Your Guide to Skin Barrier: Function & Management

Has your skin recently started behaving over-sensitively? It might be your damaged skin barrier. A healthy barrier is fundamental to beautiful, rejuvenated skin. A broken skin barrier is responsible for many skin concerns, including inflammation, moisture loss, and a weakened ability to fight environmental stressors.

The skin barrier is important to discuss while you are trying to repair and manage your skin health from scratch. Read on to learn what the skin barrier is, why it matters, and how to repair it.

What is a Skin Barrier

Skin is the largest organ of the human body and behaves as a first line of defence against outside triggers like pathogens and environmental aggressors. Skin barrier, also known as the stratum corneum in science, is the outer layer of the epidermis. The epidermis is the top layer of skin, followed by the dermis and hypodermis. 
You can understand the skin better with a brick-and-mortar analogy. Your skin cells are bricks, while the lipid mixture containing fatty acids, cholesterol, and ceramides is the mortar. 

They act like glue to hold your skin cells together. Ceramides are the most crucial and constitute around 50% of the lipid content.

Also Read: Should You Layer Niacinamide and Hyaluronic Acid Together?

Why Skin Barrier Matters

Your barrier determines your skin health. It plays a foundational role and can impact how your skin appears and feels to the touch, respond to problems, and fight infections. When the barrier functions well, your skin behaves hydrated, calm, and able to repair itself. A healthy barrier can fight the irritants, allergens, pollutants, and pathogenic microorganisms. 

Let's see what major functions our skin barrier has.

Skin Barrier Functions

Skin barrier plays an integral role in maintaining overall skin resilience and ability. It performs vital functions including;

Immune Defense

There are immune cells and signalling molecules in your skin barrier to identify harmful agents. When a threat is detected, these cells trigger immune responses to neutralise it before it can penetrate deeper into the skin or body. This helps prevent inflammation and keeps skin soothed and calm. 

Keeps Skin Hydrated

Your barrier prevents the excessive water loss from the skin, maintaining overall homeostasis. This can keep your skin well-hydrated, supple, and young. Dehydrated skin is a common problem for several individuals, which can be fought with just a moisturised skin barrier. 

Protects Against UV Damage

Though continuous exposure of the skin to the sun can damage your barrier, too. But a strong skin barrier can prevent UV damage to a good extent. UV rays can penetrate your skin and trigger visible signs of ageing, pigmentation, and types of skin cancers. 

What is a Damaged Skin Barrier

A state or condition where your outermost layer of the epidermis or stratum corneum is no longer able to perform its protective and regulatory functions properly is what we call a damaged skin barrier. When this happens, lipids that hold cells together become weak and begin to allow the irritants and allergens to enter. This can leave your skin dehydrated and susceptible to attacks.

A compromised skin barrier can make the skin more permeable and may lead to sensitivity, excessive dryness, and an increased possibility of allergic reactions. Even a person with healthy skin can experience heightened sensitivity in their skin, with signs like inflammation, redness, and irritation. 

How to Identify a Compromised Skin Barrier

First, determine whether your barrier is damaged or compromised. This helps you understand the root causes of your skin problems and find solutions.

A compromised skin barrier can be recognised with a combination of visual and sensory signs and symptoms. A normal skin type may experience tingling when a usual skincare product is applied, or may experience frequent, excessive dryness. This is because the skin fails to retain moisture and is acting impaired.

Your skin may also become more vulnerable to conditions like eczema and breakouts. The skin with a damaged barrier is difficult to manage, often requires treatment and obligatory precautions. 

What Can Damage Your Barrier

We are living in an era with too many triggers and causes of a damaged skin barrier. This includes factors from the environment you live in, products and ingredients you use, lifestyle products, and many more. 

Your detergents can have harsh, abrasive properties to damage your skin barrier. Chronic and genetic conditions might also have an impact. 

Here are a few factors that negatively impact your barrier.

• Washing your face frequently or scrubbing too excessively
• Using harsh ingredients or ones that your skin does not tolerate
• Prolonged under-the-sun exposure, especially without SPF
• Pollutants and changing weather conditions, like dry air
• Lifestyle factors, including lack of sleep and high stress levels
• Ageing naturally affects your skin barrier
• Smoking and alcohol consumption for a long period
• Poor diet lacking essential fatty acids and antioxidants

How to Repair Skin Barrier

Repairing your skin barrier starts with a combination of an adequate skincare routine, along with some lifestyle habits. Your skincare should include gentle ingredients like shea butter, hyaluronic acid and niacinamide blended in for sensitive skin. 

Start your day with Cream Cleanser. It is infused with vitamins A, B, C, and E, combined with rosemary and refined hydrators like shea butter and jojoba oil to soothe inflammation and fight dryness and rough skin. 

Treat with radiance-restoring Radiance 3D serum. It comes with 10% niacinamide and ultra-low-weight hyaluronic acid that protects against harmful UV rays, restores hydration, and helps with acne-scarring and pigmentation. 

Hydracalm is an anti-redness moisturiser for sensitive skin. It fortifies the barrier and assists wound healing, helps with itching and redness, and provides intense moisture.  

Also Read: Guide to Choosing the Ideal Moisturiser for Your Skin

How Long Does It Take To Repair the Skin Barrier

Improving your skin barrier can take a few weeks to months, depending on how serious the damage is. It varies from one person to another. 

But suppose you are following a disciplined lifestyle, including a specific skincare routine, eating and sleeping well, and managing your stress levels. In that case, you can see a positive result faster than someone who is solely relying upon good skincare. 

When to Seek a Doctor's Help

Seeking professional advice is mandatory when your compromised skin barrier goes beyond your control. Though you can manage sensitive skin behaviour, redness and inflammation quite a bit, the worst symptoms may require your doctor's intervention. If you feel too much stinging sensation or painful rashes, see the doctor immediately. 

They analyse your skin condition and recommend products accordingly. Your doctor can also tell you any specific preventative measures for your condition. 

Conclusion

The state of our skin barrier decides how our skin acts and appears. It can get disrupted due to a variety of reasons, including UV rays, pollution, ageing, scrubbing, and other daily practices. Maintaining a healthy life with a good diet and proper sleep is the basis. 

You can rely on appropriate skincare ingredients and products to repair the barrier. Depending on how bad the condition is, healing may require a few months. 

References

• Hyun-Ji Lee, Miri Kim, "Skin Barrier Function and the Microbiome", 2022 Oct
  
• Jeffrey Rajkumar, Neha Chandan, Peter Lio, Vivian Shi, "The Skin Barrier and Moisturization: Function, Disruption, and Mechanisms of Repair", 2023
  
• Paola Baker, Christina Huang, Rakan Radi, Samara B Moll, Emmanuela Jules, Jack L Arbiser, "Skin Barrier Function: The Interplay of Physical, Chemical, and Immunologic Properties", 2023 Nov
  
• J M Jensen, E Proksch, "The skin's barrier", 2009
  
• J W Fluhr, R Darlenski, I Angelova-Fischer, N Tsankov, D Basketter, "Skin irritation and sensitization: mechanisms and new approaches for risk assessment", 2008