What Is Skin Texture?
Skin texture refers to the appearance of your skin surface – how your skin feels when you touch it. The ideal skin texture should be smooth, supple, and soft. But many people have skin with dry patches, uneven areas, blemishes, dead cell buildup, and other issues. Due to the presence of such textural issues, your skin may appear to be rough, bumpy, dry, dull, and aged. That is why you need to take measures to improve the skin texture (1). Skin texture should not be confused with skin tone – both are different. Skin tone is the skin surface color, and texture is the condition of the surface. Several factors may affect the skin texture and change it. Let’s explore the causes of uneven skin texture.
What Causes Changes In Skin Texture?
The skin texture is affected by multiple factors (1):
1. Age
Aging is a big factor that can influence your skin texture. With age, the skin becomes thinner and lax and is prone to damages caused by external factors like sunlight and the environment (1). Moreover, the sebaceous glands produce less oil, causing dryness, wrinkles, and fine lines. All these factors change the skin texture.
2. Genetics
Your genes influence your skin texture majorly. They decide how your skin will react to certain conditions and factors. For instance, your genes determine how your skin will react to the free radicals in the body. In other words, it is the genetic makeup of your skin that regulates how your skin will age, whether your skin will have acne and wrinkles or not, to what extent your skin will sag, etc.
3. Dead Skin Cells
The skin renews itself every 27 days. However, with age, this ability of your skin decreases. This happens due to a decline in collagen production. The dead skin cells begin to accumulate on the skin, and if not exfoliated, they can leave you with a bumpy and rough skin texture.
4. UV Damage
Sunlight affects your skin and its texture. Exposure to UV rays can speed up photoaging and cause wrinkles, pigmentation, and sunburn. In severe cases of sunburn, the skin may end up with small bumps or vesicles containing fluid or even large blisters. Long-term sun exposure also causes actinic keratosis. It is a condition in which the skin develops tiny bumps or scaly patches with peeling skin.
5. Smoking
Smoking tobacco can deteriorate your skin and its texture. It causes premature skin aging, reduces collagen production, and degenerates the elastic fibers and dermal connective tissue metabolism. This can hamper the skin renewal process and severely affect your skin health, affecting its overall texture (2).
6. Dehydration
Staying hydrated is essential for not just your body but your skin as well. When you do not drink enough water, your body becomes dehydrated. Due to dehydration, the body fails to eliminate toxins through the skin. This makes the skin susceptible to various skin issues, such as dryness, discoloration, and premature wrinkling. While these skin issues are troublesome on their own, they can also affect skin texture.
7. Oily Skin
When it comes to changes in skin texture, your oily skin may have a role to play. Oily skin is prone to clogged pores, acne, whiteheads, blackheads, and unwanted breakouts. These factors may affect the skin texture and make it appear bumpy and uneven.
8. Stress
The skin is often the target of stress responses and a stress perceiver. In other words, when you are under psychological stress, the sensory fibers in the skin convey the changes to the brain, which responds to the signals, influencing the skin’s stress response. Stress can trigger inflammatory responses and aggravate existing skin issues like acne, dermatitis, and psoriasis, and eczema causing a change in the skin texture (3).
9. Pollution
Pollution can accelerate the skin aging process, leading to dull and rough facial skin texture. Exposure to physical and chemical air pollutants repeatedly causes premature aging and inflammatory skin conditions, including acne, eczema, psoriasis, and atopic dermatitis (4).
10. Improper Skin Care Routine
Your skin texture may suffer if you do not take proper care of your skin. If you do not follow a proper cleansing-moisturizing routine, your skin can become rough and dry, and the pores may get clogged. Eventually, your skin may also lose its glow and turn itchy. On the flip side, if you cleanse the skin too much, it may cause dryness and make the skin flaky, itchy, and rough, giving it an uneven texture. Overall, your skin texture stands to be seriously affected if you do not spare the time and effort for nourishing your skin and keeping it hydrated. Keep reading to learn how to improve your skin texture and maintain it.
How To Improve Skin Texture For Flawless Skin
1. Home-Based Solutions To Fix Skin Texture
Here are a few home-based solutions for reclaiming smooth facial skin texture.
Stay Hydrated
An easy and effective way to improve your facial skin texture is to drink plenty of water every day. Keeping yourself hydrated is important for your body and skin. It minimizes the risk of dehydration, maintains the skin barrier, and reduces dryness and transepidermal water loss (TEWL) (5).
Exfoliate Properly
Proper exfoliation is crucial for removing dead skin cells to maintain smoothness and improve skin cell turnover. However, ensure not to exfoliate more than once a week. Over exfoliation can negatively impact the skin texture and make it rough.
Moisturize Regularly
While staying hydrated from within is important, moisturizing daily is also crucial for maintaining skin smoothness. Moisturizers contain ingredients like hyaluronic acid, plant oils, ceramides, and niacinamide that provide added nourishment to the skin layers to keep them healthy. You may also try facial oils for moisturizing. Plant-based face oils, such as olive, argan, and jojoba oils, and shea butter increase the antioxidant activities in the skin cells, reduce inflammation, boost wound healing, and improve the skin barrier (6).
Use Vitamin C
Topical vitamin C is a natural antioxidant that helps in collagen synthesis and is useful for improving skin texture. It prevents signs of photoaging that include wrinkles, fine lines, spots, dark patches, and hyperpigmentation. Vitamin C protects the skin from the damaging effects of the reactive oxygen species (ROS). It also promotes wound healing and post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation. Vitamin C improves skin texture and tone effectively (7), (8).
Pay Attention To Your Diet
What you eat can have a significant impact on your skin texture. If you indulge in foods and beverages with high glycemic index (like junk food, white bread, cookies, sugary drinks, pastries, mangoes, and donuts), you risk having acne breakouts (9). Consume foods, such as fresh fruits, vegetables, steel-cut oats, beans, and whole grains, to keep your body and skin healthy and reduce the severity of acne and improve your skin texture. But keep in mind that not all low-glycemic foods may help deal with acne. For instance, cow milk is a low-glycemic food, but it can increase your acne problem.
Wear Sunscreen
Sunscreens can not only protect your skin from sun damage but also help improve your skin texture. They prevent photodamage and limit your chances of developing pigmentation, maintaining the skin’s smoothness and clarity.
Avoid Smoking
Giving up smoking can help minimize skin degeneration, slow down the signs of aging, and help maintain the skin’s smoothness. Apart from these solutions, you can also opt for professional treatments to improve your skin texture.
2. Professional Treatments To Improve Skin Texture
Chemical Peels
Chemical peels are used to peel away the dead skin cells. This is a non-invasive cosmetic procedure that can significantly improve skin texture and tone and minimize the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines. For the treatments, facial acids like glycolic, lactic, mandelic, and salicylic acids are used at different concentrations (10). You may also buy AHA and BHA chemical exfoliators for at-home peeling. However, these acids should be used carefully. Otherwise, they may cause post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, erythema, and burning.
Dermal Fillers
Sagging skin and wrinkles caused by collagen depletion can make your skin lose volume. Dermal fillers are implants that help give a fuller and smoother appearance to the skin. They may help minimize fine lines and wrinkles and smoothen creases on the face. However, these fillers get naturally absorbed over time, and you may need to go for frequent sessions (11).
Laser Treatments
Laser treatments use focused light to smoothen the skin texture, rejuvenating the skin, and improving acne, firmness, and skin elasticity. This is performed by an expert, and you should always consult a dermatologist before opting for laser treatments (12).
Pulsed Light Rejuvenation
Pulsed Light Rejuvenation or Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) is a treatment process that works like a laser to eliminate dead skin cells, minimize pore size, and improve skin texture. It is a safe and effective treatment. Consult a dermatologist before opting for this procedure (13).
Microdermabrasion
Microdermabrasion (MDA) is effective for improving uneven skin tone and texture. This minimally invasive procedure can minimize the damages done by photoaging, acne scars, and melasma by resurfacing the epidermal layer (14).
Microneedling
Microneedling is a minimally invasive treatment procedure for skin rejuvenation. It involves controlled superficial puncturing of the skin with the help of fine miniature needles. It stimulates the body to create new collagen and elastin that are necessary to maintain a youthful appearance and healthy skin (15). This is often used to heal and minimize acne scars to give you smoother skin. How long does it take for skin texture to improve? Any new skin care routine will take anywhere between 8 to 12 weeks to show any noticeable improvement. The key to planning an effective skin care routine is to research your own skin condition and the solutions you would need alongside practicing consistency and patience. Can my skin’s texture change as I get older? Yes. Your skin texture is always changing. And as you get older, the changes become more visible as your body gets weaker, experiences a constant shortage of necessary nutrients, and has a hard time shedding dead skin cells.
