Drying Out This Winter

The title of this week’s blog does not mean I am checking into the Betty Ford Clinic.  For lack of better words,  my entire epidermis is drying up, desperately sucking up any and all available moisture in the air and my mucous membranes are turning to sand.  The cold winter we are experiencing this year, combined with home heating, makes for one arid body and is the cause of the lack of moisture that my body is craving.

Chicago, along with other parts of the country, have been vixen-ed by the “Polar Vortex”.  See all the arctic air settling down along the Great Lake areas?  That is us.  The cold is dangerous and bitter with temperatures hovering near zero accompanied by wind chills way below zero.

WHAT DOES THE POLAR VORTEX HAVE TO DO WITH DRY SKIN?
Nothing really but read on…
When water evaporates, it is drawn into the air which “holds” it.  The warmer and drier the air, the more water it can hold.  As air becomes cooler in the winter, it loses its water-holding capacity, so the air becomes dry.  That is okay when you are outside, because even though the air is dry, it can’t draw much water from your skin, since its capacity is low anyway. This is not what causes the skin to become dry.

Now for the real culprit….
The real culprit is when you come inside.  Given the bitter cold temperatures we are experiencing this winter, most furnaces are running full time.   Inside air, warmed up by your home’s / work building’s heating system, has a huge capacity for water, and therefore sucks the water out of your skin like a leech.  The same principle can be applied to your wood furniture and wood floors, where the lack of moisture dries  wood out easily.

What to do about this?
RUN A HUMIDIFIER

For best indoor comfort and health, a relative humidity of about 45 percent is ideal. At temperatures typically found indoors, this humidity level makes the air feel approximately what the temperature indicates, and your skin and lungs do not dry out and become irritated.  Most buildings can not maintain this level of humidity without help. In the winter, relative humidity is often much lower than 45 percent.  Any time the temperature outside is below freezing (which has been frequent this winter), relative humidity inside will be below 20 percent unless you do something to increase the humidity. That something else would be a humidifier which helps to maintain a comfortable level of humidity.

Other Tips To Help with Dry Skin….

• Avoid hot showers and baths, and use a gentle cleanser

• Moisturize your skin frequently

• Shower then shave.  Men, shave after you get out of the shower. Women, save shaving for last while in the shower. This way the hairs are softer and your pores are open. Be sure to always moisturize after shaving!

• Exfoliate to get rid of dead skin cells.  I use Clarisonic on my face and it is worth every penny.

• Grease up your feet.  I have been doing this for years.  Once out of the shower, I grease up my feet with Vaseline or cocoa butter and wear a pair of socks for about an hour.  You can also do this right before bed.  Works like a charm!

• Protect your lips.   I use a bag balm product called  Udder Balm.  Believe it or not, Bag Balm is used to soothe irritation on cows’ udders after milking.

• Udo Oil.  The jury might be out on this one but Udo Oil works for me.   Udo Oil is a certified organic blend of unrefined edible oils and contains Essential Fatty Acids (EFA’s). The EFA’s  in Udo’s Oil play an important role in great-looking, healthy skin. An imbalance in EFAs can make your hair lackluster and cause your nails to break or crack.  Given the dryness of indoor air in the winter, Udo Oil has helped to repair my nails in this dry heat along with my hair.  I buy the Udo 3-6-9 blend and consume one tablespoon daily.
  

MYTH:  MOISTURIZE FROM WITHIN
I have always heard that drinking 8 classes of water per day will help with skin dryness.  I am a water drinker and I have not found this to be the case.  To quote Katie Rodan, a dermatologist in the San Francisco Bay area and a coauthor of Write Your Skin a Prescription for Change, humans aren’t like plants. Our skin doesn’t perk up when we consume water,”   In fact, when you ingest it, “water doesn’t go straight to the skin,” she says. “It goes through the intestines, gets absorbed into your bloodstream, and is filtered by kidneys. Then it hydrates cells.” When it comes to moisturizing skin, drinking water falls short.  Just stick to a great moisturizing lotion.

I have been applying these principles listed above – especially the Udo Oil and the humidifier –  for the past few months, and I definitely see an improvement.  Please comment on what has been working for you and let’s overcome this cold winter together one dry skin tip at a time!