10 Habits That Have Negative Influence On Your Skin, Hair And Nails

Many people are all guilty of trying out new beauty routines to pamper themselves, and at times, they end up doing more damage than good.

Whether using the wrong product or following an age-old method, bad beauty habits have to be broken!

Here are 10 innocent beauty habits that have surprisingly negative influences on your skin, hair, and nails.

# Sleeping Without Removing Your Makeup

It can be exhausting after a Saturday night dinner party or a friend’s wedding, and you can’t wait to hit the bed and call it a night. But sleeping with your makeup on can cause extreme damage to the skin.

Makeup can lead to clogged pores due to the overnight buildup of debris and excess oil in the skin, resulting in acne.

Makeup increases the exposure of the skin to free radicals, which lead to the breakdown of the skin’s collagen and formation of premature wrinkles.

Some makeup products contain harsh pigments, metals, and fragrances that can cause irritant dermatitis and exacerbate your rosacea.

Sleeping with makeup on will undeniably induce dryness and redness, increase the skin’s sensitivity, eventually leading to a hyperpigmented lusterless complexion.

# Applying Too Much Hair Oil

Almost everybody has tried the “grandma-approved” application of hair oil in copious amounts through vigorous massage in hope of bringing dry and brittle hair to life.

The scalp and hair stay healthy and free of bacteria and fungi if maintained at a pH range of 4.5–5.5. The health, thickness, and overall density of the hair fibers remain good when this level of acidity is maintained.

Applying too much hair oil interferes with this pH and can cause hair loss. Multiple shampooing to remove the oil further causes drying of hair, making it more brittle.

Moreover, certain natural essential oils are not water-soluble, so they stay on the hair shaft and scalp even after multiple hair washes, which can induce dandruff.

But then, why do some people actually find their hair softer after oiling?

This is because the shampoo doesn’t remove the oil completely, which, in disguise, gives a temporary solution to the hair dryness you are facing. In the long run, it doesn’t really do much!

# Popping Your Pimple at Home

Popping your pimple is very tempting, but it can delay the healing of your acne and induce scarring. It causes tiny breaks in your skin barrier, worsens inflammation, and spreads bacteria to adjacent areas of the skin.

So, next time you are standing in front of the mirror ready to pop that zit, do consider that you are forcing the debris, bacteria, and inflammation deeper into the pore, worsening the acne.

# Using Water That Is Too Hot for Daily Showers

Hot showers are humble pleasures for most people and particularly soothing during harsh winters.

As amazing as it feels, prolonged hot showers are detrimental to your overall skin health. It does not only strip the skin of its good natural oils, but it can also induce dryness, inflammation, and itching.

Individuals with dry skin tend to have impaired epidermal barrier with a deficiency of ceramides in the skin that help keep the skin moisturized. This skin type is prone to eczema, which can be aggravated by steamy hot showers.

# Vigorous Exfoliation

Yes, using a scrub is great for your face and your body as long as it exfoliates the skin gently.

However, using harsh scrubs with sharp granules too often will only damage the skin’s first protective layer, making your skin feel raw and sensitive.

It can increase the likelihood of UV damage and sunburn that can cause hyperpigmentation, leaving your skin looking tanned and lusterless.

If you have flaky and cracked skin, do not use a scrub assuming that it will smooth the skin out. Flaky and cracked skin requires moisturizing and healing with the right use of medicated creams and barrier repair moisturizers.

# Tweezing Out Ingrown Hair

When a hair follicle is clogged with dead skin and the hair is shaved/cut off, the sharp end of the hair grows sideways and pierces back into the skin, forming an ingrown hair.

People with curly, coarse hair are more prone to an ingrown hair. It can cause redness and inflammation on the skin, overlying it.

As this hair doesn’t come off easily with waxing or shaving, most people try to pick them out with a pair of tweezers. Doing this can cause pain, infection, cysts, folliculitis, itching, and eventually pigmentation or scarring.

# Not Washing Makeup Brushes

If you have never washed your makeup brushes, you will be surprised to know the amount and variety of microbes budding on your sponges and brushes.

Studies have microbiologically detected Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Pseudomonas, E. coli, and Candida on samples of makeup tools and brushes, which are threatening to your skin and overall health.

Not washing your makeup brushes can cause contamination of your tools with these microbes and cause dermatitis, acne, folliculitis, and other fungal skin infections.

Mascaras, kajal pencils, and eyeliners tend to grow more yeasts than bacteria and can cause a lot of eye infections if not kept clean.

# Not Wearing Sunscreen or Choosing a Wrong One

Photoprotection means the prevention of detrimental effects on the skin, such as pigmentation, premature aging, tanning, sunburns, cancer, and allergies, that are caused by UV radiation from the sun.

Not wearing sunscreen daily can cause all the above troubles for your skin. But if you do wear a sunscreen every day, make sure you wear the right one, at the right time, in the right amount.

Some non-medicated sunscreens with poor formulations can induce acne, allergic dermatitis, and ineffective photoprotection and will only make you look greasy.

Do not apply thin streaks of sunscreen with skipped areas as it will lower the SPF indicated on the tube.

# Using Hair Styling Products Too Often

This is applicable to both men and women who use too much hair styling products every single day.

It can be anything – hair-fixing sprays, hair gels, mousse, styling creams, hair wax, texturizing sprays, curling creams, hair irons, blow dryers, curling wands, and so on.

The use of these products once in a while is absolutely fine, but using it every single day or too often will cause dry, brittle hair shafts, eventually leading to hair loss.

Provokers such as heat, over manipulation, polymers, colors, and chemicals break open the cuticle (outer layer) of the hair shaft, making your hair frizzy and lifeless.

# Frequently Applying Gel Nails

Although gel nails look fabulous and are long-lasting, they can cause a lot of damage to your nails if done frequently. They can cause nail brittleness and discoloration due to dehydration and thinning of the nail plate.

Once the color begins to peel off, most women are tempted to lift off the color like a scab on their own, which can lead to nail plate damage.

The nails are exposed to high-intensity UV light during the gel manicure process that can damage the surrounding skin as well.

The removal of gel nails involves wrapping the nails in aluminum foil with concentrated acetone and then using a file, which further causes nail thinning and damage.