During this fall/winter season, stay moisturized by taking care of your hair, skin, hands, lips, and more by following these helpful tips.Â
Hair
The lack of humidity in the air sometimes leads to a dry, static-y mess of a hairstyle. Not to mention, using styling products like curling irons, flat irons, and hair dryers only make it worse. This is the time of year when you should try a deep-conditioner. You can buy them from almost any brand of hair products and you should only use it once a week to avoid build-up in your hair. It’s also a good idea to use hair products when styling your hair that will add extra moisture into your hair – these are typically called “milks” or “leave-in conditioners” and help with dryness. You can put them in after you wash your hair or even before or after styling your hair when it’s dry.
If you’re looking to go a more natural, or DIY route, try making your own deep conditioners. Popular DIY hair treatments include: crushed avocado and mayo hair mask, soaking your hair in two egg yolks mixed with two teaspoons of olive oil, or saturating your hair simply by using coconut oil. All you have to do is massage the treatments into your scalp and hair, cover your hair with a shower cap, leave it in for 15-20 minutes, and then thoroughly rinse.
Skin
You know your skin is dry when it starts to look like the desert’s cracked floor – okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but that’s what all the lotion companies compare dry skin to. For the winter months you should probably use a different moisturizer than you do when it’s warmer outside. During the spring and summer your skin typically needs less help. Find a moisturizer that is designed to help specifically with dry or itchy skin. These lotions are typically thicker and therefore your skin retains the moisture for longer.
For extremely dry patches of skin, you can buy a small bottle of natural vitamin e oil. Just a small dab can fix a problem spot, but beware – it sometimes takes a while to soak into your skin and it could leave stains if rubbed on any fabrics.
Face
Your face is a different ballgame than the rest of your skin. It is more sensitive, therefore you have to be careful about putting body lotions on your face. But first things first, exfoliate 2-3 times a week to get that excess dry, flaky skin off your face. This can be done with an exfoliating face wash, such as an apricot scrub, or you can use an exfoliating sponge. After exfoliating, the best thing to do is to find a deep moisturizer for your face. Use this in the morning and at night – or use an overnight cream which works just as well.
Continue on to the next page for more moisturizing tips
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Hands & Cuticles
Because of excessive washing during the winter months, your hands can end up being the driest part of your body. Find a small bottle of hand cream. These are typically heavier moisturizers and they can sometimes be found for a very low price in the travel-sized sections of toiletries.
You can also rub small amounts of vitamin e oil onto your cuticles for extra protection against dryness.
Lips
Nothing is worse than chapped lips – especially when faced with cold, wintry winds. If you find yourself with excessively chapped or even cracked lips, the best thing to do is to apply straight Vaseline to your lips and let it soak in. You may need to do this a few times in order to repair your lips, but putting on too much can cause your lips to become flaky and peel.
For generally chapped lips, find a lip balm designed for that purpose – the fruity, tinted, or shimmery lip balms don’t always do the job. Also be careful with medicated lip balms. Although these can be helpful, some people are allergic to the medication in them and it can cause an itchy or painful rash around your mouth. Again, use lip balm as needed but not excessively. Over-application saturates your lips with the product and causes them to eventually peel and flake which can then be confused for chapped lips which leads to even more over-application – it’s not a good cycle to accidentally start.
Nose & Throat
The dry, moisture-less air inevitably dries out your nose and throat as much as it dries out your skin, and especially prominent in the morning (it’s not a fun thing to wake up to). If you are sick with a cold or sinus infection, Vick’s Vapor Rub can work wonders just by rubbing some under the nose. But if you’re just suffering from typical dryness, think about investing in a humidifier or vaporizer. The difference between the two is this – humidifiers use a disk to rapidly vibrate water particles and send them into the air while vaporizers actually use the water to make steam. Humidifiers can be a breeding ground for mold so they must be cleaned often. You also have to be careful with vaporizers so that you don’t get burned with the steam. Regardless of which one you choose, both do the same job of putting moisture into the air so that you can breathe in humid wonderfulness.
Happy moisturizing, collegiettes!