Overwashing your skin is a bad thing but not for the reason that everyone thinks. There’s a commonly believed myth about skin and sebum production: the myth of rebound oil.
Many articles say things like, “Don’t use a harsh cleanser, because it will make you produce more oil!”, or “Stripping the skin of oil makes it overproduce oil.”
The skin doesn’t produce more oil if the skin is stripped of oil. It produces the same amount of oil as genetically determined…But it seems like you produce more oil after washing with a harsh cleanser because of the contrast.
After no oil on the skin, some oil seems like a lot. Or if you produce a lot of oil, it seems like overproduction after you’ve just experienced stripped, dry, squeaky clean skin.
Hence the myth that you overproduce oil with harsh cleansing.
The real reason why stripping the skin of all natural oil is bad is actually something else – it’s the degradation of the acid mantle.
The acid mantle is the skin’s protective mechanism made of sebum. The sebum is acidic (PH 4.5-6.2), while most harsh soapy cleansers are alkaline. By raising the skin’s alkalinity, bacteria thrives and grows, especially p.acnes (acne causing bacteria).
Read more about the Acid Mantle and what I did to heal mine here.
Healthy skin is actually acidic.
According to a a book I read on the subject, using soap on the skin actually increases acne lesions in acne-prone participants over a 3 month study.
If one continually uses an alkaline cleanser (PH 7+), the skin’s acid mantle gets stripped, making the skin more alkaline over time. A high alkalinity in the skin is exactly what p.acnes loves.
So stripping the skin of moisture is bad, but when the researchers had the participants use an acidic cleanser twice a day, acne lesions decreased after 4 weeks, and continued to decrease over the 3 month period of the study.
I experimented with this research on myself, and found that washing my face with plain water in the morning, and an acidic cleanser (around PH 5.5) is perfection for my skin, way better than washing my face twice a day. This way I leave some sebum on my face in the morning, which protects and hydrates my skin…I also exfoliate and moisturize. Moisturizing is extremely important for the skin…Especially dehydrated skin lacking water (moisture).
In the evenings I cleanse with a cleanser, splashing my face A LOT to thoroughly remove all the impurities and makeup. Then I apply a 2% BHA toner to open up my pores to receive the next moisturizing step (a hydrating spray, a serum, and a moisturizer to seal in all the moisture).
Read more about my face washing routine here.
I hope this cleared up any misunderstanding with respect to face washing and oil production!
Love,
Olena
P.S. I’ve shared my best 28 hacks for clear skin in my 28 Days Of Clear Skin video series. You can sign up to get every single hack in your inbox here!
