What Happens to Your Skin When You Don’t Drink Enough Water

Posted by AweSamo February 5, 2026
What Happens to Your Skin When You Don't Drink Enough Water

Dehydration can cause many health issues, but you may notice skin changes before anything else.

How Dehydration Impacts Your Skin

There are several signs you will notice on your skin if you are not getting enough water. These can include, but aren’t limited to the following:

  • Dry skin
  • Flaky skin
  • Itchiness
  • Redness
  • Skin that stays crimped when pinched (decreased skin turgor)

Other Signs of Dehydration

Besides dry, itchy skin, some other symptoms you might notice if you are dehydrated include:

  • Headaches
  • A dry, sticky mouth
  • Decreased urine output
  • Hard stools or constipation
  • Fatigue
  • Weight gain
  • Weakness

How Does My Skin Use Water?

Water is vital to every organ in your body, and your skin is considered the largest organ of all. Overall, your body is 60% water, and water makes up 30% of the weight of your outermost layer of skin.

Adequate water is critical to your skin being able to:

  • Provide a healthy barrier to protect your skin from environmental and physical injury
  • Strengthen the skin barrier to help your body retain water
  • Sweat when your body needs to cool down

How Much Water Is Enough?

The amount of water you need each day can vary from person to person. Experts suggest drinking roughly 90 to 120 ounces—a bit less than a gallon—of water each day.

Individual factors that can impact how much water you need include:

  • Age
  • Gender
  • Activity level
  • Specific health conditions like kidney disease or heart failure
  • Illnesses that may cause fever, vomiting, or diarrhea

A 15% decrease in your body weight can lead to severe dehydration, and even a 5% drop can cause mild dehydration.

About 20% of this water intake typically comes from the foods you eat.

Fixes for Dry Skin

If you’re suffering from dry skin, increasing your water intake can help. If you already drink enough water and you’re adequately hydrated, drinking more water won’t make much difference to your skin.

If you are dehydrated, increasing your water intake can help:

  • Restore moisture
  • Improve skin integrity
  • Strengthen your skin barrier

If increasing water intake doesn’t do the trick, you can also try things like:

Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

  1. MedLinePlus. Skin turgor.

  2. Douladiris N, Vakirlis E, Vassilopoulou E. Atopic dermatitis and water: Is there an optimum water intake level for improving atopic skin? Children. 2023; 10(2):273. https://doi.org/10.3390/children10020273.

  3. Sahawneh P. Factors influencing skin health from within. Journal of Integrated Health. January 2024, 3(1). doi: doi.org/10.51219/JIH/pamela-sahawneh/26.

  4. Institute for Integrative Nutrition. What happens if you don’t drink enough water: Seven signs.

  5. Rutgers. Signs you are not drinking sufficient water.

  6. Yousef H, Alhajj M, Fakoya AO, et al. Anatomy, Skin, Epidermis. StatPearls. June 2024.

  7. Seol JE, Cho GJ, Jang SH, Ahn SW, Hong SM, Park SH, Kim H. Effect of amount of daily water intake and use of moisturizer on skin barrier function in healthy female participants. Ann Dermatol. June 2024;36(3):145-150. doi: 10.5021/ad.23.067.

  8. EatRight.org. How much water do you need?

  9. UAMS Health. Can drinking water cure your dry skin?

Rachael Zimlich

By Rachael Zimlich, BSN, RN

Zimlich is a critical care nurse who has been writing about health care and clinical developments for over 10 years.

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