Let us know about Winter Skin Care Tips. When winter arrives, our skin gets affected the most. No matter how many layers of warm clothes you wear from feet to head. When the temperature drops, the moisture in your skin also drops along with it.
Dryness on the skin is most common during the winter season. Whereas due to high summer temperatures your skin produces more oil. This has the adverse effect of cold weather.
When the temperature decreases, the moisture in the atmosphere also decreases. Apart from this, heating and fire inside the house also makes the atmosphere dry. This change in temperature causes irritation and swelling on the skin.
Apart from this, the biggest thing is that we drink less water during winter season. Due to which the problem of poorer skin hydration arises. Due to this our skin becomes dry, flaky and itchy.
On the other hand, skin microcirculation is also affected by cold. Low temperatures cause skin capillaries to shrink to reduce blood flow through the skin.
This helps maintain body temperature and capillaries return to normal after exposure. Yet these changes in skin microcirculation cause facial redness, telangiectasia or spider angiomas.
Apart from this, clothes and any kind of pressure also harm the skin. Friction from clothing damages the hydrolipidic barrier.
This hydrolipidic barrier, also known as the acid mantle. It is a layer composed of naturally occurring oils and lipids that are essential for maintaining the skin’s balance and protecting it from external stress.
Due to weakening of the acid mantle the skin becomes more sensitive to winter. Thus it falls into a spiral. This will make the skin less able to heal itself from constant aggression and moisture loss.
Skin problems occurring in winter
Maintaining skin moisture is one of the key components of maintaining skin health during winter. Between the cold air, harsh winter winds and dry indoor heat, it’s easy for skin to suffer.
Here are five common skin problems that occur in winter which cause a lot of damage to the skin during winter.
1. Eczema
Eczema is a common skin condition that affects more than half of Indians. Skin inflammation, red skin, itchy patches, eczema is caused by a combination of immune system activation, environmental triggers, and depression.
Cold dry weather triggers eczema flares in the winter. In this way, eczema is that condition of our skin, when the problem of swelling and itching occurs in the skin.
2. Psoriasis
Psoriasis is a long-term disease that causes red, itchy scaly patches on the skin. Which causes problems for a few weeks or months before decreasing or going away.
The most common places for psoriasis are your knees, elbows, torso, and scalp. Whereas there is no cure for psoriasis. Your skin specialist can design a treatment plan to help you manage your condition.
Cold weather and less sunlight can worsen psoriasis in winter. Thus, if you are suffering from this problem, consult a good doctor soon.
3. Rosacea
Rosacea is a common skin problem that causes blushing or flushing of your face and eyes. Rosacea may cause problems for weeks or months before it subsides or goes away.
If left untreated, rosacea can cause permanent damage to the skin and eyes. Cold weather is a common trigger for many people. During this time this problem becomes even more fatal.
4. Keratosis Pilaris
Keratosis pilaris, also known as “chicken skin.” It is a common, harmless skin condition that causes dry, rough patches and small bumps on the skin.
In this, skin colored or red blisters appear on your hands, feet or buttocks. These are often more evident when the skin is dry, such as in the winter time.
5. Raynaud’s disease
Affecting about half of people who live in the cold, Raynaud’s disease occurs when the blood vessels in your fingers and toes spasm in response to cold, stress or emotional distress.
This reduces blood flow, causing your fingers or toes to curl up. This causes them to become cold, white and numb, and is more of a bother during winter.
9 Best Winter Skin Care Tips
Cold, dry air can cause a lot of damage to your skin. But there are many ways to deal with skin damage caused by dry winters. Due to which your skin remains smooth and supple throughout the season.
Filaggrin, one of the most important proteins in our skin for maintaining barrier function and natural moisturizing factors, decreases during winter.
It also decreases with age and hormonal changes. This combined with dry cold weather, low humidity, and indoor heating dehydrates our skin. Due to this, the skin of many people starts becoming dry.
1. One should avoid taking too hot bath
Hot water is a boon during the winter season. There is no better feeling than taking a hot water bath in this season. But the bad news is that as good as your body feels after a hot bath, your skin looks worse.
Hot water damages the keratin cells present in the outermost layer of the skin. When these cells are destroyed, your skin becomes dry, itchy and irritated.
Apart from this, hot water strips away the natural oils from your skin, making it drier than before. To avoid this, one of the most important winter skin care tips you should follow is to change your bathing habits.
If you have a habit of bathing with hot water, you can change this by gradually reducing the temperature of the water. However, we do not suggest that you take bath with cold water. All you have to do is take bath with lukewarm water.
2. Keep skin moisturized
Cold air removes moisture from the skin. So moisturizing is often the key to keeping skin hydrated and soft. For normal to dry skin, cream based and petroleum based products are better than lotions.
It is best to apply moisturizer to slightly damp skin as it traps surface moisture. Even people with oily skin should use light unscented moisturizers.
If you want to moisturize your skin, then oil is the best for this. It is easily available in every home, hence everyone can use it.
Coconut oil, baby oil, olive oil, castor oil, jojoba oil or sesame oil. You can choose whatever oil is available at your home. For this you have to do the following things-
- Apply oil all over your body and massage for a minute or two. By massaging, the oil will quickly get absorbed into the skin and your clothes will not get stained.
- You can leave it overnight and take an early morning shower the next day for fresh skin. Or you can use it after bathing.
- Do this 2-3 times a week.
Dry and itchy skin needs more moisture. Thus, what could be better than natural oils for this? Many of the oils mentioned above are very beneficial for all skin types.
They are rich in Vitamin E, Vitamin A and fatty acids. Also, these oils keep the moisture locked. And also supply essential nutrients for optimal skin health. After regular use of the oil you will soon notice a smoother and softer skin.
3. Reduce soap use
Hard soap contains chemicals that irritate the skin and strip it of moisture. To keep dryness away, soaps with gentle, unscented ingredients should be used.
Alternatively non-soap cleansers can be used to wash the skin. Washing face, hands and feet once a day is enough, as too much washing takes away the skin’s natural moisture.
Since ancient times, washing the face is considered the first step towards skin care. The foundation of healthy, clear skin is hygiene and we don’t argue with that. The problem arises when people think that clean skin can be achieved only with soap.
This is where everyone goes wrong. Soaps as we know, are quite abrasive and remove the natural oils from the skin surface. Due to which the skin becomes constantly dry and lifeless.
Soap makes the skin dry. This is a well-known side effect of using soap. Although soap cleans the dirt effectively. But soap also removes lipids from the skin, which affects its hydration status.
This leads to dry, leathery-looking skin. Chemicals like triclosan, lye and certain dyes like D&C Yellow 11 can dry out the skin and damage it.
Repeated use of soap over a long period of time accelerates skin degradation, which can lead to wrinkles. For this reason, you should stop using soap completely during the winter season.
4. Use a humidifier
Dry air draws moisture from the skin and this is compounded by indoor heating. Room humidifiers are therefore good for the skin in winter. These are devices that add moisture to the air and prevent skin from drying out due to indoor heating.
A humidifier adds moisture to the air, and in dry conditions you need it. Lack of moisture in the air (low humidity) negatively affects your skin.
Using a humidifier helps you balance the moisture levels in your room and keeps the skin from becoming dry and rough. It also reduces signs of aging like wrinkles, which are caused by dry skin.
Skin barrier function is affected due to low moisture levels. Such weather conditions destroy lipids and oils from the skin. These two bind together to evaporate skin cells.
In this way, when the moisture in the skin decreases, our skin starts complaining of irritation and allergies. A humidifier can relieve this problem to a great extent during the winter season.
5. Protect your skin from cold air
If you’re outdoors, protect your skin and lips from the cold wind by covering them or using a good moisturizer. Skin protectants based on petroleum or ceramides are effective in preventing dryness.
Cold air has a significant effect on our body. We often first see its effect on our skin. Dry, chapped lips, irritated and cracked skin on more exposed areas like hands and fingers tend to occur during the winter months.
This is because cold temperatures often mean low humidity and extremely dry air. Indoors there isn’t much relief either, as indoor heating systems often produce hot air that is extremely dry.
Transitioning from cold outdoor air to warm indoor air can cause redness and swelling of the skin. Because the blood vessels in the skin dilate and contract rapidly to adjust to changes in temperature.
6. Wear smooth clothes
The skin becomes irritated more easily during the winter season. For this reason it is better to layer the skin with soft materials. For example, stay away from harsh fabrics like cotton, silk and wool.
For warmth, a layer of wool is placed over these clothes. For laundering, it is also best to choose a detergent labeled ‘hypoallergenic’.
We buy clothes that we are attracted to. But do we ever go inside and check the labels and look at the composition of their clothes?
Most clothes are treated with a chemical at the time of manufacturing. If you do not wash them before wearing, then those chemicals have a severe effect on our skin.
Muslin is a super-thin fabric, made of 100% cotton. Due to its ultra soft and absorbent properties, this fabric is mostly used to make baby clothes, diapers and blankets.
In addition to being highly non-abrasive (remember that this cloth is gentle enough to use on newborns), a muslin cloth tends to soften over time.
One of the best benefits of using a muslin cloth in your skin care is that it exfoliates your skin completely without even being slightly abrasive.
Its gentle exfoliating properties make your skin feel extremely soft and smooth. But as with any kind of exfoliation, you need to be very careful about over-scrubbing.
It may irritate your skin. If your skin is drier than usual, it is safe to use a muslin cloth every day. But if you have sensitive skin, we recommend that you exfoliate your skin 2-3 times a week.
7. Don’t stay too close to heat
Curling up close to the heater is a classic way to warm up on a cold day. This is the safest way to warm the body. But for individuals with dry skin, it can worsen the condition and even cause dry patches to appear.
So it’s best to limit time in front of heaters and layer up with warm clothes instead. You have to make very little use of heaters or fire even inside your room.
Winters bring with it beautiful things like wind, cold temperatures. But dry indoor heat can cause your skin to crack. Due to this your skin becomes cracked and red. Or your skin becomes so raw that it bursts and starts bleeding.
Excessive heating reduces the amount of moisture in the air. The air that is sent outside through a heater or blower dries up the natural moisture present in the air inside the room.
This dry air devoid of any moisture causes dryness and roughness in your skin. If you have sensitive skin, it may also cause itching and redness or lead to an infection.
Apart from this, the heater makes the indoor air poisonous. Some heaters release pollutants like carbon monoxide into the home, which can cause brain and organ damage in infants.
Increased pollution in a small room is not healthy even for adults. This is a threat to asthma patients and leads to other respiratory diseases. Apart from this, it causes maximum damage to the skin.
8. Make skincare swaps wisely
Your most trusted products may not work so well in the winter. With the changing seasons, the needs of your skin also change. That’s why it’s important to make skin care changes wisely.
First of all, to get healthy skin in winters, swap gel or foaming cleansers for gentle cream cleansers. These will not strip away the natural oils from your skin.
You can try skin moisturizing facial wash which does not contain soap and is suitable for sensitive skin. The face wash with Pro-Vitamin B5 and Vitamin E moisturizes and nourishes your skin, they also don’t contain perfume or harsh chemicals.
I. Swap Glycolic Acid
Swapping out glycolic acid for lactic or mandelic acid is an effective way to get winter skin care tips. Glycolic acid is the MVP of the alpha-hydroxy acid (AHA) family.
It works brilliantly as a chemical exfoliant to remove dead skin cells and even out skin pigmentation and post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation.
But for a winter skin care swap, you should befriend its lighter cousin, lactic or mandelic acid. It is important to exfoliate in winter as dead cells accumulate.
Our skin looks much more attractive in winter when swapped with lactic or mandelic acid.
2. Switch to serums
Face oils can prove to be a boon for your skin in winter. But as humidity increases with the onset of summer, the same products can leave your skin feeling suffocated.
Therefore, it becomes necessary to change skin care products according to the season. This anti-oxidant rich face serum is great. Which is the perfect swap for your face oils.
Infused with coffee and the perfect solution for all skin types, it hydrates your skin and protects from harmful UV rays. It will make you feel fresh throughout the day.
9. Follow a balanced diet
Eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats helps your skin get the nutrients it needs to stay healthy and glowing all winter long.
Fruits, vegetables, whole grains and water intake play a big role in the foods that contribute to the diet for glowing skin. Fruits and vegetables are a great source of vitamins and minerals.
When consumed as fresh juice, they are directly absorbed by the bloodstream which also hydrates us. Food items like peach, papaya, carrot, green leafy vegetables contain Vitamin A, which not only makes the skin healthy but also increases immunity against infections.
Amla, orange, sweet lemon, lemon juice, spinach and guava contain vitamin C which helps in synthesizing collagen. Collagen is the protein that holds skin cells together, creating healthy skin.
List of foods to consume during winter:
- whole grains, cereals and nuts such as walnuts and almonds
- dark chocolate
- sprouted grains
- Linseed, Linseed Oil, Rice Bran Oil, Olive Oil
- Broccoli
- Fruits rich in Vitamin C
conclusion:
So these were some very important winter skin care tips, if you follow all the tips given by us then your skin will look beautiful and beautiful even in the winter season and there will be no problem in it.
If you like our tips then do share them so that more and more people can take good care of their skin during the winter season.
