New Delhi: From an early age, it has been taught that washing the face is a necessary step in one's daily skin care regimen. But you may not be doing it right.
According to Mukesh Batra, Founder-Chairman Emeritus, Dr Batra's Group of Companies and Gaurang Gupta, Dermatologist, Doctor Insta, there are some common mistakes that one makes while washing the face:
* Make sure your hands are clean: People usually tend to skip this step. Dirty hands mean washing your face with dirty hands. One of the most important and necessary steps is to wash your hands with anti-bacterial hand wash before you wash your face.
* Using soap for washing face: The most common mistake people make while washing their face is by using soap for washing. But these harsh soaps stripe the natural hydrators from the skin and make the skin dry and flaky.
* Exfoliating daily: Exfoliating face is necessary to keep the skin glowing. But doing it daily with cleansers, scrubs, and manual exfoliators makes skin dull. Dermatologists suggest using a cotton washcloth for exfoliating and doing it once a week is enough to keep skin healthy and glowing.
* Scrubbing and lathering for too long: The length of time you lather does not correlate with how well you cleanse your face. Excessive scrubbing and lathering for too long, can quickly lead to irritated and red skin.
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* Using water that is too hot or too cold: People say using hot water opens up the skin pores and cold water closes the skin pores. This is just a myth. The truth is that skin pores do not depend upon the type of water one uses to wash the face. Using too hot or icy cold water for washing the delicate skin can remove its natural moisture which ends up breaking the blood capillaries and making the veins visible on the face.
* Washing more than necessity: Ideally we should wash our face twice a day -- once in the morning and once at night. Washing the face after every hour unnecessarily to remove germs will lead to dry, irritated skin and can actually lead to skin producing too much oil.