Your skin may become scratchy, red, and inflamed from cold, dry air. With these professional suggestions for keeping your skin's natural hydration, you can combat dry winter skin.

Winter Skin Care

Your skin can suffer greatly in the winter, and it may seem impossible to get away from that too: When it's cold and windy outdoors, your skin becomes raw and red, and when it's hot inside, both the air and your skin lose moisture.

How Does Winter Affect Your Skin?

Wintertime sees a drop in fibrogrin, one of the most crucial proteins in our skin for preserving the barrier function and natural moisturising agents. Along with ageing and hormonal changes, it also declines. This contributes to dryness and the aggravation of skin issues for many people, along with the dry cold weather, low humidity, and interior heating that dehydrates our skin.

The Top 10 Winter Skin Care Tips

1. Moisturize Frequently

Thick moisturizers containing Ceramides, Hyaluronic Acid, and Petrolatum will help retain and seal moisture within your skin. Choose thicker creams over lighter lotions — the thicker the moisturizer, the better. A few favorites are CeraVe Moisturizing Cream, Neutrogena Norwegian Formula Hand Cream, and good old-fashioned Vaseline.

Winter Skin Care

2. Use hydrating cleaners instead

Avoid using abrasive cleansers on your face during the winter. Any cleanser that leaves you feeling "squeaky clean" is, as a general rule, dehydrating the skin. Use mild, moisturizing, fragrance-free cleansers to remove makeup and cleanse your skin every day. To keep skin clean and moisturized, try products like CeraVe Hydrating Cleanser, BMD Gentle Cleanse, and LaRoche Posay Toleraine Hydrating Cleanser.

Winter Skin Care

3. Even skin that is prone to acne may require extra care throughout the winter 

Apply moisturizing, fragrance- and oil-free moisturizers on a regular basis in addition to your topical acne treatments to help reduce excessive dryness and peeling. For skin that is prone to breakouts, CeraVe Facial Moisturizer, Neutrogena HydroBoost Moisturizer, and BMD Moisture Lux moisturiser are all excellent choices.

4. Take fewer hot baths.

Wintertime makes us want to take long, hot showers, but doing so would only make our skin even drier. Use lukewarm water and take brief, 15-minute showers to prevent irritating your skin.

Winter Skin Care 

5. Steer clear of harsh cleaners and perfumed items.

Scrubs, loofahs, and bath mitts can aggravate dry skin and cause flare-ups of eczema. If you have a history of dry skin or eczema, stay away from these. Use fragrance-free soaps and body washes like Aveeno Body Wash, Cetaphil Cleanser, or Dove Unscented Bar Soap.

6. Use Exfoliation for Soft, Smooth Skin.

Without gentle exfoliation, dry skin will continue to be dry. Avoid using harsh scrubs and choose lactic acid moisturisers instead, like AmLactin or CeraVe SA, which simultaneously exfoliate dead skin cells and draw moisture into the skin.

7. Carry lip balm.

Use a hydrating lip balm with SPF every morning and throughout the day to seal in moisture to prevent dry lips from becoming chapped and burnt while having fun in the winter. Excellent choices are Vaseline Lip Therapy, Elta MD Lip Balm with SPF, and Coola Liplux Lip Balm with SPF.

8. Watch Out for Rough Skincare Products

Be mindful of substances like retinoids, exfoliating acids, and vitamin C that could cause irritation. To be able to take these topicals continuously during the winter without creating excessive irritability, you might need to reduce the potency of them. As winter approaches, come see us at Bryn Mawr Dermatology to modify the potency of your topical regimen so that you can still benefit from these powerful anti-aging chemicals without overdrying your skin.

9. Sunscreen is still necessary!

UVA rays are still present and can cause ageing even though the sun's UVB rays aren't as powerful in the winter. Not to mention, even when it's cloudy outside, shovelling snow or skiing can result in terrible sunburns from the sun's rays reflecting off the snow and through the clouds. Don't forget to reapply SPF 30+ if you're engaging in any outside winter activities. Every morning, apply a moisturiser with sunscreen built in, such as Neutrogena Daily Defense Moisturizer with SPF, CeraVe AM Moisturizer with sunscreen, LaRoche Posay Mineral Sunscreen Fluid, or EltaMD UV Daily Broad-Spectrum Sunscreen.

Winter Skin Care

10. Avoid standing too near heat.

The traditional method of staying warm on a chilly day is to huddle up next to the heater, yet doing so is the fastest way to dry up the skin. It can exacerbate dry skin for those who already have it and even make dry spots emerge. Therefore, it's important to restrict the amount of time spent in front of the heater and to layer on the warmth.

Winter Skin Care