The Skin Nerd: How seasonal allergies can affect the skin

Feeling the burn? Pollen and seasonal allergies can take their toll on your complexion too...

Increased exposure to pollen can have a big impact on skin health for those with hayfever, causing inflammation, irritation, redness and dryness. Alongside this discomfort, exposure can also compromise the delicate skin barrier, which is left feeling sore and looking dull

Now, I don’t like to complain about the sunshine, but this season is proving a challenging one when it comes to keeping our complexions happy. Unless we have all gotten a little more irritable, prickly heat seems to be taking near permanent residence on our skin and hayfever has well and truly gone mainstream with red seemingly becoming Summer’s new smoky eye.

It’s not just our imaginations — visits to Britain's NHS hay fever information page increased by 252% in the past five weeks from 34,878 visits during the first week of May. The Met Office also recently issued a warning over high levels of pollen, suggesting that we were likely to reach the top ‘very high’ ranking. And those of us who suffer from hayfever, are suffering. Whilst even those who are unaffected are likely to be familiar with the most common symptoms such as red, itchy eyes, and sneezing, the effects on the skin are less talked about but can be equally as uncomfortable, and this is where I come in!