Dry skin can result from many reasons, and sometimes not the ones you might expect. Salt water, for example, can dry out your skin because of the sodium content in the water, even though your skin is immersed in water. The sun's rays can also drain your skin or nutrients and water, resulting in burned, cracked or flaky skin. There are several things you can do to nourish your skin and restore its health.
Drink Water
It seems simple, but drinking water can have a significant impact on your skin's health. Water helps your skin rehydrate itself by the extra water provided to it through your bloodstream. This is a good method of treating dry skin when other parts of your body are also dehydrated. Drink at least eight glasses of water daily to gradually restore hydration to your skin.
Moisturize Your Skin
Moisturizing lotions can help lubricate the top of the skin, curbing and preventing any damage to the epidermis, which results from poor hydration. Moisturizing can help in other ways, topically supplying nutrients that your skin uses to retain hydration and maintain skin health while also locking in moisture already residing in your skin, eliminating further loss of hydration. This can be particularly valuable if you live in a climate with low humidity and/or high temperatures, and particularly if you endure high exposure to sunlight.
Reduce Shower Temperature and Length
Taking a shower may seem like a good way to blast your skin with water and force rehydration, but it can actually have a negative effect when overdone. Taking hot showers can heat the skin, forcing further moisture loss and sometimes damaging the skin by the prolonged exposure to heat. Long showers also have a similar effect. Take care of your skin by limiting shower time to 15 minutes or less and bathing in warm, not hot, water.
Use Humidifiers
When the air in your home is dry, you are making it harder for your skin to maintain its moisture. This prolonged exposure to dry air can dry out the skin over time, but you can treat this by using a humidifier in your home to increase the presence of water in the air, making the environment more suitable to dry skin. If you can only fit a humidifier into one location, use it in your bedroom at night, giving your skin eight full hours to recover from the long, dry stretches during the day.
