Everyone knows the air gets dry — inside and outside — in wintertime, and that can take a toll on your skin. But a Northern Virginia dermatologist has advice on how to keep your skin safe, and says you can probably fight off a lot of problems by looking at how you shower.
Dr. Al Damavandy, of District Dermatology, in McLean and Vienna, says winter can be tough on skin in general, and people who already have skin conditions face an even bigger challenge. The air outside is less humid, and indoor heating often sucks out even more moisture.
“There are a number of things that are good practices, whether it’s winter or not, but I think they’re extra important during the winter,” Damavandy says.
He says a long, hot shower can be enjoyable during winter, so when he asks patients about their shower habits, he notices “the shrinking in their voice and the sad look in their eyes as they realize you’re about to take some of life’s pleasures away from them.”
It’s not that bad, he says; you just need to make a few winter skin care adjustments.
“I think a lot of people would counteract a lot of the winter dryness if they make one of three modifications to showers,” the doctor says.
- Try showering at a lower temperature.
- Shorten the duration of your shower.
- If you use a liquid soap (even if it says it’s anti-itch) and a washcloth, switch to bar soap and don’t bother with a washcloth, a loofah, or anything abrasive.
“If you can make any of those three changes, you’re going to probably overcome most of the negative effects of winter on the skin,” Damavandy says.
That’s not all: While it’s important to moisturize, especially after a shower, Damavandy says it’s also important that you do it quickly.
Damavandy adds that the drying-off process at the end of a shower can leave your skin drier than it was before you got in, since the towel can take off some of the skin’s oils along with the water.
“One of the ways you counteract that is, within a few minutes of leaving the running water, when you sort of dry yourself, that’s the best time to apply moisturizer, because you still have the water content in the shower, before it has a chance to evaporate out,” he says.
If you’re using a thick, lipid-based moisturizer such as Vaseline, it can go on while there’s still some water on your skin. If you’re using a thinner, white lotion that’s ceramide-based, “Towel off, but then, immediately after toweling off, you’re putting it on, so you’re locking in that intraepidermal moisture and you’re not losing that through evaporation.”
Other Tips
Damavandy also advises against using scented detergents or fabric softeners. You may seem cleaner, but fragrances can take a toll on your skin, even if you don’t have a documented allergy or sensitivity to them: “That leads to a lot of dry skin irritation at best, and at worst you can get things like allergic contact dermatitis,” Damavandy says. “They’re inherently a bit irritating.”
He also advises against using a hot water bottle or an electric blanket in bed: They can cause irritation and discoloration.
(This can happen if you spend a lot of time with a hot laptop on your lap as well.)
It may not be summer, but it’s still sunscreen season, Damavandy says. Between the angle of the sun and the shorter days, there’s less UV exposure, “but it’s not gone. So if you’re going to be out in direct sunlight, you should still be careful about protecting yourself from UV rays” with sunscreen and a hat.
He also recommends room humidifiers, especially if you’re using space heaters to warm up individual rooms, and adds that most acne treatments dry the skin out, and thus moisturizing “aggressively” is important at this time of year. “You’re kind of fighting an uphill battle.”
And if you’re using any kind of prescription medication for a skin condition such as eczema, you’ll want to talk with your dermatologist about possibly moving up to something stronger or using more of what you have.
Feature image, Zoran Zeremski/stock.adobe.com
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