Aviation Skincare Guide: How to Prevent Inflight Dehydration

For aviation professionals and frequent flyers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), climate extremes are nothing new. The region spans the humid coastlines of the Gulf and the Red Sea, the dry heat of the Arabian and Saharan interiors, and the Mediterranean north.

Boarding an aircraft, however, means entering a microclimate drier than almost any of them. At cruising altitude, external air is drawn in, heated, and circulated, causing relative humidity to plummet to between 5% and 20%.

An environment significantly drier than most deserts. 

Recognising this severe environmental shock, MENA airlines train their cabin crew in strict grooming and dermatological protocols, mandating the use of targeted hydrating ingredients and barrier protection to withstand the working day.

The 35,000-Foot Desert Environment

To understand why this is necessary, we must look at the physics of a pressurised cabin. The extreme aridity creates a steep vapour pressure gradient that actively draws moisture from the human body. 

A landmark clinical study published in Skin Research and Technology tracking Caucasian and Japanese women demonstrated that just two hours into a long-distance flight, the amount of water held inside the outermost layer of the skin on your cheeks rapidly drops by 37%.

This transepidermal water loss (TEWL) creates a paradox: The sebaceous glands respond by flooding the skin’s surface with emergency sebum (oil), attempting to create a makeshift barrier to slow down the water loss.

The facial skin overproduces sebum, leaving it feeling greasy yet ultimately dehydrated. 

However, the hands, which lack sebaceous glands entirely, suffer from accelerated xerosis and micro-fissuring.

Beyond dehydration, flight crews also face another hidden occupational hazard in the cockpit. A groundbreaking 2015 study measured ultraviolet A (UVA) radiation inside the pilot seat of a turboprop aeroplane. 

The researchers discovered that while aircraft windshields block UVB rays, they allow up to 53.5% of deeply penetrating UVA rays to pass through. A pilot flying for just 56.6 minutes at 30,000 feet receives the same carcinogenic effective UVA dose as a 20-minute session in a commercial tanning bed. 

Engineering a More Comfortable Cabin

To combat these issues, the aviation industry is using advanced engineering. Airlines operating modern composite aircraft enjoy slightly higher baseline humidity, but the true breakthrough lies in active humidification technologies pioneered by firms such as CTT Systems. 

Used primarily in first and business classes, these systems safely inject moisture to raise local humidity to a comfortable 20–23% while preventing structural condensation within the fuselage.

Highlighting the difference these systems make, Ola Häggfeldt, CTT Systems director of sales and marketing, remarked in an interview with Airport Technology that, in unequipped aircraft, “it is better to sit in economy class” simply because the higher passenger density generates more ambient moisture.

Step-by-Step Cabin Skin Protection

Cabin crew rely on streamlined skincare routines to protect their skin in high-altitude environments. Environments below 40% relative humidity cause humectants like hyaluronic acid to draw moisture from deeper skin layers.

Because cabin humidity is lower, applying humecants alone can worsen dehydration during flights. 

To prevent this, crew members use a ‘damp and seal’ method recommended by dermatologists, estheticians, and skincare experts. Key inflight skincare steps include:

• Avoid bare humectants: Do not use standalone hyaluronic acid or glycerin serums during a flight, as dry cabin air pulls water from the skin.
• Dampen and seal: Cleanse the face, lightly mist with water to create a superficial layer of moisture, apply a humectant to bind that water, and lock it in immediately with a rich, lipid-based cream containing ceramides or squalane. This traps the moisture and drastically reduces TEWL
• Protect hands: The skin of the hands lacks protective sebaceous glands. Use rich urea- or ceramide-based hand creams after washing to replace lost natural oils.
• Wear sun protection (mandatory): Apply broad-spectrum SPF 30+ to protect against deeply penetrating UVA rays passing through aircraft windows. Whether you are in the cockpit or a window seat, a broad-spectrum SPF is non-negotiable. 

At 35,000 feet, protecting your skin barrier is a necessity.