We are pretty tough on our skin and while the Winter is the most notorious for drying out our skin, the sun and even our home air conditioners can dry out our skin the rest of the year. Below are a few dry skin remedies to try next time you notice your skin starting to dry out.
Choose creams and ointments over lotion
At the first signs of dry skin the first instinct is to slap on some lotion but for those with really dry skin the lotions don’t really do very much. Lotions are made with mostly water which evaporates quickly on very dry skin. Instead go with ointments to lock in moisture after a bath or shower. Or try one of the many creams such as Cerave or Vanicream if you want something a little less greasy.
Stop taking long hot showers
This one is tough and to be honest something I’m not sure I’m ready to give up. Heck sometimes I take two or three long hot showers in the same day. Turns out the whole time I thought I was relieving stress or waking myself up in the morning I was hurting my dry skin. The hot water strips away the oils in your skin so in theory the cooler the water the better.
Add back the oils
Well if you are like me and not willing to give up the hot showers then you’re going to need a dry skin remedy to add back those missing oils and what better way to do that than oil. Most any oil will do in fact. Vegetable, olive, sunflower, peanut, coconut, almond and tea have all been used as natural home remedies for dry skin.
Change your soap
Let me get this straight… not only do I want you to stop taking long showers but I also want you to stop using that new sex panther body wash that the ladies love so much… unfortunately… yes. Those deodorant soaps strip whatever oil is left on your skin after the hot shower and do even more damage. Doctors overwhelmingly recommend going with dove soap. I made this change years ago and it does work. Although I admit to falling for those darn axe commercials every once in awhile.
Drink Water
As the now famous Tony Horton would say, “drink your water people”. Many times dry skin is the result of just not getting enough water so be sure to get your 8 glasses a day and even more if you are out in the sun.
Take a bath
I realize taking a bath is contrary to the advice in stop taking long hot showers but if you limit yourself to 15 minutes and add skin smoothing ingredients like colloidal oatmeal, vinegar or olive oil along with some essential oils you will be doing your skin a world of good.