Dr. Shereene Idriss says 70% of adults claim sensitive skin, but true sensitivity, a medical condition like an allergy, affects only about 1 in 10 people. Most are experiencing reactive skin, not actual sensitivity.
70% of adults worldwide say they have sensitive skin, redness, irritation, stinging, often from skincare products. And they assume, okay, well, that's all that it is. What does sensitive skin really mean? And as a dermatologist, Dr. Idriss, what could be driving the sensitivity in the skin?
The reality is people who have true sensitivities is much lower at 1 out of 10. So the perception of what sensitive skin is as a skin type is often misplaced because what they're describing is not a skin condition, but a skin state. Their skin is very reactive. But sensitive, true sensitivities is, "I cannot tolerate a preservative. And when I have this preservative on my skin, I get a crazy rash that's itchy and I flare up and it lasts for days and I have to go on medication to calm it down." So it's more like an allergy. Becomes kind of like an allergy.
I love that. But you could have reactive skin for a number of reasons.
You can have reactive skin for— you can just be a reactive human. But that being said, most people don't actually have real sensitivities and it's that skin state. And so when you start seeing stinging, redness and burning, especially from products that never bothered you before, it's the result of long-term, probably chronic inflammation that hasn't been fully addressed. Where then you develop a real sensitivity over time. So when you have this reactive kind of skin and you know your skin is very easy to flare up, the first goal that you should always have is to calm your skin down. So step 1, if your skin is very sensitive or reactive, is to stop everything. And this freaks people out. I'm like, you're not going to melt, okay? You're going to survive this for like a week or two. Everything from skincare to makeup. You're going to wash your face with water. And if you really need something, if you really need an occlusive of some sort, you can use Vaseline. And then step 2 is very boring and very slow, but you rebuild your barrier slowly. So you first incorporate then a moisturizer and you let that work for you for a few days. And you make sure that you're not reacting to that for a few days. Once you have that green checkmark and green light, then you incorporate a cleanser. You see how your skin does with the cleanser and the moisturizer over a few days, and then it can allow you to sort of pivot and see in which direction you're going. But that puts the control back in your hands, that you're not just living this crazy life of reactivity and trying to calm it with this and use that, and then it stings more and it gets more inflamed. And it's this never-ending cycle. Yeah, it just cuts it. Resets it and allows you to restart in a very systematic and academic way so you can pinpoint where are the shortcomings and how can I pivot.
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