sunburn after a day outdoors? Your skin is giving off a lot of heat and is in serious risk of dehydration. Run for cover and chill your skin with an ice pack or an icy compress: this is what Dr Kanchanapoomi Levin maintains. As we have already mentioned many times, never apply ice directly to the skin!
Along with the cold compresses, rub aloe vera gel or a rich moisturising cream onto the area to nourish the skin.
For more serious burns, contact your doctor and also consider taking medication, which will help reduce pain and any inflammation.
Heat is what you need to remove blackheads
Strips to clean the T-zone (the one including the nose and chin) are a very common remedy for eliminating blackheads. To help the strips do their job, try using the strip after taking a hot shower or holding your face near hot steam. The moist warmth softens the skin, promotes the opening of pores and allows blackheads to be removed quickly and painlessly.
Ice is perfect for getting rid of under-eye swelling
Anything that can be cooled - an ice pack, a homemade cold compress, a jade roller - will immediately reduce swelling if you have unsightly puffiness under the eyes.
Facial swelling is immediately reduced because ice reduces blood flow, particularly in areas where it tends to accumulate in large quantities (such as the under-eye area).
What do you think of these skincare techniques that use the action of heat and cold? Will you use any of them; do you know any others?
Share your opinion with us, contact Dispotech.