What is dry skin and what causes it?

Treatment depends on what causes your dry skin:

• Dry skin can be inherited or congenital. With this skin type, the production of sebum and moisture regulation are disrupted. This leads to symptoms such as scaliness, itching, redness and occasionally inflammation, made worse by external influences.
• Cold, heat, wind and dry heated air can irritate and cause dry skin by removing moisture and attack natural protective barriers. This is why dry skin in winter is so prevalent.
• Water removes moisture from the skin if temperatures are too high as well. For this reason, avoid long hot showers and baths to prevent dry skin including dry feet, and wash your hands in warm but not hot water to avoid dry hands.
• Incorrect care can also cause dry skin. Alkaline soap-based shower gels damage the skin more than they benefit it. Use these products sparingly and choose re-hydrating cleansing products such as NIVEA In-Shower Body Moisturiser Nourishing that doesn't cause dry skin.
• You can learn how to treat dry skin and more.

Our skin can also suffer when we are stressed or under mental strain: nerves and hormones upset the body's moisture balance and oil production. This results in raw, dry areas, stressed skin, redness and irritation. Using the perfect moisturiser can help dry skin whether caused by stress or winter.

You can find the perfect moisturiser for your skin type here.

Nursing infants can have dry and sensitive skin because their protective barrier is not very strong. Moisturising your babies skin and looking out for rashes caused for dry skin will help treat dry skin.

Natural moisturising factor (NMF) is responsible for balancing the skin’s moisture levels, keeping this in balance is key to preventing dry skin. This mixture of various metabolic products, sweat and sebum absorbs the moisture and protects the skin from drying out.

When the natural moisturising factor is depleted, skin can become dehydrated, causing dry and flaky skin. Skin lipids play an crucial part in regulating the moisture balance. These lipids form a natural protective barrier and minimise water loss and reducing dry skin.

When the skin has a lack of these important lipids symptoms of dry skin such as tightness and redness can occur. Finally, there is also dry skin that suffers from both too low a moisturising factor and from a lack of lipids. The individual severity of redness, irritation or flakiness in dry skin depends on the particular skin structure.