If you are wondering how often you need to be washing your face, there may not be a straightforward answer for everyone. Just as with most things, everyone has different types of skin with different needs, including how often it should be washed.
In general, everyone should wash their face 1-2 times daily, but figuring out if 1 or 2 times is best for you make take some trial and error, and thinking about your skin.
Read on for skin types that may be better off for once daily cleansing, and those that may look and feel better with twice.
If you are very prone to acne breakouts, you are likely dealing with extra oil, bacteria, or dead skin cells which are clogging up those pores.
To help keep everything cleared out and clog-free, twice daily washing with a gentle cleanser is normally best for acne sufferers.
Wash in the morning to get rid of the sweat and oil from the night, and have a maybe more thorough cleansing at nighttime to remove the dirt, oil, make-up, and skin products from the day.
You will want to use an oil-free cleanser to avoid exacerbating your acne, and if needed you can use a gentle acne wash with ingredients like salicylic acid, although for some these ingredients may be too stripping.
As for the dry skin crowd, you may want to experiment with one big deep clean at night only to prevent removing too much of your natural oils and moisture that your skin desperately needs.
If you have trouble getting your day started without at least a rinse, you can try and lukewarm or cool water-only rinse in the morning to give your skin a mini reset in the morning.
Really dry skin can also probably stand up to an oil-based cleanser at night, as long as you aren’t also prone to acne.
If you are more mature, your skin has likely done some growing up over the years as well, and this means less natural oil production as you age. With this reduced oil production, your skin cleansing needs may have changed, making those twice-a-day washes (that you definitely needed in your teens and twenties) way overly drying for you now.
Reassess your skin every few years, and if it is feeling more dry than hydrated most days, opt for a once-daily clean at night to see how your skin reacts.
Some people may accidentally go way overboard with face washing thinking that they need to wash their face constantly to prevent acne and oil.
Unfortunately, this can backfire, as stripping off too much of the skin’s natural oils may boost in into oil production overdrive to replenish itself - leaving you with more oil and acne than you started with. Overly-dried out skin from overwashing can also cause problems, as when skin gets too dry its natural protective barriers and pH levels may get thrown off, opening up your skin to issues like redness, irritation, and acne.
If you are dealing with acne, don’t wash more than twice a day, and if that doesn’t help you can speak with a doctor about medicated acne creams.
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