Solutions to protect your skin during winter

healthy skin

The cold weather this season will have you running for your cup of hot tea, cocoa or, coffee throughout the day. While not everyone might be amused by the crisp, cold air winter brings, everybody — yes, including you — would need to pay more attention to their skin. Knowing windburned lips treatment solutions will come in handy too at this time of the year.


Winter And Your Skin

The saga continues every year, doesn’t it? Your skin dries out, even your lips chap and your scalp flakes. Here are the Top Five reasons why your skin deserves closer attention this Winter:

Reason No. 1: The cold weather can be damp, cold and dry. Cold air carries much less moisture than hot air. This condition causes the dry air to suck out the moisture from your skin. At the same time, the dampness of the winter outdoor environment favors the growth of skin infections.

Reason No. 2: Hot, dry indoor environments. Your home’s heater can also damage your skin. The dryness creates strips your skin of its natural oils, leaving your skin surface wrinkled.

Reason No. 3: Hot baths and showers. Naturally, the last thing you want to do is to soak in cold water. While spending a few minutes inside a hot tub can feel relaxing in your chilling veins, it can damage your skin’s protective barrier, making your skin more prone to dryness and infections.

Reason No. 4: Hot drinks. You probably never thought your preferred cup of hot drink can adversely affect your skin too. Remember, coffee is a diuretic, so is tea. Hot cocoa also contains caffeine. All of these favorite winter drinks, including a shot of Scotch, can make you lose significant amounts of fluids that can cause your skin to become dehydrated.

Reason No. 5: Inappropriate winter skin care products. Since your skin behaves differently in Winter compared to Spring or Summer, an evaluation of what goes into your Winter skin care regimen deserves a review. Whether you have a drier or oilier skin type, your skin care products need to deliver a punch to help you beat the damaging Winter weather.

 

The Top 10 Solutions For Your Winter Skin Blues

You can go ahead with your existing routine and lament about your scaly, flaky skin later or, you’d as well do something about it now to get ahead of the skin damage that normally becomes evident come, Winter. Here are the Top 10 Solutions to help you cope better with the chilling weather:

Solution No. 1: Hydrate inside and out. Instead of going for your usual hot cup of coffee, why not prepare a blend of the freshest fruits that you can get your hands on. Winter fruits like pomegranates, lemons, grapefruits, kiwis, and oranges are great ways to re-hydrate, inside and out.  Blend and drink. If you prefer it warmer, transfer in a glass and soak the glass in a tub of hot water. Do not heat the mixture directly or you will lose plenty of the beneficial vitamins and minerals from the fruits.

These antioxidant-rich fresh harvests will also serve as a good way to mask your skin. Simply blend with a few drops of honey to thicken the mixture and make it easier to lather on your skin as a mask. Make sure to spread only on freshly cleansed and toned skin on your face, neck, and chest. Leave on for 15 minutes before rinsing off thoroughly with lukewarm water. Pat dry.

Solution No. 2: Dress up appropriately. Never expose your skin to the harsh environmental elements that can strip it off of its lipids and natural oils. Cover up when you can, where you can. Legwarmers, bonnets, gloves, ear muffs, and jackets can all help you help your skin keep the moisture in.

Solution No. 3: Keep exfoliating. There is not a season that can be justifiably exempted from this one superbly beneficial part of any skincare routine. Just because the weather is colder and drier, it does not mean that you should keep from performing this highly important part of any skin care routine — not even when you have a very dry skin type.

What makes exfoliation even more important around winter is the fact that skin flaking is worse around this time of the year. That means, there’s more debris sitting on your skin surface at any given time. Besides, exfoliation helps you get rid of damaged Winter skin so that a newer, fresher layer of skin can rise to the surface and show off your skin’s naturally radiant glow. When exfoliating, make sure to follow manufacturer’s instructions very closely. Don’t deviate. Use scrub for your body too to obtain the same effect.

Solution No. 4: Tone and moisturize. Help keep more of that moisture in by immediately toning right after you cleanse your skin. Use a hydrating toner to help promote a dewier, plumper skin, and tighter pores that help make your skin appear silkier.

Cold and dry winters call for thicker moisturizers. If your skin can tolerate oil, now may also be a good time to call in the natural healing power of essential oils. These seep in quickly and easily into your skin and do not leave a greasy surface. Layer with your thicker creams depending on your skin type and skin needs.

You can also take Fulvic acid to lower free radical damage as it contains antioxidants which oppose the effects of free radicals and keeps skin tighter.

Solution No. 5: Give your windburned lips treatment. Your lips are just as exposed to the damaging winter elements as the rest of your face is. As in any matter concerning skin care, protection should always be a top strategy. To protect your lips from windburn around winter time, use an occlusive moisturizer, the best kind being petroleum jelly.

Don’t forget that your lips are part of your skin too. That makes exfoliation a must for your lips as well. For an easy lip exfoliation, take a drop or two of honey. Mix with the juice of half a lemon. Add a tablespoon of brown sugar. Smooth the mixture over freshly cleansed lips. Keep massaging for a good 10 to 15 minutes. Rinse off completely. Pat dry and immediately follow through with petroleum jelly. In case you’re deliberately avoiding petrolatum-based products, you may use oil or a deep-moisturizing lip balm.

Solution No. 6: Set up your indoor environment. Most people fail to recognize that indoor heaters are a major cause of skin severely drying out around Winter. To offset the drying effect, you should install a humidifier, whether centralized or, single units for every room in your home and in your indoor office space as well. A humidifier helps keep the moisture in your indoor air well-balanced so the air is prevented from drying out your skin.

Solution No. 7: Keep applying your sunscreen. Winter mornings can be deceptive. Just because the outdoors are grayer and gloomier, that does not mean that harmful UV rays aren’t there waiting to hurt your skin. In fact, according to the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD), up to 80 percent of the sun’s harmful UV rays can still pass through the clouds on a gloomy day[1]. The same briefer from the AAD also points out that the presence of snow may make the use of sunscreen even more imperative because snow reflects back UV.

How to choose the right sunscreen? Always pick out a sunscreen that is broad spectrum and carries at least an SPF 30 for daily protection. Make sure that you pick up the same sun protection lip balm to keep your lips feeling soft and looking supple as well.

Solution No. 8: Stop taking hot baths. Keep the water temp at lukewarm heat only just to take the cold out of your bath. When you can, use a body wash that contains essential oils so that you can start moisturizing your skin even as you are still cleansing. Regulate the number of baths you take up to just two days.

Solution No. 9: Keep moisturizing throughout the day and night. Don’t miss out on any small opportunity to re-hydrate your skin, even when you’re on-the-go. Carry around a bottle of moisturizing mist. Spray about an arm’s length away from you whenever you feel the surrounding air sucking the life out of your skin. You might also want to pat on a drop or two of toner to help re-hydrate your skin.

Solution No. 10: Maintain a clean and clear skin. Sleeping with makeup and other skin care products on can greatly degrade your skin, not just dry it out. Don’t let these products corrode your skin, first, by carefully reading the labels and, second, by completely ridding your skin of these by the end of the day.

 

Conclusion

The Winter can bring new challenges to your skin. Getting on the appropriate Winter skin care regimen, however, can help you better cope with Winter realities to better protect and promote your healthier looking skin even when environmental elements conspire against it. After all these years, all you really needed was a little know-how and consistent practice — so, just do it.

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