Men's Life Today

Best Ways to Beat Winter Skin

By Dr. Josh Zeichner

Winter festivities may include snowball fights and sledding, but winter weather may be a slippery slope for your skin.

When the weather gets cold, humidity goes down. Also, our heaters give off dry heat, making our air at home even dryer. So what does that mean for our skin? Dry air makes our skin more sensitive than it is during the rest of the year. While our bodies produce natural oils that moisturize the skin, this may not be enough during the winter.

Dry skin leads to breaks in the skin barrier, which put the skin at risk for allergies or irritation from the environment.

Wondering how you can help your skin avoid the winter chill? Here are four things you should be doing:

1. Take short, lukewarm showers, lasting less than 10 minutes.

2. Moisturize daily. The best time to lock in moisture is right after you shower, but moisturize as often as you’d like. Plain petroleum jelly is the best product out there to prevent water loss from the skin. Since it’s greasy, it’s not for everyone, so you may prefer a moisturizing cream that contains petrolatum and rubs in all the way.

3. Use fragrance-free soaps for your skin and detergents for your clothes. If you are overly dry, consider using soap only on your face, under your arms and in the groin area. The rest of your body can be washed with water alone.

4. Invest in a humidifier to help replace the moisture in the air. I recommend using a cool-mist machine rather than one that gives off hot steam, so you don’t have to worry about burning yourself if you touch it.