6 Tips for Protecting Your Skin From the Dry Winter Season

There’s lots to love about the dry winter season, but for your skin cold weather spells disaster. When the humidity drops, your skin needs a little extra TLC to stay moisturized, comfortable, and happy. Here are a few of our favorite tips to help protect your skin from dry winter weather.

Here some tips to protect your skin from dry winter weather:

1. Stay Dry: Trudging through the snow can easily soak your gloves, mittens, and socks. Keeping wet clothing next to your skin causes irritation, leading to itching, cracking, and even eczema flare-ups. Stay dry as much as possible. If you expect to get soggy, bring a dry pair of socks or gloves to change into if necessary.
2. Get a Handle on Your Hands: Cold weather is especially hard on hands. The skin on your hands is thinner than on many other part of the body, and it produces less oil. This makes it tough to keep your hands moisturized when the weather gets cold, which is why hands tend to become chapped easier than most other areas. Keep your hands covered with gloves or mittens when you’re outside, and be generous with the moisturizer.
3. Consider Getting a Humidifier: The warm blast from your central heating system keeps you warm and cozy, but this type of heating also dries out the air. Fight back with a humidifier or two. Setting up humidifiers in your home keeps more moisture in the air, which in turn helps to keep your skin from drying out.
4. Watch Your Water Temperature: We know, it’s tempting to linger in a hot shower when it’s blustery outside, but intense heat only leads to trouble for your skin. Hot water can actually break down your skin’s lipid barriers, which causes a dramatic loss of moisture. It’s better for your skin to enjoy a warm, not hot, shower or bath. And here’s an extra tip: if your skin is so dry it’s constantly itchy, a lukewarm bath with oatmeal in it can do wonders.
5. Start Early: Starting new habits can be tough. Give yourself your best chance at beating winter dryness by beginning your new skincare routine in the fall. Start taking shorter showers, moisturize more often, and dig out your humidifiers while the leaves are still on the tress: the head start will help you ease into your winter routine.
6. Moisturize, Moisturize, Moisturize: We saved the most important tip for last. Moisturizing your skin regularly throughout the winter season is essential to protecting yourself from dry air. Aloe vera gel is a great alternative to conventional moisturizing lotions and creams. Not only does it keep moisture close to the skin, it also soothes away redness and irritation. That means if your skin does become dry or chapped, it will get back to normal much more quickly.

Baby, it’s Cold Outside

But that’s okay! With a solid plan for beating dry winter weather, your skin will stay moisturized and healthy all season long.