Is a Hot Shower Really Bad for Your Skin?

It’s a fact of life that most things we enjoy, are investigated by an expert and are found to be bad for us. Think about it - alcohol, red meat, sunshine, sugar, salt, caffeine and now – even hot showers are found to be bad for us. As the experts in all things shower related, we thought it was only fair that we covered the subject.

So here goes…

What’s the issue with hot showers?

Hot showers have been proven to inflame the skin. This inflammation then in turn causes redness, itching and even peeling, which many of us will recognise as the usual symptoms of sunburn.

As well as inflammation, hot water very quickly removes many of your skins natural oils, fats and proteins – which work together to keep your skin both moisturised and looking healthy. Continuously robbing your skin of these, will soon lead to dry and undernourished skin. It’s not only dry skin that you have to worry about either, with your skin stripped of nutrients, your oil glands work in overtime, causing oily, dry skin – nice.

Hot showers also leave the skin open to infection. Remember that our skin is our biggest organ and in washing it with hot water – you are eliminating its natural defences. Lastly, being exposed to extreme heat can very quickly lower your blood pressure, making fainting in the shower a real risk.

What else can you do to protect your skin during showering?

Below, we run through some of the small changes you can take to ensure that your skin leaves a shower, as healthy as it went in.

Avoid Harsh Soaps

Shower soaps

Harsh Soaps, especially in conjunction with hot water, can really strip your skin of its natural defence – its essential oils nutrients. As well as leading to rough, and flaky skin – this also can trigger conditions such as Eczema. This overly drying effect can also lead to ACNE breakouts. Always try and shower with PH neutral soaps, which use natural ingredients.

Shorten Your Showers

This is probably the simplest thing you can do to reduce the damaging effects of hot showers on your skin, just spend less time in them! Don’t be scared to skip showering for a day a week either – especially if you aren’t carrying out a physically demanding job, or training in your spare time. This let’s your body regenerate its natural oils and minerals, before the smelly stage!

Keep the Shower Lukewarm

Now you are one of the few educated souls on the topic, another simple route forward is to keep the shower temperature down. We aren’t saying have cold showers, just lukewarm showers a few times a week will make a big difference. Remember the rule of thumb that if your skin is red after your shower – it’s simply too hot! There are many showers on the market which provide complete and accurate control over showering temperature, allowing you to put this into practice.

Moisturise After Showering

Moisturising after shower

The benefits of moisturising are well known, so we won’t go into every single one. After showering, it’s good practice to take a little time to moisturise your skin. Simply pat dry, and apply a water based moisturiser. Avoid scented lotions and creams, and look for ingredients such as chamomile – which naturally sooths the skin.

The Shower Doctor

This article has been brought to you by The Shower Doctor. The number one choice for both showers and shower spares in the UK.

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