Human skin thrives on moisture and nourishment. To stay smooth and supple, it is important your skin retains its natural moisture and also gets its regular nutritional supplements, both cosmetic and dietary.
All the more attention needs to be showered if your skin happens to be of the dry nature or if you are aging. In both of these situations, your skin will demand extra care, which will even worsen in the winters or if you live in a centrally heated environment.
Xerosis – The Checklist
To check whether you have a dry skin or xerosis, simply go through the following checklist:
- Does your skin have a few flaky patches that disappear when you apply rich moisturizing creams?
- Does your skin look fine-textured, which further means that the pores are not at all visible?
- Does your skin have tiny expression lines around the eyes, which somehow do not seem to disappear?
- Does the skin of your neck and cheeks look creepy?
If you think any of the above symptoms appear to be similar to that of your skin, then you definitely have dry skin. Read on as we give you detailed information on how to care for your dry skin, in the next section.
Causes Of Dry Skin
Though the skin types are largely determined by birth, yet there are certain other factors as well that can make your skin drier and worsen the existing texture of your skin.
The main causes of dry skin can be divided into 2 categories, including the general and medical reasons, as we’ve discussed below.
GENERAL REASONS
– Weather: With a fall in temperature and humidity levels, winters can become one of the major causes of the dryness in your skin. However, if you happen to be living in a desert region, then this becomes the opposite and summers can affect your skin adversely.
– Central heating: There are various elements in your living environment which can induce dryness in the skin. These include:
- Central air
- Heating
- Wood burning stoves
- Space heaters
- Fireplaces
– Hot baths and showers: Frequent showering can often lead to breakage of the lipid barriers in your skin. The same can also happen if you swim a lot in heavily chlorinated pools.
– Harsh soaps and detergents: Especially in the case of women, there are many popular soaps and detergents that can strip lipids and water from your skin. The most damaging types of products include deodorant and antibacterial soaps along with a lot of shampoos.
MEDICAL REASONS
Apart from the above, there are certain diseases and medical conditions that can cause excessive dry skin, even reaching up to a painful stage, calling for immediate treatment. The most prominent amongst these are:
- Psoriasis
- Thyroid disorders
- Seborrheic dermatitis
- Allergic contact dermatitis
- Atopic dermatitis
- Athlete’s foot
- Alcohol and drugs such as diuretics
- Dehydration
The Care Regimen
BASIC STEPS
The following section carries the most important measures you need to adopt for maintenance of your dry skin.
– Sleep: Try to maintain a regular sleep schedule. Experts advise having a minimum eight-hour sleep everyday to keep your skin healthy, especially if you have dry skin.
– Cleansing: You should be very careful when choosing your cleanser in case you have dry skin. Select a cleanser that will effectively remove all the pore-clogging debris, but without leaving your skin taut, dry or stripped of its natural protective oils.
– Toning: Toning is a very important follow-up step to cleansing. It effectively removes the last stages of the cleanser and also dissolves dirt. Besides, toning also stimulates surface circulation. An ideal skin tonic for dry skin is a preparation of mint combined with a honey base.
– Nourishment: This step is important to help you prevent dryness from aggravating. The ideal time to follow this part of your care regimen is just before you go to bed at night. For a smooth and well-nourished skin, apply a nourishing cream with an orange base every night, smoothing it over the face and going downwards towards the chin.
– The eye region: For individuals with a dry skin, the eyes are one of the most sensitive areas as these lack the sebaceous glands and hence require extra care. Experts suggest using an almond-lanolin cream, right form the inner corner of the eyes outwards, applying it very gently.
– The bath routine: Since water, soap or cleanser can considerably draw moisture from your skin, it is important for you to follow a regular pre-bath routine to keep your skin moisturized. To begin with, use a good pre-bath cream followed by a generous massage of vanishing cream after you’ve had your bath.
LIFESTYLE MEASURES
As much problematic as dry skin might be, it is always possible to maintain a fine-textured and healthy dry skin. All it takes is a few practical self-care measures and a little bit of precaution to maintain a problem-free dry skin.
In this section, we have listed out a brief set of simple guidelines to follow in your daily routine to help you take care of your dry skin.
- Try to take a bath with lukewarm water as far as possible. Try to spend a minimum amount of time in the shower.
- Avoid using harsh soaps for your bath or even for washing hands. Prefer to use skin cleansers such as Cetaphil Lotion, Oilatum-AD and Aquanil.
- Do not use deodorant soaps, as these tend to be very harsh and drying.
- Avoid heavy usage of a washcloth in cleansing. Blot or pat dry yourself gently when towel drying.
- Immediately after you’ve used water or a cleanser on yourself, apply a suitable moisturizer. Choose one of the products from Cetaphil, Moisture lot Eucerin Cream.
- Whenever you plan to face the sun, cover all the areas that are likely to be exposed to the sun and use an appropriate sunscreen with SPF 15 or greater. This will include all areas like the face, ears, hands and back of the neck.
- Only use All-free, Tide-free or Cheer-free detergents for all types of laundry. Do not use much of fabric softeners.
- Use cotton percale sheets on your bed.
- During the season when your home is centrally heated, use a humidifier to prevent any harmful impact on your skin.
Beauty Care
If you too suffer from dry skin and prefer using homemade products than going in or the commercial ones, we’ve got some good help for you.
You can try one of the beauty packs listed below for gaining relief. For best results, try and use each one of them several times, before you can know which ones suits you the best.
MORNING SKIN CLEANSER
This pack needs to be applied just 15 minutes prior to your bath every morning and comprises of:
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon orange juice
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- Few drops of rose water
- Few drops of lemon juice
BEAUTY MASK
The below ingredients should be mixed thoroughly and applied as a mask:
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon honey
- ½ teaspoon olive oil
- Few drops of rose water
Besides following a regular night moisturizing routine and taking a milk bath once in a week also helps considerably.
Read on as we discover the intensive impact age can have on your skin and how to manage the same.
Skin Care Guide – Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Skin Care
Part 1 – Human Skin
Part 2 – Acne: Types, Causes and Treatment
Part 3 – Dry Skin
Part 4 – Anti-aging Skin Care
Part 5 – Skin Care Regimen
part 6 – Facial Skin Care
Part 7 – Skin Diseases and Conditions
Part 8 – Cures, Remedies and Therapies