Is Sweating Good for Your Skin?

The heat of summer has not missed a beat. Whether you’re finding yourself in a heat dome right now or just dealing with the usual high summer temps, this heat has a natural effect for all of us: sweating. Whether you’re working out in the heat or just getting sweaty running your daily errands, you might wonder whether that sweat is helping or hurting your skin, and we’ve got the answer.

How Sweating Benefits Your Skin

The main purpose of sweat, of course, is to cool down our body temperature. It turns out that it has some pretty handy benefits for your skin health too, though.

For one, sweat is a natural exfoliant. If you’ve ever gotten done with a tough workout and felt that gritty sweat on your skin, that’s salt and other minerals that are natural components of sweat, and they give your body a fantastic smoothing scrub.

Second, sweat produces a natural antimicrobial peptide, which means that it can kill harmful bacteria on your skin. This could help to prevent infections and, more noticeably, it can kill bacteria that create blemishes or spark symptoms of other skin conditions.

Finally, sweat can actually be hydrating to your skin. It’s pulling moisture out of your body but bringing it to the surface of your skin, which can give your skin a plumper, smoother look.

How Sweat Can Affect Your Skin Negatively

While a sweaty workout session has some great perks, it’s not all roses. There are some ways that sweat can negatively affect your skin too if you don’t take the right steps in your skin care.

While your body is pushing sweat out of your pores, it can bring more sebum (natural oils) to the surface of your skin too. That oil and other debris can get stuck in your pores and clog them, leading to blemishes.

Second, for some people, sweat can irritate their skin. The abrasive salt and minerals, while they do a great job of exfoliating, can trigger some irritation, especially if you’re already prone to sensitivity.

Third, if the sweat camps out on your skin for too long, it can actually be drying. The salt sits on your skin and could pull out some of the moisture that it brought to the surface.

The fourth one is a bit more specialized – sweat can lead to chafing. This is particularly the case in areas where your skin is rubbing together or where fabric is rubbing against your skin, so this is a concern not for your facial skin but for your skin elsewhere.

Finally, your scalp can suffer due to sweating too, specifically in the form of dandruff. There’s a fungus that naturally lives on our skin and it thrives in a warm and damp environment, so when you have sweat on your scalp for a prolonged time, the fungus overgrows and this causes dandruff.

So, Is Sweating Good for Your Skin?

There might be more cons than pros on those lists above, but overall, sweating is actually good for your skin because the disadvantages are largely preventable. Ultimately, all it takes is the right skin care routine to enjoy all the benefits that sweating brings to your skin without the potential problems.

The Secrets to Getting the Benefits of Sweat Without the Downsides

Want to have your cake and eat it too? You can do exactly that by following these skin care tips that erase the downsides of sweating while still giving you all the perks.

Wash Your Skin Soon After Sweating

After a sweaty workout, reward yourself with a nice, refreshing facial wash. This clears away the salt and minerals from your sweat as well as the oils and anything else the sweat has brought to the surface before it has a chance to clog your pores.

Consider Washing Your Skin Before Your Workout

Showering and cleansing your face after a sweat is essential, but you might even find it helpful to wash your skin before your workout too. Particularly if you haven’t yet washed your face for the day or if you have on makeup or other products that could cause clogged pores, it benefits you to make your face clear so that when the sweat comes to the surface, it’s not mixing with pore-clogging particles that were already there.

If you wash your skin before and after your workouts and you’re still seeing an uptick in breakouts, specialized blemish control products can work wonders, even if you don’t seem to need them in the cooler (AKA less sweaty) months.

Keep Your Cleanser Gentle

When it comes to washing off sweat, use a facial cleanser and a body wash that are on the gentler side. Remember that sweat can be irritating to your skin and it’s also freshly exfoliated your skin, so a cleanser or soap that’s too harsh can amplify any sensitivity your skin already has. A gentle cleanser is the way to go.

Wash Your Hair Promptly

When it comes to keeping up with your workout routine without getting dandruff, your main goal is to prevent your scalp from staying warm and damp enough for fungi to thrive. The best way to do that is to wash your hair well after a sweaty workout – or any situation where you’ve sweat enough that your hair feels damp enough that it’s not drying right away. The longer you leave the sweat sitting on your scalp, the higher your risk for dandruff.

Use Anti-Chafe Products

For that pesky chafing, prevention is the name of the game. Wearing moisture-wicking clothing helps but you can also use products that you apply to your skin that cut back on friction and prevent chafing. There are specific products made for this, like Body Glide and other specialty products, but some broader products can work in a pinch too like deodorant or petroleum jelly.

Sweating can be a drag during the summer, and I know we all get tired of doing piles of laundry because you sweat through an outfit every time you leave the house. But with the right skin care, that sweating can be a boon for your skin.