Teens and tweens are at just the right age to learn the importance of good skin care. While it’s a good idea to teach children positive habits that promote a healthy lifestyle as early as possible, teens and tweens are the ages when children first begin selecting their own cosmetics and other health products. Whether it’s a young girl selecting her first eye shadow or a young man choosing which aftershave to use after scraping the first signs of a beard from his face, it’s important that both genders realize the importance of making healthy decisions.
Healthy Habits Make for Healthy Kids
Teens and tweens are faced with a different set of options than most other people in life. Changing hormones make this prime time for conditions like acne, psoriasis, and other dermatological problems to surface. It’s important that young people make good decisions to help combat these problems. While some issues, like acne, are unavoidable due to genetics, others like infrequent pimples can be avoided altogether.
It was Jamaican singer-songwriter Bob Marley who is attributed with saying, “Love the life you live; live the life you love.” Part of helping your teen or tween do that is helping them to make good choices, but they won’t know to make good choices unless they’re presented with all the options. Whether you’re a parent or grandparent, your role is to educate the younger generation by letting them know what their choices are and both the pros and cons for each one. Here are some healthy habits that some friends shared with their own teens and tweens.
- Protect your skin from the sun. The most important lesson you will ever teach your kids is this: don’t go outside without using sunscreen. Adults know the importance of protecting skin. However, if not given proper warning and education, children won’t know until the painful effects of sun damage until their first painful sunburn. Protecting skin from the sun also prevents premature signs of aging, like dark, freckled patches of skin and wrinkles.
- Stop using bar soap to clean your face. Bar soap is fine for showering your body, but your face has a different chemical makeup. You may be plagued with either an oily forehead or dry, patchy areas on your cheeks and neck, or a combination of the two types. Gel-based facial cleansers help strip dirt, cosmetics, and other debris from pores, giving them a chance to breathe. Cleaning your face also removes dead skin cells which keeps your face looking youthful and fresh.
- Moisturize and hydrate your skin. Some people mistakenly believe that oily skin does not need any kind of extra moisturizer. Think for a moment about what happens when oil and water mixes. It doesn’t mix at all! The water weighs more which pushes the oil, which is a lighter substance, to the top. Using a moisturizer and getting the daily recommended allowance of water each day are two things alone that will make a huge difference in the condition of your skin and could keep you from having to purchase antiaging skin care products to fight wrinkles later.
Sun Damage and Acne
Although some people believe old wives’ tales which claim vitamins from the sun can prevent blemishes and other acne-related conditions, the reality is that leaving unprotected skin exposed to the sun poses greater risks than benefits. It kills off skin cells, decreases the elastin and collagen in your skin which creates premature wrinkles, and can cause the appearance of freckles and age spots. Not only teens and tweens, but humans of all ages should never go outside without protecting themselves from exposure to direct sunlight.
One of the ways people can protect their skin from damaging rays from the sun is to use a sunscreen that has at minimum SPF level of 15. SPF stands for “sun protection factor” and measures the effectiveness of sunscreen products. Personal hygiene is another way to protect skin. Wash skin every night to avoid building up dirt, sweat, and other debris on skin which creates more problems than benefits when protecting skin from the sun.
Choosing the Best Sun Protection
Ultimately what sunscreen you use could be different than what your teen needs. It could be different than what your teen’s friends need. Selecting should be based on the amount of time your teen spends outdoors and how that time is spent. A teen or tween who plays tennis or soccer might require sunscreen that’s sweatproof, while a swimmer might require using one that’s both waterproof and sweatproof. Sunscreen comes in the form of sprays, creams, and gels. Even lip balms are starting to include sun protection to keep lips from becoming sunburned. Finally, it’s a good idea to buy new sunscreen products every couple of years as the ingredients are less effective over time.
Freelance writer Rick Mercado enjoys working from home because it saves the high costs associated with going to and from an office each day. The costs are not only monetary; sun exposure for people who commute to and from work totals over 200 hours more per year than people who work from home. When writing about skin care, he often referred to www.ageless-beauty.com for tips and advice to share with his readers. Rick and his wife are both outdoor enthusiasts, and whether they’re hiking Canada’s rugged east coast or kayaking the waterways close to their home in Halifax, they always take extra precaution to protect their skin from damaging UV rays.