YOU PROBABLY KNOW THE USUAL SIGNS of seasonal allergies: sneezing, congestion, itchy eyes, the seemingly endless need for tissues. But what about sudden dry patches on your face? Or puffiness around your eyes that no amount of concealer seems to hide?
Turns out, your skin might be having an allergic reaction of its own this time of year. And you wouldn’t be the only one. Roughly one in four American adults experiences seasonal allergies, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
While we tend to associate them with respiratory symptoms, the same immune response responsible for a runny nose can also cause your complexion to go haywire. "Seasonal allergies affect the skin through both the immune response itself and the habits that come with feeling itchy and congested," says Dendy Engelman, MD, a board-certified dermatologist. That means the irritation you're seeing in the mirror might not be entirely unrelated to what's floating around outside—you might be overdoing it with the Kleenex or making yourself even puffier with lack of sleep. (Joy.) Meet the experts: Dendy Engelman, MD, is a board-certified dermatologist with the Shafer Clinic in New York City.
Daniel Gardner, MD, is a board-certified plastic surgeon and chief medical officer at NakedMD. Mona Gohara, MD, is a board-certified dermatologist and clinical professor of dermatology at Yale University. Understanding what's happening beneath the surface can help you manage the symptoms.
Ahead, experts explain how and why seasonal allergies can wreak havoc on your complexion, ways to recognize the signs, and what actually helps. Seasonal allergies, sometimes called hay fever or seasonal allergic rhinitis, occur when your immune system reacts to otherwise harmless environmental substances, such as pollen from trees, grasses, and weeds. Unlike food allergies, which involve reactions to something you've eaten, or insect-sting allergies, seasonal allergies are typically triggered by allergens circulating in the air during particular times of year.
The underlying immune response, however, isn't entirely different. When someone who's sensitized to pollen encounters it, their immune system can trigger specialized cells called mast cells to release histamine and other inflammatory chemicals. "Histamine, in response to seasonal allergies, is our body making a mountain out of a molehill," says Daniel Gardner, MD, a board-certified plastic surgeon and chief medical officer at NakedMD.
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