Ramadan and your skin: a simple routine for the fasting month

Fasting and your skin: what changes during Ramadan

Studies of Ramadan and the skin are few and small, and a review of them judged their quality poor, so this guide keeps to what is known about the things that change: water, sleep, food and the hours you keep.

During the fasting hours the body may become mildly dehydrated, and sleep tends to shorten: in a review of 24 studies, by about an hour a night, from 7.2 to 6.4 hours on average. Short nights show in the face: when people rated photographs of the same faces after a normal night and after a night without sleep, the tired faces looked paler, with darker circles, more swollen eyes and more fine lines. Salty iftar dishes can make morning puffiness more noticeable, and hot tea, coffee and spicy food can bring on a flush if your skin is prone to rosacea.

Whether a cream, a sunscreen or a treatment affects a fast is a religious question, and one for a scholar you trust; this guide stays with the skin.

A Ramadan skin care routine, from suhoor to iftar

• After iftar or before bed: a gentle cleanser and lukewarm water, then a moisturiser, a cream if your skin feels tight, and any treatment your doctor has prescribed, as planned.
• At suhoor or before you go out: a moisturiser if you need one, then a broad-spectrum sunscreen of SPF 30 or more on any skin the sun will reach.
• During the day: sunscreen again every two hours if you are outdoors, and a lip balm with SPF 30 or more, as lips dry easily.
• All month: the products your skin already knows. A strong acid, a scrub or a new active can wait until after Eid.

Oily or breakout-prone skin follows the same routine, with oil-free, non-comedogenic textures. Leave spots unsqueezed, especially in the run-up to Eid: a squeezed spot can leave a mark for weeks.

Skin care tips for Ramadan: water, food and sleep

• Drink plenty when you break your fast, through the evening and again at suhoor, and add water-rich foods such as soup, yoghurt and fruit.
• Go easy on salty foods at suhoor, such as hard cheese, processed meats, olives and pickles, which can leave you thirsty through the fasting hours.
• If your face flushes, let tea and coffee cool a little, and keep them away from the hours before you sleep.
• Protect sleep where you can: a cool, dark, quiet room, and a daytime nap of twenty or thirty minutes rather than a long one that eats into the night.

Water matters for your health, more so in the heat, but expect more for your skin from a moisturiser: in a review of the studies, extra water raised the skin's hydration only slightly. And there isn't enough evidence to recommend any particular diet for acne, so we don't hand out food rules.

Sun and heat during the fasting day

Ramadan moves about eleven days earlier each year, and in 2027 and 2028 it falls mostly in February, when Dubai's midday UV index is about 6 to 7, high, rising to about 8 to 10 in March. So protection is still needed: sunscreen on exposed skin before you go out, shade, a hat and sunglasses, and errands kept away from the hours around midday. If you are prone to dark marks or melasma, a tinted sunscreen with iron oxides also blocks part of the visible light that darkens them.

Heat sessions ask for water. In the Iyashi Dôme you sweat a lot, and drinking before and after matters, which isn't possible while fasting; the same goes for saunas and hot yoga, which are better kept for after iftar.

Aesthetic treatments during Ramadan: timing around iftar

• Anti-wrinkle injections and fillers: if you are fasting, an appointment after iftar lets you drink water and take any tablets the doctor suggests, such as those that make a cold sore less likely before lip filler. Plan a quiet first day after filler.
• Endosphères and icoone: an evening session after iftar, because the aftercare asks you to drink water afterwards.
• Iyashi Dôme and cryotherapy: after iftar, so you can drink before and after.
• Laser hair removal with excel HR: sessions can continue through Ramadan; skip saunas and hard workouts for a day or two after each.
• The HydraFacial, Dermadrop and Heleo4 LED usually need no recovery time, so any hour that suits your fast works.

Tell us when you book that you are fasting, and we will suggest a time. If you take regular medicines, ask the doctor who prescribed them how to fit them around iftar and suhoor, rather than changing them on your own.

Before Eid al-Fitr: what to book, and when

• Three months or more ahead: skin firming with Ultraformer MPT or Volnewmer, biostimulators, and courses of light or laser for spots, redness or texture.
• At least two weeks ahead, and a month is better: anti-wrinkle injections and filler, so the result can be reviewed and adjusted.
• About two weeks ahead: the last BBL HEROic session, and MOXI at least a week ahead, ideally two; the last laser hair removal session at least three weeks ahead.
• The final week: a HydraFacial three to seven days before, or Dermadrop a day or two before if there are no injections in the area and no other invasive aesthetic treatment in the last five months.

Eid al-Fitr comes straight after Ramadan, and its date moves earlier each year with the lunar calendar, so most of these weeks fall in the month of fasting. Work back from the day, and if you are fasting, book after iftar.

When skin or hair needs a doctor after Ramadan

A big change in what you eat, or a quick drop in weight, can be followed a few months later by hair shedding; bring the dates to a trichology assessment with Dr. Olga Seredina, a doctor in trichology and cosmetology. A rash that doesn't settle, acne that is deep or painful, and a mole that is new or changing need a doctor's look in any month. And if you live with a long-term condition or take regular medicines, ask your own doctor before Ramadan how fasting fits with them.