Cleansing your face daily is one of the most damaging things you can do to your skin.
I know what you are probably thinking.
Why would a cleanser damage my skin? It just removes oil, dirt and makeup. No harm in those 20 seconds.
Unfortunately, actions happen very fast on the molecular scale.
I admit it does feel right…to get rid of all that grime and excess oil after an entire day (especially if you are living in a big city with a lot of pollution).
However, using a cleanser that is too harsh for your skin (one that cleans too much) is one of the worst things you can do when trying to get clear skin.
HOW DO CLEANSERS ACTUALLY CLEANSE THE SKIN?
Your skin is coated with an oily substance called sebum.
To cleanse the surface of your skin, you need something that attracts, and therefore dissolves, that oil in order to remove it.
Cleansers contain special, detergent-like molecules suited for the job, called surfactants.
Surfactants attract both water and oil (with different parts on them). They effectively remove the oils (and anything sticking to them) from your face because they first bind to the oily substances, then get attracted to the splashing water, which washes everything away.
How can you tell if this includes your cleanser, too? It certainly does in order to be a cleanser, even if labeled ‘soap-free', ‘gentle', or ‘mild'.
Some of the common surfactants are Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS), Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES), Sodium Coco-Glucoside Tartrate, Sodium Cocoyl Glutamate, Sodium Lauriminodipropionate, Sodium Lauroyl Sarcosinate, Disodium Lauroamphodiacetate, etc.
SURFACTANTS DISRUPT THE SKIN'S PH
Washing your face with surfactant-containing cleansers is effective. When done right, cleansers can help us keep the pores clear because they help to emulsify the sebum and break up bonds between dead skin cells.
Unfortunately, surfactants do more than just leaving your skin clean and fresh, which is why we need to be careful when deciding on our cleansing routine.
They can't tell the difference between the oils you want to remove off your face and your skin's natural oils, which is why they also strip the skin of its natural protective oils and disrupt the skin's pH balance.
So, whenever you cleanse your face and it feels clean, tight and fresh, that is exactly what happens!
The skin needs to restore its balance after washing because the correct pH is absolutely essential for healthy skin (so you are often urged to used toners after washing to restore the pH balance).
The skin's surface is slightly acidic because many biochemical processes essential for skin health only work at the narrow range of pH (pH ~ 5), including the skin's natural exfoliation process (desquamation) and lipid synthesis (including ceramides).
DISRUPTED PH LEADS TO IRRITATION, ACNE AND PREMATURE SKIN AGING
Surfactant-containing cleansers are particularly good at changing the skin pH, and for quite some time after the cleansing, making it difficult for your skin to repair itself.
When the skin surface is too alkaline – as after washing with cleansers, the skin gets dry and sensitive, which can lead to fine lines, wrinkles, dullness, and even eczema.
Too high pH of the skin increases inflammation, and can destroy proteins that make your skin young and plump: collagen and elastin.
The high pH of the skin is VERY bad if you’re prone to acne because the high pH encourages the growth of acne bacteria Propionibacterium acnes, causing more acne and breakouts.
SURFACTANTS DAMAGE THE SKIN BARRIER, IMPAIRING THE SKIN HEALTH
In addition, some cleanser still remains in the skin after cleansing – this is inevitable.
The surfactant molecules bind to the proteins in the skin and cause them to denature and swell, changing their shape, which is detrimental to proteins. Interestingly, this probably contributes to the “squeaky clean” feeling after cleansing even more than the loss of skin oils!
And this is still not the whole story.
The outer layer of your skin, the one you can touch, is called the stratum corneum (SC). It consists of dead skin cells (corneocytes) full of a protein called keratin and water-binding molecules (that constitute your Natural Moisturizing Factor – NMF).
The dead skin cells are surrounded by a matrix of lipids (oily substances), holding them nicely in place (like glue). It's quite a robust structure, resembling a brick wall, with skin cells being “bricks” and lipids being the “mortar”.
The stratum corneum is very important for your skin health because it forms a barrier in two ways:
1. A barrier against the environment (external irritants and pathogens)
2. A barrier that prevents water from evaporating from the skin into the environment, keeping your skin moisturized!
While interacting with the stratum corneum during washing, surfactants remove components from the stratum corneum – particularly cholesterol, proteins and NMF molecules.
This all leads to dry and dehydrated skin because the skin isn’t able to hold onto water as effectively. This can also make your skin produce even more oil to compensate, leading to dehydrated, yet oily-looking skin!
Additionally, surfactants can remain in the “mortar” (the ‘glue') of the SC, changing its structure and disrupting the keratin matrix that contributes to the robustness of the stratum corneum.
Weakening the glue that holds the dead skin cells together makes the skin more prone to letting the water escape and external irritants enter. All of that equals skin irritation, dehydration, and acne (especially if you are prone to acne).
In conclusion, having that fresh, “squeaky-clean” feeling after washing your face is much more harmful to your skin than that dreaded grime and dirt you ”need” to wash off your face.
HOW TO CLEANSE THE SKIN WITHOUT DAMAGING IT
Cleansing the skin is a balancing act between ensuring we wash off all we need from our skin (to avoid more congestion) and supporting optimal skin health (by not disrupting the skin barrier too much).
This isn't always such an easy task, especially given that many people don't do well with the oil cleansing method.
It can be absolutely fine (and necessary) to use a gentle cleanser that contains surfactants, but being aware of its negative effects will make us use the cleanser smartly and not over-cleanse the skin (instead let it recover in between).
The only 100% surfactant-free cleansing methods are microfiber cloth with water and the oil cleansing method.
The oil cleansing method (OCM) is fundamentally different from the surfactant-based cleansers. It is based on the idea that we use oils for cleansing.
Oils will not disrupt your skin’s pH nor mess up the stratum corneum components because they are not an aqueous solution, so they don't have a pH.
However, some people simply cannot tolerate oils, they get a bad skin reaction. If this is you, it is very important to pick a SUPER gentle cleanser, and I show you exactly how to do that in my FREE online course. Sign up for immediate access to all lessons and I will see you on the inside!
In radiant skin health,
Sara
P.S. Some of the above links are affiliate links. Thank you for your support!
REFERENCES
1. Ananthapadmanabhan KP, Mukherjee S, Chandar P. Stratum corneum fatty acids: their critical role in preserving barrier integrity during cleansing. Int J Cosmetic Sci. 2013;35(4):337-45.
2. Ananthapadmanabhan KP, Subramanyan K, Nole G. A global perspective on caring for healthy stratum corneum by mitigating the effects of daily cleansing: report from an expert dermatology symposium. Brit J Dermatol. 2013;168:1-9.
3. Barany E, Lindberg M, Loden M. Biophysical characterization of skin damage and recovery after exposure to different surfactants. Contact Dermatitis. 1999;40(2):98-103.
4. Corazza M, Lauriola MM, Zappaterra M, Bianchi A, Virgili A. Surfactants, skin cleansing protagonists. J Eur Acad Dermatol. 2010;24(1):1-6.
5. Downing DT, Abraham W, Wegner BK, Willman KW, Marshall JL. Partition of Sodium Dodecyl-Sulfate into Stratum-Corneum Lipid Liposomes. Arch Dermatol Res. 1993;285(3):151-7.
6. Ghosh S, Hornby S, Grove G, Zerwick C, Appa Y, Blankschtein D. Ranking of aqueous surfactant-humectant systems based on an analysis of in vitro and in vivo skin barrier perturbation measurements. J Cosmet Sci. 2007;58(6):599-620.
7. Ghosh S, Kim D, So P, Blankschtein D. Visualization and quantification of skin barrier perturbation induced by surfactant-humectant systems using two-photon fluorescence microscopy. Journal of Cosmetic Science. 2008;59(4):263-89.
8. Sahle FF, Gebre-Mariam T, Dobner B, Wohlrab J, Neubert RH. Skin diseases associated with the depletion of stratum corneum lipids and stratum corneum lipid substitution therapy. Skin Pharmacol Physiol. 2015;28(1):42-55.
9. Ali SM, Yosipovitch G. Skin pH: From Basic Science to Basic Skin Care. Acta Derm-Venereol. 2013;93(3):261-7.
10. Korting HC, Braun-Falco O. The effect of detergents on skin pH and its consequences. Clin Dermatol. 1996;14(1):23-7.
11. Moore DJ, Caso S, Vincent C, Ananthapadmanabhan KP. pH induced alterations in stratum corneum properties. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2004;50(3):P33-P.
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