Introduction
If you have dry skin, you may see it get drier and rougher in the winter months. Even oily skin gets a little bit drier when the winter rolls in. Now you can carry around a bottle of moisturizer with you everywhere to moisturize your skin whenever it gets dry. But it would be much more convenient if you learned a couple of tips on how to prevent dry skin in winter so that your skin stays moisturized and soft without needing you to constantly moisturize it. So, for the sake of convenience, let’s read ahead to learn how to prevent dry skin in winter.
Why Does Skin Get Dry In Winter
Have you ever wondered why the skin gets drier in winter? What is it about the cold winter weather that makes your skin drier and rougher?
To answer the question, you need to understand how the moisturization of your skin works. Your skin has sebaceous glands that secrete sebum or natural oil onto your skin. This keeps your skin soft and moisturized. For people with dry skin, your sebaceous glands may be less active and secrete less sebum, and for oily skin, they may be more active and produce a lot of sebum. But everyone’s skin produces at least some amount of sebum to keep the skin soft and healthy.
In winter months though, the humidity of air is quite low. So, when your skin gets exposed to the low humidity air, it absorbs all that moisture present on the upper layer of your skin. Your sebaceous glands can not keep producing enough oil to keep up with the rate that the air is absorbing moisture from your skin and you are left with dry and rough skin.
How To Prevent Dry Skin In Winter
Always Moisturize After You Wash
When you wash your face or body with soap, you are taking away all that natural oil that your body produces to keep your skin moisturized. That is why you must moisturize your skin every time after you wash to give your skin back the moisture it just lost.
Putting on moisturizer is even more necessary in the winter months. Moisturizers help lock the moisture onto your skin, that is why an effective moisturizer can help prevent the winter air from drying out your skin. So, when the winter rolls around get yourself a good moisturizer and use it after every wash.
You should also use the moisturizer whenever your skin feels too dry and rough. Since it is winter and you have dry skin, you may feel your skin getting dry quite often. To counter that, you should get a moisturizer with hyaluronic acid and Vitamin E to get healthy and nourished skin.
Wear Clothes That Help
Since it is winter, you are going to be wearing a lot of layers. But if you want to know how to prevent dry skin in winter, you should also know what kind of clothes will help prevent dry skin and what kind will make the situation worse.
First of all, you should cover as much of your body as possible to save it from the drying winter air. Wear socks and gloves to protect your hands and feet. Your hands may get extra dry in the winter months because they are exposed to fluctuating temperatures throughout the day. You may touch hot coffee cups and stuff after keeping your hands exposed to cold air for hours. That could dry out the skin on your hands real fast.
For the rest of your body, wear clothes that are loose, soft, and comfortable. Rough clothes may rub against your already dry skin and cause even more dryness and irritation. Switch to a detergent that is ideal for sensitive skin and also use a fabric softener on your clothes for the winter months. Keep your skin covered by soft and loose clothes if you want to keep your skin soft.
Use Overnight Moisturizing Treatments
Overnight moisturizing treatments are a great way to get rid of dry skin with minimal effort. All you need to do is put on the treatment before you go to sleep and the magic happens while you are asleep. Overnight treatments are also great because they have all the time they need to take effect on your skin.
You can try commercially available night treatments or you can make your own DIY night treatment using ingredients that fit the needs of your skin the best. Night treatments are available for the skin of your face, your hands, and your feet. If you decided to use the ones for your hands and feet, maybe wrap them around with something so that you don’t get any on your bedsheets.
In the morning, take the night treatment off and your skin should be much softer than it was before. If you are using a commercially available one, then follow the directions given on the label.
Adjust Your Skincare Routine to Fit Your Skin’s Needs for The Winter Months
If you want to know how to prevent dry skin in winter, you should know which skincare steps you should omit from your routine and which ones to keep. In the winter months, you should reduce steps like scrubbing and exfoliation and focus more on steps like hydrating masks and face packs.
Exfoliants and scrubs do help get rid of the dry and dead skin cells from your body, but if you used a scrub on the dry and rough parts of your body, it can do more harm than good. Often dry and rough skin is accompanied by raw and irritated skin. These parts are not something you should use a harsh scrub on.
Instead of trying to remove these dray and rough patches, try using emollients on these parts to give them back the moisture they lost. Some great natural emollients that you can use are jojoba oil, rosehip oil, shea butter, and cocoa butter. You can get moisturizers, packs, and masks that contain these elements or you can make your own DIY one by mixing them according to your needs and liking. You can also try using serums for your face, those are great for nourishing your skin from deep within.
Lifestyle and Diet Changes
If you really want to keep your skin soft and hydrated, you may try a couple of changes to your diet and lifestyle. Since it is cold, you may be tempted to take a hot shower every day, but you are better off taking colder showers. Hot water can strip away the natural oils of your skin really fast, so even a short hot shower can dry out your skin quite a lot. So, if you can’t take cold showers, at least go for lukewarm showers.
Another thing that can help you imitate the humidity of the summer months in your house is a humidifier. A humidifier can help you improve the humidity of the air inside your house, and when the air isn’t dry anymore, it won’t dry out your skin.
Whenever you go out, don’t forget your sunscreen. The sun may seem pleasant in the winter, but its UV rays I still harmful to your skin. So, go sunbathing, but keep the protective layer of sunscreen on if you want your skin to be safe.
For the diet changes, add food to your diet that contains a lot of antioxidants and Omega 3 Fatty Acids. Omega 3 Fatty acids are basically the healthy version of fat, and although you may believe you should stay away from fat altogether, that is not true. Healthy fats can help you keep your skin nice and moisturized and the antioxidants can fight the oxidative damage that your skin is more susceptible to during the winter months. Having a diet that includes these two healthy nutrients can simultaneously protect your skin and can help your skin generate healthy skin cells faster, making your skin healthier as a whole.
Conclusion
These are the tips on how to prevent dry skin in winter and they can help you quite a lot. Following at least one of these tips can help you keep the dryness in control and following all of them should eliminate dryness altogether. But if it doesn’t, then maybe it is time for you to visit a dermatologist. A dermatologist can examine your skin and provide solutions that are specifically targeted to the condition of your skin.
For most people though, using these home tips should help the situation a lot. But just because it does, you shouldn’t stop using these measures. You should use these tips and measures all throughout the winter if you want to keep your skin soft and healthy.
