For those of us without air conditioning, we’ve leaned heavily on our beloved fans to carry us through those hot and sticky summer nights. And while the soothing hum of a fan and circulating cool air is an unbeatable combo for a soothing eight hour snooze, there’s a chance we might be sacrificing the ‘beauty’ in our beauty sleep by doing so.
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According to skin care pharmacist Amina, otherwise known to her loyal Instagram following as @aminathepharmacist, there are two main ways in which our fans are compromising our skin health:
Image credit: Getty
#1 It dries out our skin
If you’re guilty of keeping your fan on full blast, which let’s face it, who isn’t? Amina warns that keeping your fan on the strongest setting can lead to drying out the air and as a result, stripping away your skin’s moisture.
#2 It clogs our pores
Those propellers may be working their little hearts out to keep your bedroom cool, but it turns out you might be getting more than you bargained for. Amira reveals that while fans are circulating air, they’re also moving a bunch of dust around while they’re at it.
This dust, combined with sweat and other dirt can result in the perfect recipe for clogged pores and in turn, triggering some unwanted bumps and breakouts.
But it’s not all bad news, because Amina also has two ways to counteract these surprising downsides so you don’t have to give up your summer saviour for good.
#1 Keep it gentle
Amina recommends keeping your fan on oscillate mode in order to keep the airflow gentle and to avoid ‘full force’ settings that will be too harsh and drying to the skin.
#2 Stay moisturised
If you are going to sleep with a fan on each night, Amina also recommends keeping the skin extra hydrated throughout the night by moisturising with a product that preferably contains hyaluronic acid.
bh recommends: Essano Concentrated Serum Intense Hydration – Hyaluronic Acid
Before you decide to throw out your fan, take this information with a grain of salt. After all, there are things far worse for our skin then cooling our room down with a fan – and let’s face it, it still outweighs a stinking hot bedroom.
Main image credit: Getty
Do you sleep with a fan in your room? Have you ever experienced dryness or congestion after using it?
Oh I did not know
We have evaporative cooling, and I’ve never noticed it to have any negative effect on my skin. Thank goodness!
I don’t get too close to the fan or I let it hit my body and not my face
Do not have AC or fans. Sydney where I live is always so nice! Day or two in a year gets extra hot, but I don’t care. Just eating melons and chilling.
Couldn’t live without a fan.
Ac is your worst enemy.
I live in Qld and have never had aircon so a fan is a necessity.
If I get zits, I use Clearasil – I’m NOT turning off my fan! In summer, I have one fan going all day & another fan going all night. I never use oscillate, so If someone visits, they’d better bring their own fan, haha!
I’m not sure this is really that much of a problem. Clean the fan & moisturise!
I dont have aircon so during Summer sleeping with the ceiling fan on is essential. QLD gets super hot and there is no way I could sleep without it.
I have air con downstair but my upstairs aircon is dead (and probably unrepairable it’s so old). Luckily we have flyscreens so when it’s hot we can leave the outside bedroom door open. But i still have a fan around for when it gets really hot. I’m not sure how you Queenslanders/NTers cope!
I never sleep with a fan on.
I did not know this, but then I don’t really use fans much anyway.
I don’t have AC in my house, so a fan is an absolute essential for me in summer. I’d rather sleep with one on during summer than toss & turn due to heat & humidity!
I’ll sometimes sleep with the fan on, I prefer the fan over air con as air con seems to have worse effects on my skin.
Couldn’t go without a Fan in the bedroom to keep things Cool during the night, great advice from BH once again have always noticed that Summer Time my Skin seems much dryer. Just never thought it could be related to the Fan.
I don’t sleep with a fan on, but definitely use it on hot summer days.
aircon in my house ruins my skin
There are now direct current (DC) fans that can run at a variable speeds. The one I got from Kogan has 12 speeds and running it at low speeds gives a gentle breeze and is very quiet – a really lifesaver on hot summer nights.
Air conditioning is even more drying IMO
I dont have aircon but I do use fans.
Great article for the upcoming summer, I didn’t even think about how fans could affect my skin
We have an air con in the bedroom but I don’t tend to sleep with it on.
That’s interesting, I never heard about it.
We don’t use fans even though we have overhead fans, instead we use evap cooling but not while we sleep.
I don’t currently use a fan in my room.But i had previous experience dries out my skin when i use it overseas holiday.
I’m reading this article on a cold night that feels like winter. I have a heater blowing on me at the moment. A cold air fan is the furthest thing from my mind.
We have ceiling fans in every room and on very hot nights sleep with the fan on low. I haven’t noticed my skin to be any different after sleeping with the fan on. We only use our aircon to quickly cool down the house if we’ve been out for the day and then we turn it off and puts the fans on.
Who’d have thought…. good to know with summer approaching
So nice at bed time though
A fan is great!
Good to know 🙂
Interesting, but not convinced…
I’m surprised.
good to know