Tween / Teen Skin Guide

The tween and teen years are an exciting mix of change. But learning to grow into your skin can sometimes feel like a challenge. From acne breakouts to figuring out your skin type, caring for tween / teen skin can seem like a new frontier. That’s why Smooth Synergy’s put together a comprehensive guide to skincare for tweens / teens. Here’s how to take control of your skincare destiny:

Skincare for Tweens / Teens: What is Your Skin Type?

The earlier you get to know your skin, the easier it will be to create a skincare routine that works for you. The most common skin types of teens include:

1. Oily Skin: For some tweens and teens, oily or congested skin means dealing with hormonal acne for the first time.

2. Sensitive Skin: Other adolescents may have sensitive skin, which results in inflamed, red and itchy skin. Triggers like harsh ingredients or pollution can exacerbate sensitive skin.

3. Dry Skin: Still other teenagers find themselves with dry skin that can lead to eczema or other puberty skin rashes.

A mistake that teens make is choosing products or treatments that aren’t right for their skin type. As a result, they end of making their skin issues worse instead of better. Therefore, it’s important to figure out your skincare type. We recommend seeking guidance from a professional esthetician. Specifically, she’s trained to understand individual skin types. Further, she can pass her expertise and knowledge on to you about your own unique skincare needs. 

Skincare for Tweens / Teens: How to Establish Good Habits?

It’s simple: The daily choices you make impact the quality of your skin. Therefore, the sooner you establish healthy skincare habits, the better chance you’ll have of maintaining clean, clear skin.:

1. Choosing Product: In general, teenagers should stay away from skincare products that are too heavy, overly scented or contain harsh chemicals. By picking gentle, non-abrasive product, tweens / teens can minimize skin irritation, rashes and breakouts.

2. Hands off: It’s also important to keep hands off your face or to wash your hands thoroughly before touching the face. Specifically, this will assure that you won’t transfer dirt and grime from your hands onto your face. It’s an easy way to avoid clogging the pores or causing skin irritation or redness.

3. Healthy Diet: Your parents have probably drilled “balanced diet” into your heads. The teen years are the time to really embrace this advice. For example, a diet that includes the right mix of vegetables, fruits and healthy proteins will reap great rewards for the skin. After all, your skin is the largest organ in the body, which shows just how important nutrition is to its upkeep.

4. Using Sunscreen: Up to 90% of visible skin damage comes from photoaging or sun damage. Prevent it by wearing sunscreen daily.

Skincare Tips for Tweens / Teens: How to Create A Teen Skincare Regimen?

Getting into the habit of taking care of your skin at an early age is a lifetime investment in your skin. A skincare routine should include products and treatments that are right for your particular skin type. A great start includes:

1. Gently washing your face twice a day (and after sports or exercise): Use fingertips and water that’s lukewarm to clear skin of dirt, debris and makeup. Cleansers should contain gentle, non-soap ingredients

2. Applying a toner: A skin toner will reach dirt and debris in the pores that the cleanser missed, as well as leave skin feeling fresh and clean.

3. Using a daily moisturizer: Look for one that is non-comedogenic (translation: won’t cause acne) or oil-free. A daily moisturizer will hydrate the skin by increasing the water content in the skin’s superficial layer.

4. Liberally applying sunscreen: Make sure it’s an SPF of a minimum of 30 to protect your skin from UV damage.

Skincare for Tweens / Teens: What is Hormonal Acne?

Tween/Teen Hormonal Acne may be a concern for you, or, perhaps your BFF. Whoever it is, someone in your tween / teen years will suffer from hormonal acne. Acne breakouts in teens are common, causing red, inflamed bumps like whiteheads, blackheads, pimples, pustules and cysts on the face, back and chest.

When puberty hits, tweens and teens experience hormonal surges and shifts.  For girls, the hormone at play is estrogen, which is responsible for the physiological changes that occur during puberty. For boys, testosterone levels are on the rise. Changing hormone levels are responsible for a whole host of teenage skin problems and conditions. In rare cases, hormone shifts during puberty can cause skin darkening or skin tags. More commonly, they can trigger the sebaceous glands to work on overdrive. The result is oily, congested or acneic skin.

Skincare for Tweens / Teens: How to Treat Teenage Hormonal Acne?

So what should adolescents do about those acne breakouts?

1. Wash the face gently. And the keyword is gently. Teens often equate scrubbing with prevention of acne. But overly harsh scrubbing can actually increase skin cell turnover and further clog your pores.

2. Be cautious of sweat. When you exert yourself and sweat, it can sit on the surface of your skin. Use face wipes to give your skin a chance to breathe.

3. Get a monthly facial. A professional tween / teen facial is designed to exfoliate and cleanse the skin and leave your face fresh and toned.

4. Spot Treat. Invest in a topical skincare product with Salicylic Acid or Benzoyl Peroxide. These powerhouse ingredients work to resolve acne in different ways. Salicylic Acid can prevent and heal pimples and blemishes by getting rid of dead skin cells on the surface of the skin. Benzoyl Peroxide works to kill the bacteria that inflames blemishes. To prevent acne, consider a product with Alpha Hydroxy Acid (AHA), which works much like Salicylic Acid to exfoliate the skin and prevent clogged pores.

Skincare for Tweens / Teens: Should You Pop Your Pimples?

Much to our chagrin, there’s no shortage of zit popping videos on YouTube of late. Our expert advice? Don’t try it at home! Squeezing the pus out of pimples may be tempting, but it actually exacerbates the breakout and prevents blemishes from property healing. Popping pimples can cause further inflammation, infection and even acne scarring or dark marks. A professional esthetician should be enlisted to take care of extractions. She’s trained in how to prepare the skin for extractions and the right techniques to prevent skin damage and restore healthy, clear skin.

Skincare for Tweens / Teens: Why Is It Important to Wear Sunscreen?

We talked about sunscreen above, but it’s so important that it bears repeating. Skin cancer is becoming more prevalent and the best way to prevent it is daily use of sunscreen to protect from UV sun damage. Therefore, It should become a part of your daily routine even before you’re a teenager.

Skincare for Tweens / Teens: How Early Should I Start  Worrying About Wrinkles?

Fixing wrinkles can wait until your forties. That said, there are things tweens and teens can do to prevent wrinkles. You can wear sunscreen (see above). You can sleep on your back to avoid creasing the face. You can avoid tech neck, which is basically looking down at your computer or phone, which can lead to horizontal neck bands later in life. It’s really never to early for teens to start certain wrinkle prevention measures.

Skincare for Tweens / Teens: What Skincare Treatments are Right for Teenagers?

A Smooth Synergy Tween / Teen Facial is a great first-time skincare treatment. Designed to meet the unique needs of younger skin, our Tween / Teen Facial includes a steaming and cleansing with gentle ingredients, followed by extractions. Best of all, our teen face treatments all come with in-depth education, which takes the guesswork out of choosing the products and treatments that are right for you. You’ll not only leave with smooth and clear skin, but with a better understanding of your skin type and how to care for your skin. Contact an expert in beauty at 212-397-0111 to book a Tween / Teen Facial.