IMPROVING YOUR SKIN

WITH AN OUTDOOR ELECTRIC SAUNA

If you use saunas regularly, you are doing your skin — and for that matter, your whole body — a big favor. In addition to helping you relax and sleep better, an outdoor electric sauna can also help improve your overall skin health.

Sure, saunas aren’t a one-stop solution to all your skin woes. But if you struggle with issues like dullness, congestion, and fine lines, regular sauna sessions can go a long way in helping with your skin troubles. 

Keep reading ahead to learn more about the benefits of an outdoor electric sauna and how it might help improve your skin! 

Maintains Skin Moisture

One of the best ways an outdoor electric sauna can help improve your skin is by keeping it moisturized. This is because your body removes cellular waste products through the skin during perspiration — the act of sweating. One of the waste products, urea, can do wonders for helping keep your skin moisturized and soft. It’s even added to popular skincare products, including moisturizers, cleansers, exfoliants and body washes.

Also known as carbamide, urea is a molecule that’s also a part of your skin’s natural moisturizing factor (NMF).  Medical News Today explains that urea can help improve your skin's appearance by acting as a moisturizer and a keratolytic agent. As a moisturizing agent, urea acts like a natural humectant — to help attract and retain moisture — and as an emollient, urea can help soften and smoothen your skin’s texture. As a keratolytic agent, urea helps prevent the buildup of dead skin cells to reduce the appearance of rough, patchy skin.

If you’ve ever noticed that your skin feels particularly softer and moist after a good sweat, it’s likely due to sebum — a sticky, oily product that your skin produces to keep itself moisturized. Sebum is typically composed of several substances, including fat molecules, waxes, and squalene. Research shows that it can help lock in your skin’s moisture, prevent bacteria accumulation and inflammation, and boost your immune system.

Your sebum production by the sebaceous glands in the skin tends to decline as you age, so it’s essential to maintain as peak a supply as possible. One way to activate your sebum production is through sweating with the help of a steamy outdoor electric sauna.

Boosts Exfoliation for Clearer Skin

Wondering why your skin always appears dull and grayish? It’s likely because of the buildup of dead skin cells. Turns out, an outdoor electric sauna, like the Almost Heaven Watoga Barrel Sauna (pictured below), may be of some help. As you expose your skin to steam  in an outdoor electric sauna, the very outermost layer of your dead skin, aka the stratum corneum, softens and loosens up any oils, dirt, or bacteria hanging out on your skin. 

Now that your topmost skin layer is soft and loose, it can easily be removed. Using a dry cloth or a loofah, nothing too abrasive, gently exfoliate your skin in slow circular motions. This will help remove all that dead cells, oil, dirt and bacteria sitting on your skin, revealing a soft, clearer skin underneath.

Keep in mind that too much of a good thing can actually do more harm than good. So make sure you don’t overdo it with the exfoliation to help avoid issues like redness and abrasion. And it goes without saying that you should always use a clean cloth or a loofah for exfoliation to prevent the accumulation of any acne-causing bacteria.

Skincare Products Penetrate Your Skin Better

Skincare products don’t come cheap, so it’s essential that you make the most of them. This is where an outdoor electric sauna can help.

Your stratum corneum, the top layer of your skin is full of dead cells, bacteria, oil, and dirt. This acts like a barrier, preventing optimal skin-care product absorption. As you sweat in a steamy outdoor electric sauna, the stratum corneum softens up and peels off, allowing the products to penetrate your skin better.

The heat from an electric outdoor steam sauna can also increase skin permeability and provide a greater surface area for product absorption. Studies show that as your core temperature increases, the blood vessels and pores dilate to help cool down your skin. This helps increase your skin’s permeability, allowing skincare products with hydration moisturizing formulas to penetrate deeper into the layers of the skin.

Helps Improve Blood Circulation for a Healthy Glow

The moist heat, like the one provided by a steamy outdoor electric sauna, can help get your blood flowing. According to a 2012 study published in Medical Science Monitor, the heat helps dilate your blood vessels, increasing blood flow to your face. This allows more nutrients and oxygen to reach your skin cells, repairing damaged tissue and stimulating the process of wound healing and skin regeneration.

The surge of blood flow to your skin cells can also give you a temporary flush — depending on your skin tone, of course — and a healthy, natural glow. Consider using an antioxidant face serum containing vitamin C or E afterwards, which can reach deeper into your skin pores because of the increased blood circulation.

Helps Keep Your Skin Free of Acne

Yes, outdoor electric saunas can be of significant help if you have acne-prone and oily skin, but not for the reason you likely thought. You’ve probably heard that steaming your face in a sauna can open your pores and unclog them. This is actually not true. Contrary to popular opinion, our pores don’t really open and close in response to temperature fluctuations.

The basis of every blackhead, whitehead or a pimple is pore blockage, aka comedones, which form when dead skin cells, bacteria, and other impurities clog your pores. A steam from a sauna doesn’t penetrate that deep within your skin to where the camedone forms to cleanse the pores and rid you of your deep, large blemishes.

Sauna does have a place in acne prevention, though. It helps soften and loosen any dirt buildup in your pores. And once you gently exfoliate all that loosened up oil, bacteria and trapped sebum off your face, your acne-fighting products can better penetrate your skin and render their magic. That’s not all. The heat in an outdoor electric sauna, like the Dundalk Leisure Craft Outdoor Luna Sauna (pictured above), can also help soften your blackheads and non-flames breakouts, making them easier to extract, before they’ve had a chance to turn into full-blown blemishes. 

Helps Keep Your Skin Look Younger By Boosting Collagen Production

If you want to age well and prevent the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, you should consider investing in an outdoor electric sauna. Here’s why:

Wrinkles or fine lines typically occur as your skin loses collagen, aka the “fountain of youth.” Collagen is essentially a protein that is responsible for keeping your skin firm and youthful. Steam therapy, such as that in an outdoor electric sauna, has been scientifically proven to directly increase your collagen and elastin production by stimulating certain cell molecules responsible for synthesizing them. The result? Your skin stays plump and juicy.

Sauna wood therapy also has an indirect effect on your collagen production. It’s no secret that stress is one of your skin’s worst enemies, and even more so when it comes to staying young. Continued stress means your cortisol levels, the stress hormone, are generally raised. Research shows that high cortisol levels can accelerate the loss of collagen, creating havoc on your skin. 

One way you can help keep your stress levels down is through regular sauna steam baths. Studies show that controlled full-body heating has an antidepressant effect and can potentially reduce stress in the long run. Say hello to a firmer, more youthful-looking skin.

Creating Steam in Your Outdoor Electric Sauna

Since saunas typically use dry heat, you can create steam in your outdoor electric sauna to take advantage of all the wonderful steam sauna benefits for your skin that we mentioned earlier. 

Creating steam in your sauna is pretty simple, especially with an electric outdoor sauna. Electric heaters are highly convenient and can be turned on by the simple flip of a switch. You can regulate the temperature using a remote controller.

Once you flip a switch to turn your electric heater on, wait for the sauna stones on the heater to heat up the space. Electric sauna heaters typically use rocks to create a more balanced heat. Once the sauna is hot enough, fill a bucket with water and ladle it on the rocks to create bursts of steam. Yes, that’s how easy it is to create steam in your outdoor electric sauna. The good news, you don’t have to spend extra money on steam rooms!

Make sure you wash your sauna rocks first to eliminate any dust particles. If you really want to take the skin benefits of your sauna up a notch, consider adding a few drops of aromatherapy oils to the bucket of water. Try using essential oils like tea tree oil, lavender and frankincense oil, which have long been studied for their antimicrobial, anti inflammatory and antioxidant benefits.