In our daily life, we never store any liquid in
a container having holes in its base/floor for obvious reasons. Over 70% of our
body is made up of water and it might look strange that this huge amount of
water is retained in a container (skin) which has millions of holes (pores) in
it. The question arises why don’t we get dehydrated by loosing water through
our highly porous skin? Allah Almighty with His Great Hikmat (wisdom) has
placed a thin layer of oil in the top layers of the skin. The water inside our
body is unable to pass through this layer of oil and therefore we don’t loose
any significant water through our skin. One can well imagine, what will happen
if we loose this all important layer of the oil from our skin? If you have dry
skin, you’re likely to experience one or more of the following:-
Thick scales/crusts
on scalp and redness on cheeks/other parts can be seen in newborn babies.
Appearance of white patches on face of
young children, please note, these are not due to calcium deficiency.
A feeling of tightness or tautness, especially
after showering, bathing or swimming.
A loss of plumpness, skin appears shrunken or
dehydrated, feels and looks rough rather than smooth.
Itching that
sometimes may be intense.
Slight to severe
flaking or scaling.
Appearance of fine
lines or cracks, severe redness of skin.
Appearance of deep
fissures especially on soles/palms which may bleed.
The toe webs become
itchy, dry & rough due to deposits of chemicals in soaps/shampoos used for
bathing.
The nail cuticle is
lost and skin around the nail becomes red swollen and painful due to chemicals
in soaps and detergents.
Keeping in view the above mentioned complications
associated with skin dryness it is necessary to find out the reasons and mainfactors which cause skin dryness.