When we’re born, our skin is genetically programmed to behave a certain way. Think oily, dry, or combination. Outside of intense medications or environmental stressors, this is the way it will stay for your whole life – right?
Wrong!
While your underlying skin type tends not to change, or changes very slowly over the course of a lifetime, your skin has other influences, leading it be behave and look a certain way. These transient (and sometimes stubborn) issues are called skin conditions.
What is a “skin condition”?
The condition of your skin, which we’ll cover in this article, indicates how your skin is currently responding to unique challenges in the form of environmental, genetic and sometimes random factors. It can be just an aesthetic thing, like fine lines, or something causing you pain, like stinging.
Think of a skin condition as a temporary state or issue your skin is experiencing at a certain time, on top of your regular skin type. It’s when your skin is out of balance and thus not in its best possible shape. It’s how it feels and looks in the medium-term.
We try to identify these problems to best adjust your routine to manage these imbalances or tendencies.
What are the most common skin conditions?
The two most common skin conditions I see are dehydration and sensitivity. They’re usually in response to an incompatible product or routine you’re using every day. You’re taking your skin away from a state of homeostasis and into some form of reaction or response that isn’t how it’s naturally supposed to be.
Acne – be it minor non-inflammatory stuff or intense cystic inflammation – is probably one of the most well-known skin conditions, affecting most of us at some point in our lives. And when it’s over, there’s still the issue of acne scarring.
Pigmentation disorders like melasma are most common in women, triggered by hormones, and can be very tricky to treat.
There are so many skin conditions that one couldn’t list them all in a single article. Sun damage, infection, and even natural ageing. What they all have in common is that these are not permanent, intrinsic qualities of yours. And so, they can be treated and brought back to a state of balance.
