No way, no way, washing your face with pig organs is so clean?

Audit expert: Zhang Yuhong

Chief Physician of Dermatology Department, Zhengzhou Central Hospital Affiliated to Zhengzhou University

As a hard-working and lazy person, I don't pay much attention to dressing up, but I can't ignore my face. Washing my face every morning and evening is essential. For oily skin like me, after washing my face with just water, it still feels greasy to the touch, and I have to use a facial cleanser to wash it clean.

Oily skin requires modern people to wash their face several times a day to get it clean. People living in ancient times must have had similar problems, right? There were not so many cleansing products at that time. How did ancient people wash their faces?

Source: pixabay

What are you washing your face with?

When people wash their faces, what do they wash away?

In fact, washing your face is to wash away the dirt on your face. Dirt can be divided into internal dirt and external dirt. External dirt includes dust, air pollutants, unremoved cosmetics, etc., while internal dirt is sweat, oil and adhered keratin produced by human metabolism.

These dirts adhere to the face. If they are not cleaned for a long time, fat-soluble dirt will accumulate on the face, causing pores to be clogged, leading to rough skin and various inflammations.

Animals need facial cleansing too

Source: pixabay

Therefore, it is important to wash your face. People with oily skin have more oil on their faces. Although washing your face with water is gentle and non-irritating, it has a weaker cleaning effect. If you want to fully clean it and reduce the damage of residual dirt to the skin, you can use facial cleanser to clean it; for dry and sensitive skin, excessive cleaning is not advisable. Depending on your own facial condition, you can also wash your face with just water.

Facial cleanser is a product used by modern people, but the ancients actually had their own facial cleansing products.

Facial cleansing products commonly used by ancient people

The ancients first used rice washing water for beauty and cleansing. The Book of Rites states: "Wash your face every three days, and if there is dirt on your face, use warm water to wash your face." This means that you should use warm rice washing water to wash your face. The Zuo Zhuan: Ai Gong 14th Year states: "Chen Shi Fang Mu, sent someone to treat an illness, and sent him to a bath, and prepared wine and meat." Rice washing water was also used for bathing and cleansing.

Why can rice water be used to cleanse the face? Modern science explains that warm rice water is weakly alkaline and can decompose oil stains. The starch in it is heated and denatured, which can well absorb the oil metabolized by the skin . At the same time, the protein and vitamins it contains can also lighten pigments and nourish the skin.

In addition to rice washing water, the ashes from burning plants, called "wood ash", are also used by the ancients as a facial cleanser. The main component of wood ash is potassium carbonate, which is alkaline. The ancients mixed it with water to cleanse their faces or take a bath.

In ancient times, the most commonly used facial cleanser was called bath beans , and the main raw material was pig pancreas. As early as the Tang Dynasty, Sun Simiao's "Thousand Gold Prescriptions" recorded in detail the production method of bath beans: first wash the pig pancreas and remove the oil attached to it, grind it into a paste, add bean powder and stir, and then dry it naturally to make bath beans.

Pig pancreas contains various digestive enzymes that can remove and decompose oil stains. After being ground, the digestive enzymes contained in the pig pancreas are fully released. When mixed with saponins and lecithin in soybean powder, it has a stronger foaming and emulsifying effect, making the skin cleaner and more moisturized.

Pig pancreas source | Baidu Encyclopedia

Although it achieved the cleanliness of daily life, the ancients were not satisfied with it and began to further improve the bath beans, adding ingredients to make them have multiple functions. For example, some added ingredients such as Poria cocos, Atractylodes macrocephala, Gleditsia sinensis, cloves, and pearl powder to the bath beans to make them have the effects of whitening and enhancing fragrance.

Later, people improved the production method of bath beans. When grinding pancreas, they used wood ash or soda ash instead of bean powder, added lard, stirred it evenly and pressed it into blocks to form **"pancreas",** which was an early soap with ingredients similar to modern soap.

However, from the perspective of modern people, no matter how many formulas the ancients developed, no matter how good the effect was, it is still difficult to accept this kind of facial cleansing product made from pig pancreas. Fortunately, we live in modern times and have such easy-to-use and convenient products as facial cleansers.

How to choose a suitable facial cleanser?

There are so many kinds of facial cleansers on the market that it is dizzying. How should we choose the right facial cleanser? We should analyze it from several angles:

> > > > Check your skin type

First, determine whether you have oily skin, dry skin, sensitive skin, or combination skin and dry-sensitive skin based on the oil production on your face. Different skin types should choose facial cleansers with different functions. Oily skin focuses on cleansing, dry skin focuses on moisturizing, and sensitive skin focuses on mildness.

> > > > Check the cleansing performance of facial cleanser

The words soap base and amino acid will appear in the introduction of a facial cleanser, which are the main ingredients of facial cleansers. The soap base is more cleansing than amino acids and is correspondingly more irritating.

Source: pexels

Please note that pure soap-based facial cleansers are only suitable for oily skin, but long-term use will also wear out the skin's keratin, and in severe cases may cause sensitive skin.

> > > > Check the foaming degree of facial cleanser

People with dry or sensitive skin are not suitable for using facial cleansers with too much foam , as some foaming agents can irritate the skin. It is recommended to buy facial cleansers that do not foam or produce less foam.

If you don't know how to choose, remember one thing: mild cleansers are suitable for all skin types. Don't over-cleanse, and protect your skin.

How to wash your face correctly?

Modern technology has produced facial cleansers suitable for different skin types for everyone to choose from. Facial cleansers are important, but to have smooth and delicate skin, you also need to wash your face in the right way.

Here are the correct steps for washing your face:

1. Wash your hands: Since hands often touch things and have more bacteria, wash your hands before washing your face to prevent bacteria from contacting your face and causing infection;

Source: unplash

2. Wet your face with warm water: Whether it is too hot or too cold water, it will cause some irritation to the skin. Too high water temperature may even damage the skin barrier, so it is best to wash your face with warm water at 30-35℃;

3. Cleansing with facial cleanser: Choose a facial cleanser that suits your skin type to cleanse your face; when using, squeeze the facial cleanser on your hands and rub it a few times, apply it evenly on your face, and then massage in circles from top to bottom;

Source: pixabay

4. Rinse with warm water: Gently splash your face with warm water to clean the facial cleanser on your face;

5. Dry the skin: After washing your face, many people let it dry naturally. In fact, this not only fails to achieve the moisturizing effect, but also accelerates the evaporation of moisture from the skin, making the skin dry. So after washing your face, use a disposable face towel or a clean towel to press and absorb the obvious water droplets.

In short, washing your face is not a science that can be ignored. A clean and fresh face can reflect a person's good condition. Wash your face before going to bed to wash away the fatigue of the day; wash your face after waking up to start a new day. Everyone should wash their face well~