[Creative Cultivation Program] Is chapped skin in winter really caused by freezing?

In autumn and winter, many people's skin loses its original smoothness. In mild cases, it starts to become rough. In severe cases, it may even crack and bleed on the hands and feet, including some parts of the skin. How does all this happen?

How does our skin crack in autumn and winter, and how should we prevent it? Every year we see some children sent to our clinic. The children's faces are usually like little red apples, but at this time they are like those little apples that look a little numb, and their faces are wrinkled. In our old saying, this is called "cracked". There are some errors in the explanation of this word on the Internet. Some explanations say that cracked skin is cracked due to freezing, which is inaccurate. The correct explanation is that the skin cracks due to dryness. If the frozen skin necrotizes and finally cracks, it is a manifestation of frostbite. Why is the child's skin as tender as a little red apple at ordinary times, but his face becomes cracked in this season? Many adults also have cracked faces and hands? There are four main reasons.

The first reason is determined by the structure of our skin. Our skin is simply divided into three layers: the epidermis, dermis, and subcutaneous tissue. The tissues below the skin have a lot of water. If you let so much water flow in and out, it will dry up in a short time. So at the top of our epidermis is a layer called the stratum corneum, which is essential for the moisturizing of our skin. Sometimes I compare it to a layer of plastic sheet, which can effectively prevent the loss of water. Below our epidermis are living cells. As we go up layer by layer, the cells become less regular and flat, and finally become completely flat dead cells. But even dead cells do not let go, and cells hold hands tightly, forming layers of film-like structures. Adult men generally have about 20 layers of stratum corneum, while women are relatively thinner, and children are even thinner. This layer of stratum corneum can prevent 95% to 99% of water from escaping under normal circumstances, if the environment is not particularly dry. However, its blocking effect will decrease when it is particularly dry. Because when the outside world is too dry, the power of water evaporation is too strong. At this time, its waterproof ability may drop to about 90%. In other words, 90% of the water is blocked, but about 10% of the water will evaporate through the stratum corneum. In this process, our skin is in a state of gradual water loss. If you don't do the last two things, including good cleaning and good moisturizing, and let it lose water, then the water in our epidermis will become less and less, and at the same time, the water that nourishes our stratum corneum will also become less and less, just like when we see the ground in the dry season, the river water evaporates and cracks appear under the river, we call it cracks. If our epidermis loses too much water, the originally flat stratum corneum will see cracks one after another under the microscope. Once cracks appear, the water inside will be lost faster. At this time, our entire skin starts to crack. In summary, the first reason for our cracking is that our stratum corneum has a certain limit to its water retention capacity. If it exceeds this limit, it can no longer retain water and eventually becomes dry.

The second is that some people are still very serious about washing their faces even in autumn and winter. We say that washing your face carefully is not a problem, but excessive cleaning is a problem. Let's see if anyone has such a habit of washing their face until they feel a crackling sound when rubbing their face. This may be okay in summer, spring or early autumn, but it may not be suitable in late autumn and winter, especially in the dry north. Because this excessive cleaning will damage the cement connecting the keratin cells we just talked about. What is this "cement" connecting cells? Our epidermal cells gradually become flat during development, and finally necrotize and die completely, but they still hold hands. They can keep holding hands. The most important thing is called the epidermal barrier, which is a colloid mixture of substances such as ceramides and triglycerides produced by cells when they are alive. As cells die, these colloids also dry up, just like cement fixes the city wall, pulling the cells tightly together. The keratin barrier can prevent water from passing through the middle, and it can prevent cells from cracking. However, it is very easy to be damaged in the state of excessive cleaning, especially when you use detergents containing soap or strong alkaline, which will quickly wash away the hard-earned glue cement in the middle, making the brick loose in the middle, more likely to peel, and the moisturizing property will be worse. After a long time, various cracks will appear. Therefore, excessive cleaning is an important reason for damaging the skin and causing our skin to crack in autumn and winter. However, think about it the other way around, is it okay not to wash your face? If you don't wash it, leaving the cement inside here is also not okay. Because if you don't wash your face at all, too much oil on your face will breed bacteria, and the bacteria that breed here will further invade the skin and damage the epidermal barrier. Excessive cleaning and insufficient cleaning will cause your keratin barrier to be damaged.

There is also a third reason, which is our moisturizing in autumn and winter. Why do we need moisturizing? As mentioned above, on the one hand, our stratum corneum tends to dry out as the water dissipates, and on the other hand, we wash away the oil during the cleaning process. If we do not moisturize, it is easy to crack. However, some people usually use moisturizing, but they find that it does not work in autumn and winter. What is the reason? Because the degree of evaporation of the skin is different in different seasons, the moisturizers we use should be different. All moisturizing products have three ingredients, one is called moisturizer, which is water-containing; one is called softener, which makes our stratum corneum softer and easier to absorb, and the other is called occlusive. The difference is that there are more moisturizers and less occlusives in moisturizing water, while in autumn and winter, the creams or moisturizing gels we use contain more occlusives, which will enhance our moisturizing effect. So in autumn and winter, we should appropriately enhance our moisturizing products.

Fourth, this is an important reason for our skin to crack in winter - ultraviolet radiation, commonly known as sunburn. Some people say that it is so cold in autumn and winter, can the sun still hurt me? Although the earth is farther away from the sun at this time, the intensity of ultraviolet rays decreases, but because the air is dry in autumn and winter, there is no more water vapor in summer to block it, so ultraviolet rays can penetrate directly to our surface and directly damage the epidermis. Even in cold weather, damage from ultraviolet rays can cause the sebaceous glands and sweat glands in your skin to function less. In the cold weather, the skin secretes less oil and water, and with the damage from ultraviolet rays, the oil produced is even less, which will further aggravate the dryness of the skin.

The four main reasons for dry skin in autumn and winter are: the natural loss of moisture in our stratum corneum, especially in dry seasons, which is the main reason; the second is improper cleaning, so we should use a neutral and gentle facial cleanser; the third is insufficient moisturizing, especially in autumn and winter, there are no strong moisturizing products with more occlusive agents, so in autumn and winter, you need to change your moisturizing products to face cream or moisturizing gel. And the fourth is that sun protection is equally important in autumn and winter.

Author: Zhang Wenhe