How To Introduce your Tween To Skincare

It can be hard as a parent to know how to help your young child with their skin as they start to go through puberty. Hormones can really affect a child's self esteem. Teaching your child how to properly clean and take care of their skin can help make this awkward time a bit easier and help them a lot in the future; preventing damage to the skin we often do when we are young using the wrong products!

It's really important to help your tween diagnose their skin type first thing. This will prevent them from using products that are not made for their skin type, which can result in breakouts, sensitivity and irritation! 

As beauty therapists, we categorise skins into 5 different skin types:

• Dry Skin
• Normal to Dry Skin (Combination Dry Skin)
• Normal Skin
• Normal to Oily Skin (Combination Oily Skin)
• Oily Skin

To help you better understand what each of these 5 skin types actually mean, and how we as beauty therapists diagnose someone’s skin type, we use these simple tools (keep in mind this is just a general guide, and could be subject to some differences)

• A true dry skin never/rarely has oil present on the skin. A dry skin is very prone to dry patches, or flakey skin. Pores are non-visible/less visible.
• A Normal to Dry Skin (Combination Dry Skin) - can be prone to dryness, perhaps by the end of the day, their face starts to feel tight or dry. But for most or part of the day feels neither dry nor oily. Non-visible pores.
• A Normal skin is neither oily, nor dry. Can sometimes be prone to either, but for the most part skin is relatively normal.
• A Normal to oily skin (Combination Oily Skin) Is a common skin type, where you may acquire an oily T-zone (nose, forehead or chin) by the end of the day, but skin stays normal for the majority of the day. Pores can be somewhat visible in the T-zone area.
• A True Oily skin gets oily before or around midday. Pores are usually more visible and can be prone to congestion and/or acne. 

It’s important to keep in mind that you cannot be both a dry skin type, and oily skin type. Generally if you find you get both Oily and dry, you are actually an Oily Dehydrated skin, Dehydration is a skin condition and you should still treat your skin as a normal- oily skin or Oily skin type. 

Your skin type is the genetic make-up of your skin. Much like your fingerprint, you are born with it, it comes from your parents and it cannot be changed. However, it can be managed using the correct skincare, eating a balanced diet and exercise etc. 

Once you've diagnosed your child's skin type, it's important to teach them to get products only formulated for their skin type. Young kids do not need a 6 step skincare routine. keep it basic and simple-  start with cleansing, exfoliating and moisturising.

Hormones/ puberty increases the amount of oil being produced in the skin. Congestion and break outs happen when dirt, dead skin cells and oils are blocking the pore. (Hence why break outs are more common in puberty and hormonal times like periods).

The best way to ensure you keep the pores clean is exfoliating 1-2 times per week. To keep oil under control, it's also important to moisturise and hydrate the skin to keep it balanced. The skin produces more oil when it is dehydrated to compensate for lack of water. So using a hydrating moisturiser is important!

A great start for a new skincare user would be cleansing morning and night and applying moisturiser immediately after. And picking 1-2 days per week to exfoliate and sticking to that routine. Consistency is important. If you child wears make up, ensure they are double cleansing their face- first cleanse removes make up, second cleanse actually cleans their face!

 Hümbl 3 Step Skincare Routines are a great, simple and gentle start for skincare beginners. Shop them Here:

https://humblskincare.com/collections/sensitve-skincare-routines