Dry Skin Care
During the winter months, people wear layers of clothes to protect their bodies from the elements, but they don't always take steps to protect their skin. Some may end up paying for this oversight: The lack of humidity in the air, combined with dry indoor heat, can lead to dry, itchy and even flaking or cracked skin.
And while a long hot shower sounds like just the thing to warm yourself up in cold weather, it might be just the wrong thing to do to your skin. Below, Robin Ashinoff, MD, chief of dermatologic and cosmetic surgery at Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack, New Jersey and an associate clinical professor of dermatology at New York University, discusses how to manage common dry skin conditions and how moisturizing skin daily can usually keep skin smooth and soft.
Take quick, cool showers. You don't want to sit in a bathtub because it will dehydrate your skin more. You want to use a mild soap, preferably a moisturizing soap. There are also body washes now that have petrolatum in them, and when you use a puff to apply the body wash, it will coat you with sort of a lipid barrier, and that may be helpful for a lot of people.
When people come out of the shower, they should pat, not rub themselves dry with a towel, and then they can start out with an over-the-counter moisturizer.
I also tell people when they get undressed to go to sleep, put moisturizer on again. And for bad hands, I tell people to keep a tube of moisturizer in their pockets.
People with dry skin should look for moisturizers that contain lactic acid, which is a humectant that draws moisture into the skin. There are over-the-counter products with lower concentrations of glycolic acid, which acts as an exfoliant, and moisturizers that contain urea, another humectant. Urea may help for badly dry skin, especially on cracked heels in the wintertime.
You want to look for ones that say "for heavy use" or "for body use" because the facial moisturizers typically have less petrolatum in them, so that people won't break out on their face. On your body, you care less about breakouts. You want something heavier. The best moisturizer, though we don't like it because it's not very cosmetically appealing, is something like Vaseline (petrolatum). It is very moisturizing, but it's very greasy.
And while a long hot shower sounds like just the thing to warm yourself up in cold weather, it might be just the wrong thing to do to your skin. Below, Robin Ashinoff, MD, chief of dermatologic and cosmetic surgery at Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack, New Jersey and an associate clinical professor of dermatology at New York University, discusses how to manage common dry skin conditions and how moisturizing skin daily can usually keep skin smooth and soft.
Take quick, cool showers. You don't want to sit in a bathtub because it will dehydrate your skin more. You want to use a mild soap, preferably a moisturizing soap. There are also body washes now that have petrolatum in them, and when you use a puff to apply the body wash, it will coat you with sort of a lipid barrier, and that may be helpful for a lot of people.
When people come out of the shower, they should pat, not rub themselves dry with a towel, and then they can start out with an over-the-counter moisturizer.
I also tell people when they get undressed to go to sleep, put moisturizer on again. And for bad hands, I tell people to keep a tube of moisturizer in their pockets.
People with dry skin should look for moisturizers that contain lactic acid, which is a humectant that draws moisture into the skin. There are over-the-counter products with lower concentrations of glycolic acid, which acts as an exfoliant, and moisturizers that contain urea, another humectant. Urea may help for badly dry skin, especially on cracked heels in the wintertime.
You want to look for ones that say "for heavy use" or "for body use" because the facial moisturizers typically have less petrolatum in them, so that people won't break out on their face. On your body, you care less about breakouts. You want something heavier. The best moisturizer, though we don't like it because it's not very cosmetically appealing, is something like Vaseline (petrolatum). It is very moisturizing, but it's very greasy.
posted by Madison @ 10:35 AM
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