How can exfoliating my skin keep it healthy?

If your complexion is dull, the reason may lie in a layer of dead skin cells. Dermatologist Rosemarie Ingleton, MD, FAAD, explains how exfoliation can help, and the pros and cons of different approaches.

Transcript

00:00

Physical exfoliation is probably what most people are accustomed to, which is where you get a loofah or some kind of scrub, and you're scrubbing the skin surface.

00:07

Another way of getting that same effect is with body scrubs that you get out of the jar. Then the granules are removing the dead cells.

00:13

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00:25

I'm going to refer again to the winter. So in the winter when your skin is dry, that dry skin you're seeing is just dead dry skin

00:32

stuck on the surface. So a good way to get rid of that is to exfoliate. [UPBEAT MUSIC]

00:39

There are two ways to exfoliate. You can do physical exfoliation, or you can do chemical exfoliation. [UPBEAT MUSIC]

00:47

Physical exfoliation is probably what most people are accustomed to, which is where you get a loofah or some kind of scrub, and you're scrubbing the skin surface.

00:54

Another way of getting that same effect is with body scrubs that you get out of the jar, and then the granules are removing the dead cells.

01:04

Chemical exfoliation, that's going to be where you get a product like a body lotion that has the exfoliating ingredients already

01:11

built into the product. Look for ingredients like urea. Look for lactic acid, alpha hydroxy acids.

01:17

Those are ingredients that are known to naturally exfoliate the skin cells. And so you use those products daily, and you get the same benefit without irritation.

01:25

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