How to avoid seasonal breakouts in autumn
As the leaves start to turn orange and red and the weather starts to get colder, there’s a lot to love about autumn! While this time of year brings with it an abundance of cosy vibes, it can have its downsides – like pesky seasonal breakouts. If you're ready to combat breakouts this fall, then you've come to the right place! In today's blog post we’re uncovering some of the main reasons you might be more prone to acne breakouts in autumn, and provide some great tips for avoiding them, so that you can keep looking (and feeling!) your best all season long.
Why do breakouts occur more often, or worsen in autumn?
Breakouts can be caused by many things, but even if you wouldn’t consider acne to be a regular skin concern, many of us can find ourselves experiencing breakouts during the autumn and winter months. These breakouts are commonly due to the change of seasons and the impact it has on our skin barrier. Allergies, steroid use, and inflammation can also play a role in the frequency or severity of breakouts. Let’s explore how you can take care of your skin during this time, to minimise irritation and redness.
Change of season’s effect on the skin barrier
The change of season can mean a whole new array of onslaughts to the health of your skin and integrity of your skin barrier. Man, woman, teenager or adult – we’re all affected by seasonal changes and our skin is our first defence that can often take the hit. A change in temperature, humidity and moisture levels, not to mention more hot showers and warm baths, all take their toll on the skin. Autumn is all about preparing your skin for winter, and re-assessing where your skin routine might need some tweaks to combat the seasonal changes. Need a helping hand with what to consider for your autumn skincare routine? We’ve got you covered in this blog post all about it.
Allergy Symptoms
Allergy season can often stir up more skin problems than just itchy eyes and a runny nose. Although allergies aren’t the direct cause of acne, allergy-induced symptoms and acne have been directly linked. As a result of allergies, you can experience more of an itching sensation on your skin, redness and puffiness, which all lead to more touching, rubbing and wiping of our skin than usual, and as a result, moisture is removed from our skin.When protecting your skin from breakouts throughout autumn and winter, keeping the skin well hydrated is key to maintaining and strengthening skin barrier integrity. Professional skin care products that include active ingredients such as Vitamin C, such as the BIO Hydra C Serum encourage cell hydration and skin repair. Hyaluronic acid and plant stem cells also play their part in hydrating and protecting the skin barrier. Plant stem cells in Lira Clinical’s BIO Hydra Infusion all play their part to promote cell renewal, act as an anti-inflammatory, reconstruct traumatised skin, and boost the functioning of the skin barrier.
Steroid Use
If you’ve ever experienced seasonal allergies, you’d know just how frustrating and distracting they can be. Many allergy sufferers opt to treat allergies, such as hay fever, with medications which often include steroids. Steroidal medications help reduce the body’s inflammatory response and ease symptoms, allowing you to breathe easier, reduce redness and puffiness and take away the constant itch from allergies. These medications may be effective in treating allergies, but they can also affect people’s immune response and therefore the skin’s protective barrier, making it more vulnerable to skin problems like acne. If you’re prone to acne, talk to your doctor, pharmacist or skin therapist about the best non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication options, so that your skin stays protected against inflammation and the risk of breakouts brought on by autumn allergies are reduced.
More Inflammation
Although there are 4 stages of acne, all but one are considered inflammatory. As the weather gets colder, skin can become more sensitive and prone to inflammatory skin conditions such as adult acne. Couple this with a heightened inflammatory response, due to seasonal environmental factors, and you’ve got yourself a perfect-storm for an acne breakout. Therefore, if you’re experiencing seasonal acne breakouts, alongside allergies, it’s important that both your professional skin care products and any treatments you choose to have are soothing and anti-inflammatory.
Who to see about acne?
If you’re experiencing allergies, your sensitivity to treatments and certain ingredients in skin care products can be heightened. As a result, you may experience more redness than usual after treatment, your skin could become drier, or you might have an increased risk of a post-treatment inflammatory response. It’s therefore important that you consult with a professional skin specialist to discuss how to treat your acne, and reduce breakouts in the future.
Andrea, The Skin Manifesto’s queen of all things skin, is a qualified medical aesthetician, specialising in skin health and treating acne. Through the signature acne treatment protocol, Acne Rx, Andrea has been able to help her client eradicate the effects of acne, avoid scarring in the process and achieve the skin they’ve always wanted.
Breakouts can be frustrating and seem to pop up at the most inconvenient times. Thankfully, by understanding why they occur more frequently in autumn, we can put a plan in place to avoid them. The change of season’s effects on the skin barrier, allergy symptoms, the medications we use to reduce such symptoms and heightened inflammation due to allergies are all contributory factors to increased breakouts in autumn.
If you’re struggling with your skin during this time of year, The Skin Manifesto is here to help. Book in for an in-depth skin analysis with our friendly team, so that we can assess your individual skin concerns and identify any underlying issues. From there, we develop a personalised treatment plan and at-home skin care regime to get your skin looking its best all winter long.