Brits bad skin battles

While face masks have quickly become the norm for Brits this year, issues around them have risen. Since wearing face masks, just under a quarter (22%) of Brits are experiencing aggravated skin problems and new research has found the most common issues to be itchiness (45%), dryness, spots and pimples (38%) – also known as ‘maskne’. What’s more, these issues are amplified for those who suffer pre-existing skin conditions.

There seems to be good reason behind the rise in skin issues, masks create a warm environment around the skin, which allows bacteria on the skin to thrive. Plus, a fifth of Brits report that they rarely or never wash their masks, while another fifth say that they only wash theirs sometimes.

The new research by Gladskin also found that one in 10 rarely or never wear a clean face mask with the most common reason being that they just don’t see the point (29%). A further one in ten also admitted they didn’t even realise they had to wash them.

Aston spoke to Dr Bjorn Herpers, clinical microbiologist at the Regional Public Health Laboratory in Haarlem, The Netherlands to discuss the effect of bad bacteria on our skin and how we can best look after our skin when wearing a mask/face covering.

Photo by Anton on Unsplash