Cracked Skin: Why Are Hand Creams Important in Winter?
Did you know that our skin is the largest organ of the body, involved in endocrine and immune response, protecting our insides from intruders like bacteria and viruses, radiation, and pollution? It also receives sensory information, stores fat, vitamins, and water, and helps regulate our body temperature.
With all these critical roles, you would imagine humans would be more careful with their hands. But that's not the case at all. Especially in harsh winter conditions, most people's hands feel more like cracked leather than smooth and soft skin.
If you are concerned about your hands in the winter, don't worry - you are not just being vain. It's important to take care of the skin on your hands carefully. Read on for some more reasons why hand creams are so important in wintertime.
Winter Can Be Especially Drying for Skin
Have you ever wondered why winter is so drying on the skin? Well, it's the combination of cold harsh temperatures outside with the drying heat inside that does the damage. The problem here is that most folks don't take preventative measures so when there's a problem, it can take longer to solve than if we have just been mindful to begin with.
For the past 25 years, I have been relaying the importance of hand care because we all have that lightbulb moment when we look down at our hands and realize "I have my mom's hands." As much as we love our moms, aging hands are the last thing we want. The best way to avoid that is to prevent it!
So if you're like us and live in a place where winter lasts for more than 6 months a year, read on to learn some of our favorite tips and tricks to prevent dry, cracked hands during the cold months of the calendar.
Cold Enough To Wear a Hat - It’s Cold Enough To Wear Gloves
You might not realize this but when it's cold enough for you to wear a hat, it means that it is absolutely cold enough to wear gloves. Wearing gloves will ensure the skin on your hands won't get dried out and susceptible to cracks, and other infections. Keep them around your car, purse, wherever you may need a pair to make them easy to remember.
If you're going to be out in the elements for an extended period of time, slap on a soothing salve from SpaRitual to help you moisturize while they're covered. Multi-tasking at its finest!
Stop Using Hot Water!
Cut the hot showers and limit your exposure to hot water when you wash your hands or the dishes. If hand-washing is your thing, make sure to wear gloves during and lather on the moisture after. Our favorite post-shower moisturizer from Savor Beauty.
Hand Care at the Same Level of Facial Care
We need to start using the same rulebook for our hands that we follow for our face. Exfoliation, hydration, moisture, AND sunblock! Unless you want your skin on your hands to look 30 years older than you are, it's time to invest in quality care of your hands. SpaRitual has an entire system for hand care that delivers hyaluronic acid, beautiful moisture, and quality ingredients to decrease the signs of aging.
Nix The Fragrance
Artificial fragrances are delivered in alcohols. The drying kind. So ditch your products with artificial fragrance in them as they will dehydrate your skin. Not to mention make your skin more susceptible to UV damage. Keep your fragrance application to your hair and clothes to avoid the pitfalls of it on your skin directly. Fragrance free creams and balms will soothe winter skin more effectively without any burning or stinging.
If You Have a Skin Condition Like Eczema, Take Extra Care of Your Hands
It goes without saying that skin care routines while dealing with a chronic or seasonal condition depend on prevention to keep the skin healthy and issue-free. The same holds true for caring for the skin on our hands. Dry cracked skin coupled with eczema or dermatitis amplifies the symptoms of both, so make sure not to compound the issue by allowing your skin's immune response to fail due to some as preventable as dryness.
Don’t Drink Dehydrating Drinks Like Caffeinated Tea or Coffee
I love to cozy up with a delicious hot coffee drink from my local coffee spot, but all those cozy drinks come at the expense of our skin. Sugar and caffeine are dehydrating to our skin and when we couple that with the dryness of the season, it's a recipe for disaster. So to mitigate the impacts of those favorite winter warmers, you either need to reduce the dehydrators or boost your hydration. Caffeine-free green tea and herbal teas are an excellent way to build up your hydration internally. A favorite of ours in terms of anti-oxidants is Southern Comfort Herbal Tea. It's anti-inflammatory and the perfect spicy base for a golden milk tea latte.
Cracked Skin Is a Preventable Problem
The bottom line here is that this is a preventable issue for most of us. We just need to stop treating our hands like second-class parts of our body and start rewarding all their hard work with hand care that matches their importance. Anti aging hand serums and lotions will not only protect and moisturize your skin cells, they will also help your skin on your hands look younger longer.