How to Heal Dehydrated Skin

If there’s one thing most of us can agree on when the weather starts to cool, it's that our skin gets really dry. We probably start to slather on moisturizer and apply copious amounts of lip balm, but did you know that dry skin and dehydrated skin are not the same thing? In fact, dry skin is a condition people have or a skin-type and is something that requires more long-lasting treatment, while dehydrated skin is due to temporary weather and environmental factors. Who knew?

So what is dehydrated skin? 

Dehydration typically refers to lack of hydration, or lack of water, but when it comes to our skin, there’s so much more to take into consideration (although we do want you to drink enough water every day). Dehydrated skin actually ages faster, because it’s more broken down and easily irritated. And worse, it can cause discoloration or skin tone unevenness. The more hydrated you keep your skin, the more elasticity it has and the more it can repair itself. Remember, your skin is an organ, and just like our other organs, it needs ongoing care. As we age, our fragile skin can actually cause us to get cuts more easily and heal slower, possibly risking infection, so caring for your skin is more than just worrying about aging (although healthy skin means less wrinkles — just sayin’)

Some things you should be doing to care for your skin include:

• Water for the win. Drinking water as your main beverage (not just when you’re thirsty) and replacing soda or other artificial drinks.
• Tepid shower anyone? Hot water dries out our skin and strips it of our natural oils, so ensuring your water temperature is just right or on the cooler side invigorates our skin. If you can, don’t shower every day. This allows skin oils to build up (just make sure to wear deodorant if you leave the house!).
• Keep it comfy Goldilocks. Control your room temperature. Too cold or too hot are both detrimental to our skin. You could also consider adding humidifiers to your rooms to pump in that much-needed moisture.
• Lay off the booze. Sorry to be a buzzkill, but alcohol is extremely dehydrating, so managing how much you have and how often can also help maintain healthy hydrated skin.

These are all fairly simple ways to care for your skin, but if you really want to go the extra mile, we’re going to let you in on some secrets that you can use to fix your dehydrated skin from the inside.

All Hail Collagen

Not-so-fun-fact: After the age of 20, we produce about 1% less collagen in our skin each year. Collagen, is a natural and key protein that creates and fortifies tendons, connective tissues and bones, and makes up nearly 80% of our skin! So, yeah, it’s kind of a big deal. When we lose collagen, we lose elasticity and luminosity, or that healthy glow we tend to have in our younger years. The good news is that you can reinforce your skin from the cellular level with Terra Origin natural beauty products:

• Collagen Skin Boost: A digestible supplement in powder form, instead of a cream (and that comes in yummy flavors like Acai Berry and Citrus), formulated to nourish your skin from the inside-out  and leave you feeling radiant and confident. You glow girl!
• Probiotic Collagen Peptides: Help your gut retain more of the nutrients you consume by reducing inflammation, rebuilding that important digestive lining and helping prevent leakage. These peptides are also powder-based and with flavors like berry melon and matcha green tea, they taste great too. 
• Collagen and Protein Bone Broth: Bone broth is amazing for our bodies, but to make your own is super time intensive. This powder solution takes all the benefits of bone broth and puts them in yummy flavors like chocolate, vanilla, strawberry banana, coffee or unflavored with turmeric for a quick and easy on-the-go solution. Plus each serving is packed with 17g of protein.
• Beauty Capsules: These capsules pack a combination of collagen and biotin giving you just the right mix of nutrients for healthy hair, skin and nails. But wait, there’s more! You’ll also get the right vitamin mix for higher energy, a better metabolism, and a healthier nervous system.*
• Inner Beauty Capsules: This natural detox and probiotic contains things like licorice, ginger root, amla fruit and senna leaf extract, which combine to reduce eczema and redness, delay aging, reduce wrinkles and skin damage, alleviate inflammation, reduce water retention, and increase brightness.*
• Resveratrol Plus: One capsule is packed with antioxidant, age-defying and anti-inflammatory properties from Green Tea Leaf extract, Resveratrol, Vitamin C and Quercetin, key nutrients in supporting, healthy, youthful skin.

Like any habit, it’s best to start out small. You don’t need to do all of these things immediately if you suffer from dehydrated skin. Just pick one or two that you can start being more mindful about and go from there. And pay attention to what works for you. There’s no one-size-fits-all prescription for healthy skin. But some small steps can make a big difference.

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food & Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.