It is important to know how to take proper care of your skin. Avoiding skin cancer, preventing wrinkles, and having beautiful, smooth skin are some of the benefits of protecting your skin.  However, not everyone has the time to apply skin care products every day; according to research done in the U.S., over 80% of skin care products are purchased by women between the ages of 25 and 55. 

But that doesn’t mean women are the only ones who should care for their skin.  Caring and nurturing the skin is important to both boys and girls---although the two genders have different goals when it comes to skin care.  This article serves to be the ultimate guide to caring for your skin for both genders.  But first, let’s talk about why skin care is important.

Why Take Care Of Your Skin?

Some people do not know this, but your skin is actually an organ, just like your heart and brain.  In fact, it is the largest organ in your body and is often taken for granted.  The skin protects the rest of your body from getting sick by keeping dangerous microorganisms, harmful UV radiation, and other dangerous substances from getting to you. 

Aside from keeping things out, it also controls your body temperature making sure you maintain normal temperatures no matter how hot or cold it is around you.  This includes having your hair stand up in order to trap as much heat as possible when it is cold, or releasing sweat to keep your body cool.

So it is obvious to see that your skin plays a major role in keeping you healthy, and not taking care of your skin can be detrimental to your body.   There are also various skin diseases or infections that you can have if you do not take good care of your skin.  The skin diseases include the likes of eczema, herpes, psoriasis, dermatitis, or acne.  Besides looking unpleasant, these skin conditions make it hard, if not impossible, for some people to go out into to the sun or into warmer climates.  Now that we know why skin care is important, let us now talk about specific skin care techniques that both genders can use.

The Girl’s Guide To Taking Care Of The Skin

Taking care of the skin is not only a health issue for a girl; it is also a big cosmetic issue.  The skin is one of the most important aspects of a girls’ physical appearance.  You spend an enormous amount of time taking care of it to make sure your complexion is beautiful and your skin is spotless.  Contrary to popular belief, you do not need a plethora of skin products to have beautiful skin. 

In fact, radiant younger-looking skin is easy to achieve by making a few small changes in your lifestyle.  The following steps may seem like common sense but with our current busy society, it gets easy to forget.  Here are some things a girl can do to make sure the skin is beautiful and stays beautiful.    

Minimize your exposure to the sun

The sun is the leading cause to premature skin aging, leaving us with deep wrinkles, aging spots, and spider veins.  It would be unrealistic, however, to advise you to stay inside at all costs.  Instead, when you do leave your home, cover up as much as you can and apply sunblock -- try to use at least SPF 30, more if you’re especially sensitive to the sun.  Not only does this prevent premature aging of the skin, but it also reduces your risk of developing skin cancer.

Manage your stress

Stress affects all parts of our body --- the skin is no exception.  Many people who become stressed out will break out in acne, psoriasis (skin redness and irritation), eczema, and other skin disorders.  Finding ways to reduce the stress in your life is very important, as it can improve both your overall health and the appearance of your skin.  If you’re someone who is easily overcome by stress, some stress relieving methods you could try include:

· relaxation

· meditation

· yoga

· laughter

· being around loved ones

If you still find yourself and your skin to be suffering from stress, you might want to reconsider your environment instead, such as your current career or your home.  Sometimes, changing your surroundings is more beneficial than finding ways to cope with your current situation.

Stop smoking

After sun exposure, heavy chain smoking is about the worst thing you could do to your skin.  Smoking is not only bad to your overall health but it also has all kinds of detrimental effects to your skin, leading to leathered and wrinkled skin.  However, visible improvements of the skin can be seen after weeks of smoke cessation; so if you’re smoking now, stop!

Exfoliate at night and moisturize in the morning

As a girl, you put on a lot of beauty products on your skin to look good during the day.  All that needs to come off at the end of the night.  Exfoliation is the process of removing dead skin cells and chemicals from your skin.  Exfoliation is important to the face but it is also important to other parts of your body too if you want beautiful skin for bikini season.  It is also important to moisturize your face in the morning before applying any makeup on.  Makeup contains a lot of chemicals that will make your skin dry; moisturizing before makeup application will prevent dry skin.

Skin products that work

As a girl you can’t help but use skin care products for your body, especially your face.  But there are so many products on the market that you may be confused as to which ones really work.  To avoid any confusion, here is a list of some, but not all, of the products that have been proven to work.  The list separated into natural skin care and artificial skin care products. 

Artificial makeup and cosmetics:

·       The Luxe Chanel Lift Lumiere Firming and Smooth Fluid Makeup (foundation)

·       Korres Quercetin & Oak Age Reversing (anti-aging facial primer)

·       Acne Solutions by Clinique (skin cream)

·       Clearasil Acne Cream (skin cream)

·       Maybelline New York Instant Age Rewind Eraser for Dark Circle Treatment (concealer)

Organic makeup and cosmetics:

·       Aloe Body Butter (skin cream)

·       Aloe Soothing Moisture Lotion SPF 15 (skin lotion)

·       Tea Tree Blemish Gel (facial gel)

·       Tea Tree Face Mask (face mask)

These products have been proven to work by researchers and various surveys done with thousands people who use these products.

The Guy’s Guide To Taking Care Of Your Skin

Taking care of the skin for guys is a little bit different from girls.  For girls, skin care is an important component of their daily routine.  It is an essential part of what defines their physical beauty.  So girls put in a lot more work to take care of the skin; the goal of skin care for women is to have glowing and beautiful skin that illuminates any room they walk into.  However guys have a very different goal in mind when it comes to skin care.  Skin care for guys boils down to keeping the skin clean, acne-free, and scar-free.  The following is a list of things a guy can do to take care of their skin:

Preventing dry skin for guys

·       Limit your showers to 5-10 minutes at most.  This usually isn’t a big problem for guys as guys tend to take quicker showers than girls.  But if you are one of those that takes long showers (such as athletes), try shortening up your showers.  5-10 minutes should be more than enough time for you to clean your body.

·       Hot showers are great after an extremely strenuous workout or physically exerting activity---but they also tend to damage the skin quite a bit.  Instead, try taking lukewarm showers.  Most showers temperatures can get up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit.  Taking showers above 107 degrees can be damaging to the skin in the long run.  So when showering, try to shower around at 100 degrees or under.

·       Always apply lotion after showers.  Many guys do not do this but it is important to keep the skin moisturized.

·       Try not to stay out in the sun too much.  If you can’t help it, use sunblock.    

Preventing cuts and scars

·       Apply warm water on your face before shaving.  Warm water makes the hair stand up, thereby making it easier to shave and prevent cuts.  Also, invest in a good razor.  Old-fashioned (disposable) single-blade razors are extremely tough on the skin and you are more likely to cut your face shaving when using one.

·       Prevent scarring by immediately tending to your wounds.  Cuts are a regular occurrence for active guys.  You can’t prevent them.  However, what you can do is minimalize the scarring from the cuts.  Clean out the cut/scrape immediately after the incident happens.  Use hydrogen peroxide or ointment such as Neosporin.  Cover the wound right after you’ve cleaned it and keep it covered until it has fully healed.  And the most important part, do not pick the scab!

Controlling and preventing Acne

·       Use benzoyl peroxide daily.  Benzoyl peroxide has many uses and it is extremely effective as an antimicrobial.  Using it daily will help clean the pores in the skin and reduce the amount of bacteria on your skin.  Initial usage will cause some dryness on the skin but that should quickly go away as the body adjusts to it.

·       Always wash your face in the shower.  But don’t use the same bar of soap you use for the rest of your body.  Instead, pick a body wash or soap that is designed for the face.  Dove makes great men’s facial cleansers that are both for the face and the (rest of the) body. 

Preventing and Removing Wrinkles

Now that we have discussed specific skin care techniques for both guys and girls, let us now address the most prominent issue regarding skin care---wrinkles.  Wrinkles are a natural part of aging and affects both males and females alike.  You can’t avoid it.  But slowing the growth and appearance of wrinkles is possible. 

In order to prevent premature wrinkles, a proper diet is necessary.  Taking a lot of vitamin C will aid in the production of collagen and has been proven to show less wrinkles in women compared to those that did not take a lot of vitamin C in their diets.  Vitamin E is another important antioxidant that improves skin elasticity (lack of elasticity is one of the main reasons wrinkles appear as we age).  It can be found in foods such as almonds, spinach, and peanut butter. It can also be found in most anti-aging creams.

Wrinkles do not have any effect on your health, but rather, just your appearance.  That being said, eating Omega-3 fats will help hide the wrinkles by moisturizing your skin.  When your skin is dry, the wrinkles appear more prominently and look even more unpleasant than they normally do.  These Omega-3 fats can be found in various fish such as salmon, herring, tuna, and trout.  You can also find them in walnuts and flaxseed.

However, if you are reading this now, it may already be too late for you to be preventing the wrinkles, so there are ways you can reduce the appearance of some of the wrinkles.  Wrinkles are categorized by three different levels: fine, surface, and deep.  The fine lines can be covered using anti-aging creams that you can find in stores.  Although they reduce the appearance of wrinkles, they do not remove them completely and will still be visible if the treatment is not applied repeatedly.  For surface lines and deep lines, it is necessary to see a specialist. 

One specialist that can help you is a laser specialist that can remove wrinkles using laser therapy; the lasers poke little holes into the skin that help the body produce more collagen and increase the skins elasticity.  Another specialist you can see is a cosmetic dermatologist who can apply Botox to your face in order to lift it up.  Deep wrinkles can be filled using derma fillers which add volume to your face in order to stretch the skin out.  By doing that, the wrinkles disappear for up to a year and the smoothness returns to your skin immediately.

If you take proper care of your diet, you can prevent the premature appearance of wrinkles.  However, even if you already have wrinkles, it is not too late; just see the proper specialist or get the right cream and you will be as good as new.  And remember; do not smoke because that one of the leading causes saggy wrinkles.

How To Get Beautiful Skin

Getting beautiful skin is not complicated---but it does take work.  It comes down to constantly making sure that your skin is consistently moisturized and clean.  This means making sure to lotion consistently, wearing sunblock in the sun, and avoiding heat.  Having beautiful skin also means that you should always keep your skin clean.  That means exfoliating your skin at the end of the day and avoiding harmful products and chemicals on the skin.  Lastly, it also means that you should avoid aggravating your body.  This means you should get a proper amount of sleep and avoid stress in your life. 

As you can see, taking care of the skin is extremely important whether you are a guy or a girl.  The skin is an organ that is most exposed and therefore need the most care.  Follow the tips outlined in this article and you can be sure that your skin will stay beautiful and youthful.