After a long day of work, pilates, dinner date with the girls, you’re ready to rest your head on the pillow and get some shut eye. But before you slip off into a blissful sleep into dreamland, wait and take a good look at your pillow. While your pillow is the gateway to getting some much needed shut eye, it can also cause damage to your skin and hair. We know, that’s seriously the worst news ever. You thought you two were tight but now your pillow is stabbing you in the back like your best friend did when she stole your boyfriend.
5 Ways Your Pillow Could Be Affecting Your Skin And Hair
By
Editorial Staff in
Facts
On 24th May 2017
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#1
No matter how comfortable you think it is, your pillow may be messing with your skin and hair, causing you to wake up in worse shape than when you laid down for your beauty sleep.
We spend about a third of our lives with our faces in our pillows, so it’s important that we do all we can to make sure that whatever we’re sleeping on is actually doing us some good—or at the very least, not exacerbating signs of aging.
#2 Your Pillowcase Is Dirty
You’re probably thinking: dirty? Why would my pillowcase be dirty? It’s just me that sleeps on it and I’m clean. Well, if you aren’t avid about changing your pillowcases once or twice a week, chances are they might be dirtier than you think. Those cotton pillowcases can soak up a lot of dirt and oil from your skin (especially when you sweat during the night) and can then clog your pores – especially if you aren’t changing them on a regular basis.
To make things a little easier, sleep on one side one night then the other on the next night. If you have another pillow, do the same with that one so you aren’t always changing your pillowcases on a nightly basis.
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#3 Cotton Pillowcase
Since cotton is a rougher material, it causes more friction when you sleep on it. That means hair (including lashes and brows) and skin cannot as easily move when you move. This leads to tangles, breakage, and compression wrinkles. And you know why cotton is such a great material to work out in? It absorbs sweat and moisture so you feel drier and more comfortable. While this is a great quality to have in athletic gear, it's not so great for your face — especially after you've slathered on that expensive moisturizer and eye cream. Yep, that cotton pillowcase will try to suck all that moisture out of your face (and hair, too).
Satin pillowcases are very smooth which means that your hair won’t get tangled up while sleeping on them.In case of a satin pillowcase, your hair just kind of slides across the pillow and is much less likely to get damaged.
#4 Switch Up Your Sleeping Position
“Sleeping in a way that presses the skin into sheets or pillowcases can eventually create more permanent lines on the skin,” says Dr. Weiser, who points out that sleeping on one’s back is “ideal” in terms of protecting skin and reducing wrinkle formation. “When you sleep on your face, your skin folds, which creates a crease and a breakdown of collagen,” explains Dr. Schultz. “Just like when you bend a paperclip back and forth a few times and it breaks, when your skin continues to fold in the same way, collagen will break down and ultimately lead to permanent lines and a loss of elasticity.”
For those who just can’t get on board with sleeping face up, Weiser suggests trying a C-shaped pillow behind the neck for stability and propping up with pillows on either side to avoid rolling over or shifting during sleep.
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#5 Leaving our hair loose when you sleep
Gone are the days–and good riddance to them–when women went to bed with tight rollers in their hair. But leaving your hair totally loose on your pillow, especially if you didn’t wash it that day, can transfer oil over to your pillowcase and onto your skin.
Your best bet is to loosely secure your hair back with a No Crease Hair Tie or set yourself up for some seriously cute next-day Boho waves by braiding your hair before bed.
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#6 Not washing your face before bed.
You’ve probably heard this since you were a teenager, but mom was right–it’s critical that you remove all makeup, dirt and grime before bed. But now that you’re older, it isn’t enough to haphazardly rub Dove soap on your face and call it a night. Commit a few minutes each evening to using your fingers to work a cleansing product onto your skin in small, circular motions.
Follow up with a toner to ensure you’ve removed every trace of your BB cream or foundation. “Not cleansing your face every evening before bed is a big no no,” says Becky Sturm, founder of StormSister Spatique. “Imagine the dirt and bacteria on your pillowcase. Unless you are changing your pillowcase every day, you could be rolling your face around in days and days of bacteria, makeup, and dirt on your pillow if you’re sleeping with makeup on.”
