To slow the spread of diseases, we must always wear face masks as recommended by the government and our health care professionals.
Although they have not address how long should we keep wearing are masks on in public places, health experts say we should continue to wear them for the next 18 months or more.
Since the moisture inside our face masks create a micro-environment due to humidity, topped with friction from our movement and heath, they sometimes cause irritation, for people with sensitive skin, skins conditions may occur.
Here are the common skins irritations caused by face masks, and how to treat them.
Acne
Acne is the most common face mask irritation. We dont deny, we’ve experienced this as well. These breakouts occur when the oil and dirt on our face gets trapped inside our pores due to the pressure from the mask.
Treatment- Don’t forget to wash your face before going to sleep and don’t go cray cray on finding a new skin care since we dont want our skin to get dry, when can also cause acne.
Dry Skin
Since our masks act as a seal to prevent inhaling viruses, it can also do number of skin problems such as dry skin. This happens when the cloth absorbs our skin’s natural oil and without it, our skins turns rough and sensitive.
Treatment- Use facial moisturizers to restore your skin’s balance.
Folliculitis
Wearing masks for long period causes folliculitis due to added pressure on our pores. Folliculitis is a condition when hair follicles becomes infected and inflamed due to pressure.
Treatment- wash your face before and after wearing a mask.
Dermatitis
Skins rashes can also develop from wearing face masks and Dermatitis is one of them. It often presents with an itchy, inflamed and flaky rash limited to the area where your mask covers.
One cause of this could be the nickel nose piece on your masks. And article from huffington post says that nickel is one of the most common causes of dermatitis.
Treatment- take few breaks from wearing your masks, but only when it is safe to do so.
Bruising
Bruising is common especially to those on the front lines who wore masks without break. A facial bruise occurs when our blood vessels on our skin gets damaged due to pressure.
Treatment-treat then with cold compress to spread their growth. Warm compress can also help or eat fruits rich in anti-inflammatory enzyme to reduce swelling.
