For the past two weeks, I've been thinking and thinking and really thinking about a cute, quirky title for the post I knew I'd be writing soon on how to avoid the Winter dry-out.
After going through iteration after iteration, playing with word couplings, coming up with fun-to-say alliterative combinations and running through the potential plays on words using various forms of cold-weather onomatopoeia, I decided enough was enough and that this post, with or without a quirky title, needed to be published. And by the looks of it, Ms. Flaky von Dryington, my sage advice on this subject couldn't have come at a more critical time.
So, in a very sobering, straightforward fashion, here are 10 tips I strongly recommend you follow to avoid the Winter flakes.
The skin flakes. Get it?
(clearing throat)
Without further ado...
1. Take warm (not hot) showers and baths
2. Use a lotion-infused or gel-based soap like this
3. Reduce body exfoliation to at most once per week
4. Pat yourself dry with a plush towel, don't wipe dry with a rough-textured one
5. As always, moisturize from head-to-toe immediately out of the shower
6. Swap your regular body lotion for a more intense formula like this or this
7. Keep travel-size bottles of this more intense formula in your desk at work and in every handbag you regularly use (NEVER scratch -- just rub some into your skin to relieve the itch)
8. Increase your full-body moisturizing regiment from two to three times a day (I tend to apply before work, when I return home and just before bed)
9. Slip on something made of a natural, soft-to-the-touch material that will act as a barrier between your skin and the nubby wool of your turtleneck or the rough texture of your jeans
10. If your skin is still dry after following tips 1-9, don't be too proud to see a dermatologist for a more medically informed perspective on the situation. We all go at one point or another.
After going through iteration after iteration, playing with word couplings, coming up with fun-to-say alliterative combinations and running through the potential plays on words using various forms of cold-weather onomatopoeia, I decided enough was enough and that this post, with or without a quirky title, needed to be published. And by the looks of it, Ms. Flaky von Dryington, my sage advice on this subject couldn't have come at a more critical time.
So, in a very sobering, straightforward fashion, here are 10 tips I strongly recommend you follow to avoid the Winter flakes.
The skin flakes. Get it?
(clearing throat)
Without further ado...
1. Take warm (not hot) showers and baths
2. Use a lotion-infused or gel-based soap like this
3. Reduce body exfoliation to at most once per week
4. Pat yourself dry with a plush towel, don't wipe dry with a rough-textured one
5. As always, moisturize from head-to-toe immediately out of the shower
6. Swap your regular body lotion for a more intense formula like this or this
7. Keep travel-size bottles of this more intense formula in your desk at work and in every handbag you regularly use (NEVER scratch -- just rub some into your skin to relieve the itch)
8. Increase your full-body moisturizing regiment from two to three times a day (I tend to apply before work, when I return home and just before bed)
9. Slip on something made of a natural, soft-to-the-touch material that will act as a barrier between your skin and the nubby wool of your turtleneck or the rough texture of your jeans
10. If your skin is still dry after following tips 1-9, don't be too proud to see a dermatologist for a more medically informed perspective on the situation. We all go at one point or another.
