OH! Magazine - Australian Version May 2018 | Page 20

( Health )
5 STEPS TO HEALTHIER SKIN
THIS WINTER
Pharmacist and Founder of Itchy Baby Co, Julia Simmonds share her tips for
managing dry skin as we head into winter.
ooler weather takes the moisture
out of the air, which means what is
normally at our skin’s disposal for surface
hydration is no longer available. Add a bit
of wind factor blowing at the skin which
takes hydration away at the surface, and
to top it off, then walk inside to indoor
heating which then forces the water in
your skin to quickly evaporate and there
you have it ­– dry, flakey and itchy skin.
C
What happens when we scratch dry, itchy
skin?
Scratching the skin breaks down its
barrier, which means hydration can
escape more easily causing dryness, and
irritants which are lying on the skin’s
surface now have the opportunity to
cause inflammation. Both of these can
trigger us to keep scratching. Once you
start scratching it’s hard to stop and so
more damage keeps happening to skin’s
barrier.
Here are five ways to help keep your skin
healthy this winter.
1. Keep your baths and showers warm not
hot, short not long
Hot water takes away the skin’s own
protective oils exposing the skin’s pores
to let hydration escape and the longer you
expose your skin to water the more oil it
takes away. Lukewarm showers or baths
do not strip the skin as efficiently, leaving
it more protected at its surface.
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OH! MAGAZINE ( MAY 2018 )
2. Moisturise immediately after you get
out of the shower or bath top of the list, or close to it, choose a
different one.
Soft skin will absorb moisture into its
surface more readily, and after a shower
or bath is when your skin is its softest.
Applying moisturiser within two minutes
of getting out of the bath or shower will
give the skin the best chance of getting
the most out of trhe time you take to
moisturise. 4. Layer your clothes, and reduce the
amount of time you use your indoor heating
3. Change your moisturiser when the
season changes
We are told to change our toothbrush at
the beginning of each season, so change
your moisturiser too. A thicker cream or
ointment with very little or no water will
stay on the skin for longer stopping water
escaping at the skin’s surface. It will also
melt into your skin over a longer period of
time for sustained hydration. When you
choose your moisturiser, look at the
ingredients and if water or aqua is at the
We can’t help exposing our skin to the
outdoors, but we can control what we
expose it to indoors. Choosing to keep
warm inside by layering clothing is much
better for keeping moisture in the skin
than heating. Heating forces the hydration
in the skin to reach the surface where it
then quickly evaporates.
5. Layer cotton blankets rather than using
flannelette blankets or a heavy doona
Sounds strange to talk about this for
cooler weather, but even when the nights
are cold, if hot air is trapped close to the
skin by sleeping under heavy doonas, it
increases itching and irritation which will
aggravate dry skin and conditions such as
eczema and psoriasis.