Reviewing Glycolic Acid Skincare Hacks
Introduction:
people reviews about glycolic acid:
what's your favorite personal hygiene?
hack , I never smell .I never smell unless I don't do this and look at my underarms you guys let me show you the other one hold on and then I'll tell you what I use hold on yeah you know what I use
glycolic acid put a little bit on a cotton pad you put a little bit under your arm it neutralized smell and it helps with hyperpigmentation and texture
 |
| real example of using glycolic acid |
SOME GLYCOLIC ACID HACK:
well first of all I'm kind of curious about your personal hygiene hack maybe we'll do a article on
that but let's talk about glycolic acid because first of all I have seen hundreds of hacks that people have been using for glycolic acid specifically this ordinary seven percent glycolic acid toning solution it's everywhere and it really does it's actually it seems like glycolic acid goes viral every other month for something new and not all of it's bad actually I think that's the most fun thing about this ingredient some of these hacks is some actually have some validity to it some I think I'm like a little over sensitive .I don't like some of them a lot I might be an outlier here but really there are some that can be helpful so I think in this article what we'll do is we'll talk a little bit about the benefits of glycolic acid the risks of glycolic acid but we really want to attack some of these not attack a dress because we like some of these acts we want to address some of these hacks on glycolic acid and see if you should be incorporating them in your skincare routine or body hack routine so all things related to glycolic acid hacks here we go :
What is Glycolic Acid:
Glycolic acid first off what the heck is it it's an alpha hydroxy acid that's a family of exfoliating acids which include things like lactic acid mandelic acid and others but glycolic acid is the smallest particle Alpha hydroxy acid which means it penetrates deepest into the skin of all the exfoliating acids which makes it the most effective but also carries a higher risk than some of the other ones so what does it do right so first and foremost it's an exfoliator so by breaking up those bonds between skin cells it can help with texture it also helps by signaling collagen growth so that helps with Fine Lines maybe even wrinkles at certain concentrations but because of what it is it can also have some downside yeah so the main risks of any exfoliating acids but specifically glycolic acid is that one is going to make you more sensitive to the sun now salicylic acid has not been shown to make you more sensitive but because glycolic acid is exfoliating the skin it will make you more sensitive to the skin sun and then you also have the risk of over exfoliation so if you use it it toooften it's breaking up the bonds that protect you from all types of things that is going to increase your risk of irritation allergy sensitivity to other products burning redness so you just have to be careful how often you're using it right and so prototypically this is an ingredient that you might use once or twice a week in the night time and it'll help exfoliate your cells kind of like that treat you would do on the days you're not using a retinoid and that's how it's classically used but now we're going to take a deep dive and look at some of the things that other people have been using this for and let's just see what makes sense people have come up with all these insane hacks let's talk
Hack #1
about the first one because it's the one that's in this article so we'll address it first using glycolic acid as a deodorant or as an armpit treatment in general glycolic acid as an armpit treatment what do we think we feel strongly about this one I do I do and you were like not
as strict as I am with skin care you feel strongly about this I don't know why I think it's just a whole deliberate thing so we said first already glycolic acid first and foremost is an exfoliant that's its primary function so when you look at Di deodorant or a deodorant and antiperspirants which is what you're using a deodorant antiperspirant where does an exfoliant fit in here and it really doesn't that's why I think it irks me the exfoliant part actually has no purpose what you're using this for when you're using it as a deodorant is actually the antimicrobial properties so it can't kill the odorific bacteria that convert those oils into scents and smells absolutely I think it's reasonable I just don't think it works as an antiperspirant and I think because it's primarily exploited it's irritating in that sensitive area I agree with this here so I mean scientifically right odor in the armpits is caused by bacteria on the skin when I tell patients to solve the time they're always mind blown it's something that I learned during my .Dermatology training is that you actually secrete your sweat odorless and then it's bacteria on our skin that turns it into an odor and so by using an exfoliant or glycolic acid specifically that makes it uninhabitable for these bacteria you decrease that bacterial burden and you decrease the odor so theoretically it works and that's why there have been studies that have shown that lemon can also be used has a deodorant not an antiperspirant but a deodorant those are separate things the other piece here is that it is an exfoliant and we I actually see this a lot I don't know how often you see this but armpit dermatitis redness and irritation specifically just in the armpit and these are what we call the intertraiginous areas and these areas they're like body folds you get a lot of friction you get a lot of moisture you got a lot of pressure and so anything that you put in these areas are going to be like occluded and by occluding them it increases the risk of irritation so anything you put there is at higher risk of irritation so now you're taking something that's already irritating and increasing its irritancy potential and so you have to be careful of getting this armpit dermatitis now let's talk about using it for dark armpits so this makes a little more sense to me because when we talk about dark armpits or darker other areas on the skin like in on the back of the neck it makes sense to exfoliate the pigment's not necessarily from increased pigment making cells or melanocytes in the skin it's actually a result of the thickening of the skin so I'm like an exfoliant okay that makes some sense here I can understand why you might use this and how it might be helpful the only caveatwith this again is going to be that irritation so I agree I think using it under the armpits when you have that dark darker skin underneath the armpits makes more sense to me than using it asa deodorant just because the risk of irritation that being said where do we fall on this hack yes or no as a deodorant I would say no I think there are multiple other ingredients that could work I think that the primary purpose of glycolic acid is Mist so just a no for that one for me for the dark underarms I think it's okay I think it's acceptable okay I would say for thearmpits glycolic acid from the ordinary too high of a concentration to use regularly but I think if they made a deodorant with a lower concentration glycolic acid could be beneficial for both things otherwise I think our risk of armpit dermatitis and irritation is just too high so I'm kind of a soft no on this one but okay so speaking of dark areas on the skin is there a better place for this is there a better role for this lightning effect I think there is an attack number two we actually got asked about this lot I've seen it less
Hack #2
frequently lately but the dark elbows and knees thing and this makes a lot of sense to me first let's talk about what this is called This is called Fades orfrictional asymptomatic darkening of the extensor surfaces it has a name in one paper and this is actually the biopsy the scan to find and we did a longer article on this but they biopsied the skin to show why the armpits and knees get darker it's because of thickness in the skin it's not because there's more pigment it's the skin is actually getting thicker in those areas so what do we think about using glycolic acid for that see I like it here I think this is an improvement on the dark underarms thing because you are again working with the primary purpose of glycolic acid you're exfoliating but you're no longer working on a sensitive area that's thinner sensitive skin and is no longer occluded so I'm all for it okay yeah I agree so now we're targeting the primary mechanism which is like what we always talk about is like know what causes it know how to treat it so it's due to increased thickness of the skin glycolic
Products to use
acid thins out the skin it exfoliates that thick and hyperkeratotic thickened skin so so absolutely I think this makes a lot more sense glycolic acid would be wonderful for this you can also use lotions that have lactic acid or urea so things like the acetophil 20 urea cream or the amlactin 15 lactic acid creams and you can also use theordinary seven percent solution so nexthack using glycolic acid even as this isreally good for a toning solutionsomething thin and liquidy using glycolic acid to prevent ingrown hairs
Hack #3
prevent ingrown hairs okay so what happens with ingrown hairs I'm thinking like so oftentimes what caused them is the hair as it's coming out it grows and kind of curls up on itself and curls and grows back into the skin right it's ingrown well it turns out that glycolic acid has actually been shown to to break those sulfohydro bonds that cause the increased curvature of the hair shaft
and by doing that it actually almost has a hair straightening effect and by doing that not in addition to exfoliating the skin removing maybe potentially an ingrown hair and helping to release it back into the universe it can also decrease the curvature of the shaft which prevents ingrown hair so I actually think glycolic acid is a wonderful treatment for inground hair
Hack #4
Is the one I've seen go viral the most but then there's always the occasional
article that's like it's good for your hair so Hair Care has actually been my deep dive for the past couple of months it's hard to find literature on hair ingredients and scalp
product it's not heavily studied most are done by the industry but how could glycolic acid be helpful for the scalp? first it would be a speed for dandruff so dandruff is caused by yeast that yeast causes inflammation that inflammation causes your skin to become scaly and Flaky right so that's the pathogenesis now if you have scaly skin using glycolic acid can help to remove some of that flaking and scaling so it is treating sort of the last cause of dandruff or the last effect of dandruff but the underlying cause being the yeast
Top Three Glycolic Acid Are:
Final Thoughts
final ruling on glycolic acid and dandruff . I think it's noish like it could perhaps in theory be helpful but there are other better options out there and for shorter hair uh like for the beard or something I think it could be good for preventing ingrown hairs if you're shaving short hair but for like longer hair where you know maybe fragility of the hair shaft is in question probably a no for that but for ingrowns yes yeah exactly and there's a big difference between this and citric acid in the hair huge difference in these two ingredients although scalp loves to be acidic it doesn't love to be that acidic so that's it so that's all things glycolic acid.
0 Comments