Friday 19 August 2011

How To Keep Your Skin Soft And Smooth During Winter

By Courtney Andreadis


Winter brings cold weather for most of the globe. Chances are, you experience cold weather in the winter and your skin is not that happy about it. Cold weather can be very tough on your skin, and the heating we use to keep ourselves warm means winter dryness isn't far behind.

Lips: You need to protect your lips when the mercury in the thermometer drops. First thing to remember, when your lips feel dry do not lick them.

This seems strange, because licking dry lips feels like the right thing to do to re-hydrate them. Instead, every time you lick then they get drier. You want to use a lip balm, instead. Lip balm can help rehydrate your lips, and will help prevent drying in the first place.

Face: We all need moisturizer, but the need becomes even more dire in winter. Cold weather can really dry out skin. To get just the right product for your skin type and circumstances, consult with a specialist before you go to make your skincare product purchase.

Hands: Hands tend to get very dry in winter. This is because t he skin here is the thinnest on your entire body. Also, there are very few oil glands in the skin on your hands. This adds up to wintertime dryness.

Moisturizer is always a good idea, but isn't enough to keep your hands in top condition. You also need to be careful about gloves. Don't wear wool gloves next to your skin that can be irritating and itchy. If you have wool gloves you can wear thin cotton gloves under them to prevent that. Don't wear gloves that are wet either, this is very drying and can chap your hands.

Feet: Keep away from wet socks, they are as bad for your feet as wet gloves are for hands. You'll get irritated skin. You also want to take extra care with feet and skin maintenance in winter, especially if you wear heavy shoes or winter boots. Exfoliate regularly - if you have a lot of dry dead skin on your feet, it will be difficult for your moisturizer to penetrate and be effective.

There are other general tips to remember to make sure all of your skin stays as supple and healthy as possible. For starters, remember that dry air is the enemy of healthy skin. When you run a heater, you should also run a humidifier to counteract the dryness. Bowls of water near vents or on radiators don't' really do the trick. Also, you still need sunscreen. Just because it is cold does not mean that the sun's rays cannot damage your skin.




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