Peeling skin can be an incredibly uncomfortable and completely unsexy skin condition. Skin that sheds and flakes like a molting snake can feel tight, itchy, uncomfortable, and even leave pieces of dead skin lingering on your facial hair and clothing. 

Peeling skin is usually the result of a minor irritation, though sometimes there may be a deeper problem. For instance, peeling skin can be a symptom of a really bad diet, but we’re talking about a serious lack of nutrients. 

More often than not, the culprit is something your skin has been exposed to, either in your environment or in a product you’re currently using. We’ve got the most common reasons for skin peeling, and what you can do to stop the shedding.

Why is My Skin Peeling?

Your skin is your barrier, and it’s able to withstand a myriad of environmental stressors. From sun, wind, excessive heat and cold, dry air, and even oppressively humid conditions, your skin really takes a beating. 

Most of the time, your skin can take it on the proverbial chin, but repeated exposure can cause your skin to become irritated, and one of the signs of irritated skin can be peeling. 

So why is your skin peeling? Here are some common causes. 

The Cause: Dry Skin

When your skin becomes dehydrated and dry it can start to peel. Dry skin, also called xerosis cutis, can cause peeling, itching, burning, and an overall feeling of tightness and discomfort. 

There are numerous reasons why your skin might be dry. Weather and climate, extremely hot showers, use of heat in the winter, or lack of proper hydration can all be reasons your skin will feel dry. 

Drinking more water can help, but it might not be enough. To get relief fast and permanently, you need to hydrate topically. 

The Remedy: Hydrating Face Moisturizer

You might think grabbing some hand lotion and slathering it over your face will do the trick, but it will probably just flatten down the peeling parts of your skin for a few hours, clog your pores, and leave you in worse shape than before you started. 

To really hydrate skin deeply, you need a hydrating face moisturizer, like Disco’s. Our moisturizer is completely plant-based, and contains nourishing macadamia nut oil that not only keeps your skin lubricated, but fights off fine lines and wrinkles at the same time. 

Full of antioxidants like vitamins C and E, our moisturizer helps improve skin’s overall tone and texture, soothing irritation and helping your skin balance it’s natural moisture levels.  Your skin looks and feels comfortable and hydrated all day. 

The Cause: Free Radical Damage

While your skin is protecting your guts from the outside, it’s in a constant war with molecules called free radicals. These unbalanced molecules attack your skin’s cells and cause damage to your cell’s DNA. 

That damage most commonly appears as fine lines, wrinkles, sagging skin, and irritation, like dryness, itching, peeling, and flaking.  Through a process called oxidative stress, free radicals leave your cells weaker and susceptible to skin-related issues, like peeling. 

The Remedy: Antioxidants and Exfoliating

Your skin needs antioxidants (like the ones found in our moisturizer) to help protect it from the onslaught of free radicals. In addition to using a great moisturizer, you can double up by using an antioxidant rich exfoliant, like Disco’s Exfoliating Face Scrub.

Exfoliating is a great way to gently slough off the peeling skin on your face without creating further irritation, but the product you use is extremely important. If you use a harsh exfoliant, you could irritate your skin and end up with an even worse situation. 

Disco’s exfoliating scrub contains papaya extract to help remove dead, flaky skin, while a soothing blend of aloe, apricot, and chamomile, calm and nourish skin and help hydrate it. 

Aloe is a great antioxidant for peeling skin, because it hydrates deeply, soothes skin, and offers antioxidant protection to freshly exfoliated skin. 

The Cause: Sunburn

You know you should be wearing sunscreen, and you might even do a great job applying it before you head out the door… but do you reapply? 

UV damage to your skin is what causes a sunburn, and if the sunburn is severe enough, your skin can blister and sometimes peel. Peeling skin from a sunburn is a sign your body is shedding the dead, damaged skin. In this case, it’s not a good idea to exfoliate, pick, or peel the skin. 

Unfortunately, you should let the skin shed on its own so that you don’t damage the new skin underneath. 

The Remedy: Soothing Body Wash

Avoid the urge to peel or exfoliate. Instead, use a gentle cleanser that contains skin soothing ingredients. Disco’s Invigorating Body Wash is a gentle, yet effective body cleanser that can help keep your burned skin comfortable without causing irritation. 

Formulated with soothing and restorative aloe, papaya, horsetail, and chamomile, our body wash will deliver hydration where your skin needs it most, and soothe areas that are damaged and burned, without causing skin to peel before it is ready. 

Aloe is one of the best and most highly recommended ingredients for treating sunburn, and our body wash is chocked full of it, so you can get relief from painful sunburn sting.  

An added bonus: it’ll leave you smelling super sexy.

The Cause: Harsh Skincare Products

What’s in your skincare products could be the culprit. If you aren’t currently using a skincare regimen, that could be an issue also. Soap and water are infamous for leaving skin dry, itchy, and peely. 

There are plenty of ingredients in skincare that are harsh and known to be skin sensitizers. That means they cause allergic reactions or can cause irritation, like peeling. Some of the most popular are:

• Acids. Salicylic acid, topical retinoid creams often used to treat acne, other synthetic acids.

• Fragrance. In the U.S., “fragrance” is considered proprietary information, so a company isn’t required to disclose the ingredients that make up their fragrance blend. As such, you never really know what’s contained in your product if  the label only says “fragrance.” 
  
  There could be numerous irritating ingredients in fragrance that could cause your skin to peel.  

• Sulfates and parabens. Sulfates (like sodium lauryl sulfate) are added to products to make them sudsy, so you find them in cleansers very frequently. 
  
  Parabens are used as preservatives to increase the shelf life of your products. These ingredients can be extremely irritating to the skin. 

• Aluminum. Aluminum is most often found in antiperspirants. It’s used to stop you from sweating (something your body is actually supposed to do). Aluminum can cause irritation and even peeling and flaking, which isn’t something you want to deal with under your arms. 

The Remedy: Disco

Better, natural skin care for men. You don’t have to sacrifice performance for natural ingredients. For instance, phytic acid is a natural extract that is great for helping accelerate skin cell rejuvenation.

You also need ingredients in your products that deliver hydration and soothe the skin when it is irritated. 

Apricot oil, coconut oil, and aloe are both hydrating and soothing and perfect for using on peeling, irritated skin. Chamomile, macadamia nut oil, and vitamins C & E are natural, plant-based, and offer excellent free radical protection. 

You can also avoid getting “itchy pits” by opting for aluminum-free deodorant. Disco’s aluminum free pit stick contains eucalyptus, horsetail (for eliminating bacteria), tea tree oil, and aloe, so even the skin under your arms is protected against drying out.

Let’s Disco

You could head to a big box store and look for peeling skin remedies on the skin care aisle, but if you want all-natural, vegan, sustainably sourced ingredients you can trust that are specifically formulated to work with the pH balance of a man’s skin, you can just Disco. 

Our ingredients all serve a purpose. What we keep out of our products is just as important as what we keep in. Our expert team is led by a Yale-educated dermatologist who spent countless hours formulating our skin care line up. 

No matter what you skin issue, there’s a Disco product to help solve it. If you’re ready to take care of your skin and get it in the best shape possible, we recommend a starter set.

• Starter Set. This set contains a deep cleaning cleanser stick, exfoliating face scrub, and a hydrating moisturizer; the basics that every man needs to keep his skin in prime, youthful looking condition. 

• Advanced Set. When you’re ready to add a little more targeted skincare, the advanced set is your go-to. This set includes our purifying facial mask to deep clean pores, and our award winning eye stick to help improve the overall look and texture of the delicate skin around your eyes. 

• Body Set. Skin care doesn’t end at the neckline. Our body set includes our all-natural, paraben and sulfate free body wash and aluminum free deodorant, so you can clean and care for the rest of your body without the use of harsh chemicals. 

You can stop peeling skin in its tracks with a little know how and some good skin care products. Disco is your solution for dealing with irritated, peeling skin. 

Sources:

https://www.mayoclinic.org/symptoms/peeling-skin/basics/causes/sym-20050672

https://www.today.com/style/what-are-free-radicals-how-do-they-affect-your-skin-t150296

https://www.skincancer.org/blog/why-does-my-skin-peel-when-i-get-sunburned/