Working out always comes with some sort of compromise. Whether it’s pushing yourself, getting up super early to hit the gym, or giving yourself an extra workout per week, exercise isn’t always our favorite thing to do. We also tend to get a little sweaty in the gym, especially with our more intense workouts. Unfortunately, sweating can come with breakouts, and for those of you who like to hit it hard at the gym, this can be an issue, especially for our skincare that we worked on 24/7 to keep looking fresh.
Thankfully, we got to speak to Dermal Therapist Dr. Giulia D’Anna to put together her top tips we need to incorporate into our skin regime tips for the gym junkie and to care for our skin after that sweat sesh!
Give Yourself Some Chill Time After Self Care
After having any kind of facial, skin needling or even the humble “wax”, try and avoid the gym for 24 hours. All these kinds of treatment make the skin hyper-inflamed as part of the treatment. The skin is working hard to repair, restore and rebalance. If you work out on top of that, it is just too much for the skincare. The sweat glands are often “sealed shut” due to inflammation caused by the treatment, and this is normal and expected. If you then work out and try and sweat, the sweat will still form but have nowhere to go. This causes a blockage in the sweat gland, often leading to localized infection or acne. So sweating is best avoided after having any kind of skin treatment or waxing.
The 411 On Oily Skin And The Products You Should Be Using
Heavy sweaters often find that their skin looks shiny or oily, and try to wash or exfoliate their skin often. However, washing away all of the oils on this skin often leads to more oil being produced by the skin to combat the surface loss. Instead, you should look for oil-free moisturizers. Also, try and limit makeup with silicones. The silicones are very heavy and will not allow the sweat to escape the skin. Mineral makeup is best if you are the type to wear makeup at the gym, as it sits on the surface of the skin, and allows sweat, oil, and moisture to escape as needed.
Limit The Amount You Shower
Often the temptation is to shower often when you have had a sweat session. Make sure the water is not too hot and you limit your shower time. Hot water again dissolves all the surface oil on your skin, leading to dehydration of the skin. Taking a long shower is also not so great for your skin. The skin surface is usually sitting at around a natural pH of 5.5. Water is 7.0. So overtime we wash our skin (including our face with just water), our skin pH rises. Add ordinary soap into the mix, and the pH rises to 10. Such an elevation in skin pH leads to a greater risk of skin breakouts as bacteria thrive in a neutral or basic environment. Those with sensitive skin will more likely also show signs of increased irritability and redness each time their skin pH deviates north of the usual acidic surface PH.
Botox For Sweating
If sweat on the brow or face, or even the scalp, is a problem, there are solutions. One such solution is the use of micro-dose botox. Micro doses are not cosmetic doses, but tiny, tiny doses that are given to help reduce the small muscles in the sweat and oil glands from being able to pump out the usual sweat and oils to the surface. This means that oily scalps can be reduced, so even after a heavy sweat session in the gym, your hair will still be shiny and bouncy. Facial sweating can also reduce as a result of micro-dosing with botox.
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