Prone To Dry Skin? Here’s What You Need To Do!

When we think about our skin, most of our time we concentrate on our faces. However, just like our facial skin needs to be well looked after to stay healthy, so does the skin on the rest of our body. It might not be on show as much as the skin on our faces, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t get dry easily.

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 While dry skin can occur at any time of year, it’s most common right now due to the cold weather. It’s the combination of this and the heat from radiators that leaves our skin dry, itchy and flakey, during the colder months. While irritating, the good news is that there are plenty of easy ways that you can give your skin a moisture boost.

 To help you keep your skin looking and feeling good, here’s what you need to be doing:

 Don’t have hot baths or showers

 While soaking in a hot bath might feel fantastic after a long day, hot water can really dry out your skin. That’s why it’s best to bath or shower in lukewarm water, instead of hot water. If you can’t handle this because you get cold easily, the next best thing you can do is opt to take showers that are as short as possible.

When you’re in the shower, instead of using normal shower gel, body wash with glycolic and lactic acid. This body wash is designed to remove dry and dead skin, leaving you with a soft, smooth body. Once you’ve washed this off, you can follow up by using an in-shower moisturizer.

 Moisturize after every shower or bath

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If you haven’t used an in-shower moisturizer, the next step is to moisturize. Each time you get out of the shower or bath, moisturize your body. While creams are fantastic moisturizers, they don’t lock the skin’s natural oils in like body oils do.

 Instead of smothering yourself in body cream, use coconut or almond oil to lock in moisture. Shea butter is a fantastic moisturizer for dry skin. It’s creamy like a body butter but works like an oil, trapping moisture in the skin. You can buy many creams that contain shea butter, but for best results you need to use a pure form. (L’Occitane do a tub of pure shea butter – have a look at their website.)

 Exfoliate once a week

While exfoliating too much can leave your skin dry, if you don’t exfoliate at all you’ll be left with dead, scaly skin. Using a gentle sugar scrub, once a week exfoliate your skin while in the shower. Using circular movements, rub the scrub into your skin, focusing on dry areas, like the elbows and knees.

If possible, it’s best to opt for a natural scrub, as this is less likely to upset your skin. Scrubs containing chemicals can actually make dryness worse, so it’s better to go natural. If you can’t find a scrub that’s suitable, why not make one yourself? All you need to create a hydrating DIY sugar scrub is aloe vera, sugar granules, honey and oats.

 

Want to keep your skin healthy? Take the tips above on board, and you can do.