Eli5 If water keeps me hydrated and I drink a lot of water, what do I even need lotion and moisturizers for?
In: 0
Water is good for your internal organs, lotion and moisturizers are for your skin which is the only external organ on your body. Drinking lots of water can be good for your skin, but not drinking water isn’t necessarily bad for it. You’d have to be severely dehydrated before you start to notice your skin drying out due to lack of water. Drinking soda and juice all the time can be reflected in your skin through acne. Water is healthier for you all around.
Those are two different kinds of hydrated.
Drinking water keeps you hydrated so that your organs and stuff can function effectively.
Keeping your skin specifically hydrated is a different story. Even if your body is perfectly hydrated and healthy, your skin can still release water and become dry. Lotion and moisturizers essentially “trap” the water in your skin, preventing it from escaping. This won’t prevent you from losing water via sweat or urine though, which means your skin can be hydrated while the rest of your body is dehydrated.
You do not really “need” them, but they can help keep your skin look younger and prettier and free of wrinkles.
The reason is that it takes a while for water to get from your stomach to your skin, and dry air or direct sunlight remove water from your skin faster than body can resupply it.
You need lotion and moisturizers to ensure cosmetic companies make money.
For normal people lotion and moisturizer is probably bad for your skin.
>The results suggest that long-term treatment with moisturizers on normal skin may increase skin susceptibility to irritants.
>
>[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10086859/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10086859/)
>This is one problem that hasn’t suffered from lack of attention: there are dozens of creams and lotions for dry skin. They are sold as moisturizers, which is more of a marketing term than a medical or scientific one. Indeed, routine skin care is a realm where there’s little science to be found. Well-controlled studies of ingredients are few and far between
>
>[https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/moisturizers-do-they-work](https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/moisturizers-do-they-work)
There are various dermatologist that advice against using them
> using moisturizer was not only a waste of time, but potentially damaging to my skin. “When you use moisturizer every day, you run the risk of making your skin older, not younger,” he warned. “If you apply a lot of moisture, skin will become sensitive, dry, dull, and interfere with natural hydration.”
>
>https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/is-moisturizer-bad-for-you
Latest Answers