hot or cold water acne wash face

Hot or Cold Water for Acne: Which is Better?

Have you ever thought about which temperature of water is best when washing your face? Is it hot or cold water for acne? Here is what AC Skin Health dermatologist, Dr. Amy Chua has to say.

Let us look at the pros and cons of using the different temperatures in washing our face.

Hot water

Using warmer temperature of water may make you feel like you are enjoying a hot bath or sauna. This may be relaxing and destressing. However, when you read the next paragraph, it may not be so relaxing for you anymore.

Washing our face (or body for that matter) with hot water strips off protective oil from our skin. Our skin may perceive this as being dry, hence it responds with overproduction of oil. In general, more oil relates to more acne and uh-oh, that is bad news. Hot water, especially temperature over 40C may affect the integrity of the skin barrier and make you more prone to irritation, infection, and acne. Another effect of hot water on our skin is making you more prone to wrinkles! It seems then that washing your face (or taking a bath) with hot water, may bring your skin more harm than good.

Cold water

Have you tried melting an ice cube on your pustules and papules? If you haven’t, you may try getting an ice cube and sliding it over your inflammatory pimples a few times. You might notice that applying ice can lessen pain, redness, and swelling of inflamed acne.

We don’t know however if using cold water may produce the same results. Most likely not. Water from the faucet is usually not that cold. More so, your skin will be exposed to cold water for only a short period of time. How many seconds or minutes does it take you to wet and rinse off your facial cleanser? While using cold water may not be harmful, it will most likely have minimal benefits on our skin.

Our verdict

It is recommend to wash your face with lukewarm water – not too hot, not too cold, just right! Most products are also designed to be used with lukewarm water. But if you prefer to use cold water, feel free to do so too!

Here are more of AC Skin Tips for healthy and safe washing of face:

  • Use lukewarm to cold water.
  • Perform gentle washing of face using hands.
  • Avoid scrubbing cloths, loofah or scrubbing and exfoliating tools.
  • Use a gentle cleanser, or a soap/wash prescribed by your dermatologist for your specific skin needs.
  • Limit washing to 2x a day. Washing too often may dry your skin and result in overproduction of oil and we don’t want to suffer from more acne!

Hope you learned something today!

Keep safe and stay healthy! Cheers to healthy skin!

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