Winter is coming.
Fall is in full swing, which means the holidays and cooler weather are just around the corner. While many of us love this time of year and welcome this season, for some, the arrival of cold weather opens the door to an all too familiar nemesis: chronically dry skin.
What Causes Dry Skin?
Dry skin, also known as xerosis, is a very common skin complaint that we have likely all experienced at some point. Xerosis happens when your skin doesn’t have enough hydration and moisture. This may look like a rough, dry skin texture accompanied by flaking, scaling, and itching. To understand why dry skin happens, a basic understanding of skin structure is needed.
Our skin is divided into three main layers. The epidermis sits on top, followed by the dermis and subcutis beneath it. The outermost layer of the epidermis is called the stratum corneum. It’s made of an intricate balance of lipids and proteins. A healthy stratum corneum is vital to maintaining your skin’s natural function as a barrier, ensuring that harmful substances stay out while preventing dryness caused by excess water loss through your skin. When that intricate balance is disrupted and the amount of lipids in the stratum corneum decreases, its ability to bind with water doesn’t work, and water is lost through your skin.
Disruptions to the skin barrier leading to dryness can happen due to a medical diagnosis, such as eczema, or as a side effect of certain medications. They can also happen due to natural processes like aging. Environmental factors and personal care habits that can contribute to dry skin include:
- Prolonged showers/baths with hot water
- Showering too often (bathing/showering more than once daily)
- Use of harsh soaps
- Dry climates with low humidity
- Cold or windy climates
- Chronic sun damage
- Smoking
How to Manage Your Dry Skin
If you want to tackle dry skin, the key is to keep it well-moisturized! There are many ingredients to look for in skin care products that can help you. Ceramides are naturally occurring lipids or fats in the skin and play an important role in the structure and function of the stratum corneum. You can think of them as the glue that holds skin cells together, preventing water loss through your skin. Using a moisturizer with ceramides can help lock in moisture and hydration. There are several ceramides, and many moisturizing creams contain more than one kind to offer the best results. You can also look for products that utilize other moisturizing ingredients, such as hyaluronic acid, squalene, petrolatum, glycerin, and niacinamide. Used together, these ingredients are even more effective in achieving smooth, hydrated skin.
Here are some additional tips to manage dry skin:
- Moisturize at least twice daily.
- Apply a ceramide moisturizer to damp skin immediately after showering, bathing, or hand-washing. This works to trap moisture in your skin rather than allow it to evaporate.
- Use mild, fragrance-free soaps and cleansers.
- Take short (10-minute), lukewarm showers no more than once daily.
- Minimize exposure to fragrances (perfumes, diffusers, scented soaps), which may irritate dry skin.
- Consider buying a humidifier, particularly for use during the winter.
If you have dry skin severe enough to cause itching, bleeding, or discomfort that is not responding to over-the-counter moisturizers, I recommend scheduling an appointment with a dermatologist to rule out any underlying medical condition or medication side effect.