Dinacharya, Cleansing the Face

Dinacharya, Cleansing the Face

Remember complaining to your mother when she made you wash your face every day? It turns out she was right: regular skin cleansing is critical to maintaining healthy looking and feeling skin. But there's a lot about cleansing the face and with Ayurveda, we will tell you more about it in our perspective that will make you realize even more why it is really important not just for beauty but also for health.

Benefits of cleansing the face:

A common benefit of facial cleansing is the removal of dirt, oil, and other unwanted debris. Throughout the day the skin on your face is continually covered with bacteria, pollutants, viruses, dirt, and old (dead) skin cells. Daily facial washing removes these impurities to give the skin a fresh look.

Regular facial cleansing (along with the use of a good moisturizer) is also an important factor in helping the skin maintain a proper level of hydration. Dehydrated skin looks and feels rough, wrinkled and aged. Cleansing helps manage PH levels of the skin; enabling sufficient water and product retention.

Sebum

Tiny glands under the skin produce oil called sebum to protect the skin from the dangers of the outside world. These glands use hair follicles within the skin as a pathway, allowing the oil to reach the skin's surface (outer layer) to form a barrier that prevents the penetration of bacteria or other harmful agents. Excessive dirt builds up on the surface can cause blockages of the follicle, trapping sebum, sweat, and dead skin cells. The lack of sebum on the skin's surface allows bacteria to penetrate the follicle causing inflammation. The final result is acne. Proper skin cleansing clears pores of debris to prevent dirt buildup, allowing the sebum oil to reach the skin surface unimpeded; decreasing the chances of a breakout.

Some other benefits of cleansing

Regular cleansing is essential to keeping your skin looking radiant and healthy.

Cleansing helps maintain proper pore size.

Cleansing encourages proper skin hydration and prevents the production of excess oils.

What would happen if you stopped washing?

If you completely stopped washing your face your pores would become clogged resulting in the development of serious acne. The skin could also experience a combination of severe redness, dryness and irritation from insufficient hydration. Finally, your skin would generally appear dirty, oily, greasy and significantly aged.

Most likely you would develop an incredible itchiness; to the point where you would be forced to constantly scratch your face. This could lead to breaks of the skin which serve as entry points for infection.

Make Your Own Ayurvedic Facial Cleanser

Those benefits and facts are actual information that both science and Ayurveda agrees. However, since the Ayurveda way is more of a natural and organic, here’s how to make your own facial cleanser according to your Dosha type:

• Choose the recipe that matches your skin type.
• Stir together all the ingredients and apply very gently on your face with your fingertips.
• Let the scrub set on the skin, then using very slight pressure, flake the mask off into the basin.
• If the mask feels too sticky, use warm water to rinse. Dab face with a soft towel and follow with a good moisturiser.

For Oily (Kapha) Skin:

1 teaspoon toasted wheat bran
¼ teaspoon almond powder
½ teaspoon orange-peel powder
1 teaspoon lemon juice

For Dry (Vata) Skin:

2 teaspoons porridge oats
¼ teaspoon almond powder
¼ teaspoon orange peel powder
¼ teaspoon lavender flower powder
2 tablespoons yoghurt

For Sensitive (Pitta) Skin:

2 teaspoons porridge oats
¼ teaspoon almond powder
¼ teaspoon rose petal powder
¼ teaspoon lavender flower powder
2 tablespoons whole raw milk

Faces

When it comes to physical appearances, our faces are often where we direct the bulk of our own scrutiny and attention. And our faces are usually the first place that others look—to recognise us if we are familiar, and if not, to get a sense of who we are.

In truth, our faces are often deeply entangled with our very sense of identity, and can powerfully influence how we feel about ourselves. That fact alone makes them worth caring for—not to preserve some unattainable ideal of youthfulness, but to nurture a loving relationship with this part of ourselves that is so closely linked to self-image.

This is rich territory, and we won’t digress into the complex realms of identity, psychology, and self-esteem.

Love yourself

But consider this: pampering your face in a loving way (rather than from a place of judgment or dissatisfaction) may be a very gentle, practical, and effective means of nurturing and caring for your very sense of Self. Doing so may actually send a resounding message of self-love, self-nurturance, and self-care—both to the subtle realms of consciousness and to the deep tissues of the body.