Best Skin Care for Men's Dry Flaky Facial Skin

Skin care for men's dry flaky facial skin is often overlooked. I treat a lot of men in my dermatology practice. One of the most common skin problems I see on the facial skin of men is facial dandruff aka dry flaky facial skin. 

Yes, I can tell you that seborrheic dermatitis in men is pretty common, and that most guys mistakenly think that it’s dry skin. They're stumped by it because they can’t get rid of the dry, flaky facial skin by putting face creams or lotions on it.

The dry face skin men ask me about is almost always facial seborrhea and the face creams they are using don't work because the real problem is facial dandruff!

How do you know if the dry skin on your face is facial dandruff?

Facial dandruff (called seborrheic dermatitis) may show up as subtle little areas of flaking "dry" skin, or it can be an obvious rash with redness, itching and chunky flakes of "dry" skin.

The parts of the face most prone to facial dandruff include:

• The classic T-zone: This includes your eyebrows (and between the brows), forehead, around the sides of your nose, into the crease of your nose, and down along the sides of your mouth to your chin.
• Areas of facial hair: If you have a mustache or beard, these parts of your face will be more prone to facial dandruff. This includes the skin of your mustache and beard from your chin along your jaw line. Your sideburns can harbor dandruff, too.

Tips to Get Rid of Men's Dry Flaking Facial Skin from Facial Dandruff 

My Facial Flaking and Redness Solution Kit is the best face skin care for men to fix the common causes of dry flakey skin on the face. I combine pyrithione zinc with green tea and the right face cream to beat these problems in 3 simple steps.

You can't expect a simple cream to get rid of flakey facial skin. - Dermatologist Dr. Bailey

Because dandruff is a rash that requires medicated skin care products to control it, putting face creams on dandruff doesn’t fix the skin problem. Simply switching to targeted skin care products is often all you need to do. Then – presto – no more "dry" flaky facial skin!

The truth is that men have thicker and stronger skin than women, meaning, guys, we’re jealous. For men, all it takes is a few low-maintenance, but targeted, skin care steps, and you can have healthy and attractive skin for your entire life - skin that looks well-groomed and youthful. Using targeted dandruff products is often one of these simple steps.

Dermatologist’s Simple Grooming Fixes for Men’s Most Common Skin Problems - Dry Facial Skin in Men from Facial Dandruff

Facial Dandruff

Pityrosporum yeast plays a role in dandruff. We don't know entirely how, but it does. The simplest treatment for facial dandruff is using a zinc face wash bar and an Exfoliating Facial Sponge to wash your face. Calming Zinc Soap provides the needed ingredient to fight facial dandruff and the flaking skin is efficiently lifted off with the sponge. A single simple multitasking step in your skin care routine and it's solved! 

The reason the soap works is that the pyrithione zinc is known to fight a skin yeast called Pityrosporum. This yeast germ can also cause a type of acne called Pityrosporum folliculitis. Calming Zinc soap is fortified with a full 2% pyrithione zinc (the maximum amount allowed) to tackle dandruff, making it a powerful skin care step to control the facial rash. As an added benefit, it may help reduce some types of acne breakouts. 

The Facial Exfoliating Sponge is slightly rough and helps to lift off flaky scale so your skin is smooth and well groomed.

Get even better results fighting dry flaking skin from facial seborrhea when you add products to fight facial redness. 

Apply Green Tea Antioxidant Skin Therapy to help calm the inflammation, soothe redness, and lightly moisturize your dandruff-prone skin. This product leaves no heavy or oily feel on your skin.

The combination of Calming Zinc and Green Tea work so well that for years I've combined them into my popular 2-step Facial Redness Relief Skin Care Kit which has both the Calming Zinc soap and the Green Tea Antioxidant Skin Therapy cream.  But, most men also need to apply a richer moisturizer around their eyes and on less oily parts of their facial skin on a daily basis. With this smaller kit, you can use your own face moisturizing cream applied on top of the Green Tea, just be certain that it does not irritate sensitive dandruff-prone skin - if your moisturizer stings or makes your skin red, don't use it. Instead get my full 3-step Facial Flaking and Redness Solution Skin Care Kit. 

Yes, get even better results when you let me pick the right facial moisturizer that you use after applying the Green Tea. The reason this adds 'magic' is because skin with facial seborrhea (dandruff) has weakened skin barrier and my Daily Face Cream helps heal skin barrier. Get Calming Zinc, Green Tea and my Daily Face Cream in my 3-step Facial Flaking and Redness Solution Skin Care Kit. 

Treatment for men's flaky facial skin under the beard or mustache or along the hairline. 

Hairy skin may need a foaming medicated zinc pyrithione shampoo if your beard, mustache, sideburn or scalp hair is long and/or thick. Remember, the rash of seborrhea is a problem that is on your skin and the medicated pyrithione zinc needs to be delivered through the hair to the skin. 

For most men, my Calming Zinc Bar Soap lathers enough to foam through thick hair and reach the skin, but if not, try a full 2% medicated pyrithione zinc dandruff shampoo to treat beardruff (dandruff in a man's facial hair). Know, however, that the lathering agents in shampoos may be too harsh for the rest of your facial skin.  

If you have beard and mustache hair, it's easiest to treat those areas just like you do your scalp in the shower with a foaming pyrithione zinc shampoo. Cleanse the rest of your facial skin with Calming Zinc Bar Soap. If you have dry flakey skin on your ears or upper back and/or chest, this may also be caused by seborrhea. Use either the shampoo or Calming Zinc to tackle dandruff in these areas. (See below for more information on dandruff on the ears or trunk)

Wash your beard and mustache skin with either Calming Zinc or a foaming zinc pyrithione shampoo and rinse off the lather well knowing that some pyrithione zinc will remain behind.

Pro-tip: If scalp flaking is a problem, scrub the medicated shampoo into your skin with my really great scalp scrubber.

After rinsing well and toweling dry, apply the Green Tea Cream onto your entire facial skin, trying to work it between your facial hairs and onto the skin. In the beard area, follow this with my Omega Enriched Facial Oil.

My Omega Enriched Face Booster Oil is the ideal Beard Oil. It has a slightly woodland scent from the presence of cypress oil, a botanical ingredient with anti-microbial benefits. Additional botanical ingredients are blended together including sea buckthorn (which helps your skin barrier heal) along with argan, pomegranate and kakui oils that condition facial hair to create a soft and luxuriously beard free from dandruff flakes.  

Know that if you are suffering from facial seborrhea, you may also have dryness and flaking in and around your ears, your scalp and your upper chest and back. These are also seborrhea prone areas of your skin. Here are my tips to treat dandruff in those areas. 

Dandruff of the Ears

Dry skin on and around your ears can be embarrassing, and it's usually also dandruff. Easily control it using your Calming Zinc Soap or treat it with the medicated foaming zinc shampoo when you shower.

Lather your ear skin with a wash cloth, let the soap sit a minute or so while you finish your shower, and then rinse well before stepping out to towel off.

If you still have really stubborn ear dandruff, I have an article discussing treatment of this frustrating problem: Treatment for Crusty Ears from Dandruff 

Back and Chest Dandruff

That slightly-scaly red skin and itchiness on your chest and upper back probably isn't dry skin any more than it is on your face. It's probably dandruff!

Dandruff loves the back and chest, and again, my favorite go-to products for this part of your skin are either a foaming zinc shampoo used as a body cleanser or Calming Zinc facial bar. Apply them with the simple and hygienic Salux Cloth or a back brush. Pityrosporum yeast grows abundantly on your skin here and contributes to the problem. This same skin yeast can also play a big role in back and chest acne, called Pityrosporum folliculitis! Calming Zinc is my "go-to" solution for this problem. 

The bottom line with Flaky Facial Male Skin:

You can fix it fast with the right skin care.

• Get my Facial Flaking and Redness Solution Skin Care Kit to fix the face flaking. The Calming Zinc is easy to use on your ears, back and chest in the shower. The Green Tea Antioxidant Skin Therapy calms facial redness and the Daily Moisturizing Face Cream is the ideal face cream to allow your skin to heal. 
• Add the Omega Beard Oil if you have beardruff.
• Add the foaming zinc shampoo and scalp scrubber if you have the same problem on your scalp and/or if you need a cleanser with more foaming action to get through a really thick beard. 
• Add the Salux Cloth and use it on your back and chest with the Calming Zinc or the foaming zinc shampoo - bam, done!

Explore Further:

• How to Get Rid of Redness on the Face - Dermatologist Explains

References:

Borda LJ, Wikramanayake TC. Seborrheic Dermatitis and Dandruff: A Comprehensive Review. J Clin Investig Dermatol. 2015;3(2):10.13188/2373-1044.1000019. doi:10.13188/2373-1044.1000019

Piquero-Casals, J., Hexsel, D., Mir-Bonafé, J.F. et al. Topical Non-Pharmacological Treatment for Facial Seborrheic Dermatitis. Dermatol Ther (Heidelb) 9, 469–477 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13555-019-00319-0