Even if you don’t live in the far north, winter anywhere can wreak havoc on your skin. The worst winter weather offender is lack of humidity in the air outside. Dry air draws moisture from skin causing dryness and flakiness. Cranking up the central heating makes the situation even worse. The heat means even less humidity, which results in more water evaporating from your skin. To counteract dryness in your home, consider getting several humidifiers and placing them in different rooms. Humidifiers will put moisture depleted by central heating back into the air.
Going from the cold outside to a warm home also can take its toll, causing broken veins and skin redness. And while it’s tempting to consider a hot bath or shower to ward off the cold, the heat can dissolve the skin’s protective barrier. You’ll want to shower or bath in lukewarm to avoid stripping oils away from the skin.
And don’t think because it’s cold that you don’t need sunscreen. Winter sun, combined with glare from snow, can damage skin. You’ll want to use sunscreen not only on your face but also on your hands before going out of door. And speaking of hands, don’t forget to wear gloves. WebMD points out that skin on hands is thinner than other parts of the body and has fewer oil glands; so it’s harder to keep hands moist in cold, dry weather.
Moisturize and exfoliate
While you want to moisturize as part of your daily skin regimen throughout the year; it’s particularly important to use moisturizer in the cold months. Apply moisturizer immediately after you bath or shower. Moisturizer applied to damp skin helps seal the dampness into the skin. When it comes to the type of moisturizer, you’ll want richer creams and maybe even some oils.
In the colder months, skin cells dehydrate and die out faster so you’ll also want to exfoliate to buff away dead cells .When you exfoliate, you actually are removing dead skin cells that lie on the surface of the skin and can clog your pores. Removing these dead cells makes skin softer and smoother and unblocks pores. Also once these dead skin cells are removed, it’s easier for facial or body care products to penetrate the surface of the skin
Another benefit of exfoliation is collagen production. Collagen is the protein in skin that gives it strength and durability. When you remove the top layer of dead skin, you encourage the skin to produce new cells, which help to stimulate collagen production.
Another way to stimulate collagen production is with retinol. Retinol products such as True Results Retinol Active Skincare help skin look its best. Retinols achieve their anti-aging results by protecting skin from free radicals and prompting surface skin cells to turn over and die rapidly so that new skin cells can grow.