Daisy`s in hot water: “I`m 18 years old and I usually spend about 25 minutes taking a long, hot shower. Can all that hot water be bad for my skin?” The Right Brain responds:
Yes, Daisy, it`s true that long, hot showers are not particularly good for your skin. In fact, according to University of Wisconsin’s Health Center, poor bathing habits may be the most common cause of dry skin! At your age your skin is less prone to dryness, but if you`re concerned here are some tips that should help:
4 Tips To Prevent Showers and Baths From Drying Out Your Skin
1. Don`t Be A Super-Soaker
Over exposure to water can remove natural oils from your skin, leaving it drier than it should be. The experts say you should only soak between 5 and 15 minutes if you want avoid drying out your skin.
2. Take Care With the Temperature
Hot water removes more oil from your skin that cool water because the heat can help dissolve oil. Also, if the water is too hot it can burn you. That sounds foolishly obvious when I put it that way, so let me say it again in science-speak: The transient heat transfer behavior in multi-layer tissues subjected to hot water can be predicted by the Pennes’ Bio-heat Equation. That sounds a little more credible, doesn`t it? (Seriously though, a water heater set over 120 degrees can be hot enough to burn you.)
3. Avoid Terrible Towel Trouble
Gently pat skin dry with a towel immediately after you get out of the tub. Don`t towel off vigorously because that can abrade your skin and increase the rate of moisture loss.
4. Lock in with Lotion
Moisturize after you bathe to lock out dryness. Use a body oil or a skin lotion containing a high oil concentration and apply it as soon as possible since the water left in your skin from the shower evaporates in about 15 minutes.
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Pam Says:
Great information. I wish I had known this when I was a teenager. My comment: another threat to one’s beauty from long, hot showers. If you are a fair-skinned person who tends to flush easily, and your face becomes flushed from the hot water, after many hot showers there could be damage to the facial capillaries that enlarge and cause the flushing. They could remain permanently enlarged, so that you are permanently flushed. I think that the exposure to heat, and flushing, is also a factor in getting spider veins (broken capillaries) on your face (and other areas), and in getting rosacea. I am in my 40’s and have had all three of these not-beautiful facial flaws since my late twenties. My reading as a layperson/patient about the causative factors have led me to believe that the long, hot showers I used to take played a part.
Right Brain Says:
Great comments, Pam. I haven’t seen data that shows hot showers can cause the problems you describe but it does make some sense. Better safe than sorry! If we come across any more details we’ll write a follow up post.