14 Things Your Dermatologist Wants to Tell You But Might Not….

There are many mis­con­cep­tions and old wives tales sur­round­ing your skin. Fol­low these tips and tricks to keep your skin healthy year after year.

1. We can tell what side of the car you sit on most.
   Most ultra­vi­o­let rays from the sun go direct­ly through side car win­dows. To com­bat this, make sure you apply sun­screen (at least SPF 30) every morn­ing and reap­ply every 2 hours, even in the winter.
   
   
2. Don’t stop your Retin‑A/​Retinoid in the sum­mer!
   Many peo­ple think that Retin‑A breaks down in the sun or caus­es a lot more sun sen­si­tiv­i­ty. It real­ly does not. Keep apply­ing your retinoid all year long for its anti-aging ben­e­fits and so your skin doesn’t have to adjust to it again in the fall.
   
   
3. Squeaky clean = Bad
   If your face has a squeaky clean feel­ing after you are done wash­ing your face, all of the good mois­ture you want to keep has been removed. Avoid soap. If you have dry or sen­si­tive skin, wash with a gen­tle or mois­tur­iz­ing cleanser. Cetaphil® or Cer­aVe® are both good choices.
   
   
4. For female hair loss, try men’s Rogaine 5% minox­i­dil for­mu­la.
   Many peo­ple are not aware that men’s and women’s Rogaine are dif­fer­ent strengths. Many women’s ver­sions are 2% strength, while men’s are 5%. It is safe for women to use the men’s ver­sion. You can also take 5,000 micro­grams of biotin to aid in hair loss.
   
   
5. Think twice about fan­cy depart­ment store skin care pur­chas­es.
   Pre­scrip­tion anti-aging prod­ucts are actu­al­ly bet­ter at pro­duc­ing col­la­gen and younger look­ing skin than fan­cy brands you find at the depart­ment store. Pre­scrip­tion grade prod­ucts are usu­al­ly about the same price.
   
   Your der­ma­tol­o­gist or estheti­cian can help pro­vide a cus­tomized solu­tion based on your needs and skin type.
   
   
6. Not all min­er­al make­ups are cre­at­ed equal.
   The best min­er­al make­ups, like Jane Iredale, con­tain no talc, FD&C dyes, syn­thet­ic preser­v­a­tives and fra­grances or parabens to let skin breathe and func­tion nor­mal­ly. Make sure you check the label before you buy!
   
   
7. Throw away your mag­ni­fy­ing mir­ror!
   Stop read­ing this arti­cle and go throw away your mag­ni­fy­ing mir­ror. Done? Good. While you may think that you need it to real­ly see your skin, it is just caus­ing you trou­ble. Peo­ple do not have mag­ni­fied eyes there­fore; no one can look at you like a mag­ni­fy­ing mir­ror does. Plus, these mir­rors encour­age unnec­es­sary pick­ing and squeeze since you are able to see your face and pores in this high­ly mag­ni­fied manner.
   
   
8. Pre­pare to get naked for that full skin exam.
   Yes, that means total­ly naked – no under­wear nec­es­sary. Your der­ma­tol­o­gist needs to see your skin, all of it. Skin can­cer can be found any­where includ­ing under toe­nails, in between toes, in armpits and oth­er areas where the sun doesn’t shine.
   
   
9. Hydrat­ing your body is not the same as hydrat­ing your skin.
   While it is impor­tant to drink 8 glass­es of water a day for your health, it is not going to hydrate your skin. The amount of mois­ture or hydra­tion in your skin is affect­ed by your envi­ron­ment.
   
   If you are in a dry heat area, you can drink all day long and your skin will still be dry. If you are in a humid area, your skin will be plump even if you drink very little.
   
   
10. Exer­cise does not make you look younger.
    Unfor­tu­nate­ly exer­cise does not have anti-aging ben­e­fits. Exer­cis­ing helps you be fit and healthy, which is great for your over­all health and well-being but the ben­e­fits don’t trans­late to your skin. Thin­ner and more ath­let­ic peo­ple over age 40 have less fat under their skin and can look old­er than over­weight individuals.
    
    
11. Base tans don’t pro­tect from sun dam­age.
    You can still get sun dam­age even though you may not burn and a ​“base tan” only pro­vides an equiv­a­lent of an SPF 4. Be sure to always wear sun­screen when in the sun and try to stay in the shade or wear a hat with a wide visor when­ev­er possible.
    
    
12. Tan­ning beds are worse than the sun.
    Tan­ning beds have much more ultra­vi­o­let A than ultra­vi­o­let B; this may burn you less but great­ly increas­es your chance for skin can­cer, espe­cial­ly melanoma. We have seen melanoma rates rise among young white women by 3% each year since 1992.
    
    Tan­ning beds are so bad that recent­ly they have become new­ly reg­u­lat­ed by the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment and states. Cur­rent­ly there is talk of a nation­al ban by minors younger than 18.
    
    
13. SPF 100 is real­ly not that much bet­ter than SPF 30.
    SPF 30 blocks about 98.6% of the sun’s rays, where­as SPF 100 may block about 99.2%. Just make sure you keep reap­ply­ing through­out the day no mat­ter the SPF lev­el you choose.
    
    
14. Sun­screens are not harm­ful.
    There is a known reduc­tion in skin can­cer from rou­tine sun­screen use. The FDA-approved sun­screens avail­able on the mar­ket have no evi­dence-based stud­ies show­ing car­cino­genic­i­ty or oth­er harm­ful effects. 

If you have any ques­tions about your skin, or skin con­di­tion, please sched­ule an appoint­ment with a board-cer­ti­fied dermatologist.