Today’s hottest topic in the skincare world is skin barrier repair. To understand the process, it’s important to understand how our skin barrier works, what causes damage, and how to repair it.

Your skin barrier, the stratum corneum, is the outermost layer of your skin, and its primary function is to protect you from free radicals. It is like a thin layer of skin acting like a brick wall. The skin cells, corneocytes, are held together by lipids like mortar holding the wall together.

Function: The function of our skin barrier is to block irritants, pollutants, and allergens to prevent inflammation.

The Leading Causes of a Weak Skin Barrier

1. Over-cleansing: If you use aggressive or too frequent over-drying cleansers, this can damage the skin barrier. Also, a high PH that is very alkaline can weaken the skin.
2. Ingredients: Certain ingredients like retinoids, exfoliating acids, harsh, grainy scrubs, drying alcohols, and intense fragrances can also cause damage. Stay away from citrus and mint, because they can irritate the skin.
3. Environmental factors: Low humidity, high winds, cold climates, and sun damage can all lead to issues requiring skin barrier repair.
4. Stress: Overproduction of stress hormones decreases the skin’s natural lipids, causing weakening of the top layer of the skin.
5. Other causes: Alkaline detergents, steroids, and genetics all play a role as well.

How Do You Know if You Have a Weak Skin Barrier?

The good news is that the signs are all visible—things like redness and irritation. An increase in bacterial, viral, or fungal skin infections. Dryness, roughness, and itchy skin. Acne breakouts that increase with the overuse of acne products.

Repairing The Skin Barrier with Laser resurfacing

Laser resurfacing is one of the most effective treatments to repair the top layer of the skin. The outermost layer of skin is removed to allow skin to grow back healthier and hydrated.

LightRx offers four innovative treatments for laser skin resurfacing that are FDA-approved and proven to work. All our technologies work to repair the skin barrier.

Venus Viva™ addresses a wide range of common skin issues that combines NanoFractional™ Radio Frequency (RF) and Pulsed Electro Magnetic Fields with SmartScan™ technology to safely deliver reparative heat to deeper layers of the skin without causing harm to any of the surrounding tissue.

Venus Glow™ is a facial rejuvenation treatment that opens pores to effectively remove dirt, oil, and other impurities from the surface. Enjoy a fast, comfortable treatment that leaves your skin noticeably healthier, cleaner, and more hydrated immediately following treatment.

Sofwave™ works like most non-invasive skin tightening treatments by heating the skin activating the body’s natural healing process to regenerate collagen. However, Sofwave™ stands out with the unique Synchronous Ultrasound Parallel Beam Technology SUPERB™ that delivers the heat to the correct skin depth.

Additionally, Sofwave™ comes equipped with an integrated SofCool™ mechanism designed to protect the uppermost skin layer from burning. Once heated, the treatment zones activate the body’s natural healing response, which increases and regenerates the collagen in the skin for skin repair.

Aerolase Neo Elite is a medical device designed to treat all types of skin issues. The Aerolase Neo Elite is safe, gentle on the skin, and effective for all skin tones and types. Our Aerolase Neo Elite is the most advanced laser we offer at LightRx.

LightRx Hydrafacial

Our Hydrafacial is another exceptional skin treatment that exfoliates and hydrates the skin, helping to repair your skin barrier. It is similar to microdermabrasion but without penetrating the skin.

It works on all skin tones and types, removing dead skin cells and impurities revealing new, clean, hydrated skin.

There are many ways to improve and repair your skin barrier. The American Academy of Dermatology recommends cleansing with a soft cloth and mild cleansing products with a PH of 4.0 – 5.0 for best results to maintain your skin.

Moisturizing with serums and oils like jojoba, coconut, almond, and argon oil, to name a few, will help maintain your skin and keep it healthy.

LightRx is an innovative skincare specialist. Schedule a free consultation today to discuss your goals and design a treatment plan that works for you!