6 Skin Mistakes to Avoid This Winter

The weather outside may be a winter wonderland, but for your skin, winter can really be a horror. Between the cold of the outdoors and the dryness of the over-heated indoors, your skin faces some seriously harsh conditions. Don’t let these pitfalls hold your back from having your best skin this winter.

1. Not Getting Serious with Your Moisturizer

While you’re light summer moisturizer might have gotten you through fall, it’s probably not going to stand up to the freeze of winter. If your skin is oily, you can probably rest easy with the same moisturizer you’ve been slathering on every day. But if you’ve got normal to dry skin, you’ll want to change your moisturizer like you do your coat, get heavier as it gets colder. It’s not just winter’s cold, which often means moisture-sucking low humidity, that leaves your skin in need of moisture. It’s also going out in the cold and then come back into the heated (and often dry) indoors and those long, hot showers that so many people inadvisably take. All these things are a recipe for dry skin.Dermatologist Dr. Glenn Kolansy, M.D., recommends products with ceramides and hyaluronic acids during the day and occlusives like lanolin, petrolatum, and mineral oil at night (FutureDerm).

Think of things that restore your skin after they’re exposed to the harsh cold. These usually are a little thicker like Cetaphil Restoraderm Skin Restoring Moisturizer ($14.99, amazon.com) and CeraVe Moisturizing Cream ($17.25, amazon.com).

2. Licking Your Lips and Forgetting to Hydrate Them

Licking your lips is like putting water on your skin. Momentarily, it adds moisture, but without the aid of any emollients and moisturizers, it results in your lips, which don’t have much in the way of natural moisture like sebum, becoming even more dry. What happers is the water molecules from your saliva bond with the lipids and natural moisturizing factors on your skin. As they evaporate, the things that keep your skin hydrated tag along, leaving your skin drier than it was to start. Unfortunately, your lips also lack the sebaceous glands that the rest of your skin has, making them even more likely to become dry and flaky. The solution is to carry around some handy, dandy lip balm. But more than that, your best offense is a good defense.

First and foremost, I’d recommend doing some major healing at night, because that’s when your skin is prime for new ingredients. See, during the day, your core body temperature is up, and your skin temperature is low. But at night, when your core body temperature is low, your skin heats up, making conditions better for beneficial ingredients to absorb (Skin, Inc.). My personal favorite night combination is derma e Lip Repair Creme ($14.79, amazon.com) followed by some good, ol’ fashioned Vaseline 100% Pure Petroleum Jelly ($5.39, amazon.com).

For the day, you have a few options. If your lips are especially chapped, Dr. Hanan Taha recommends Carmex Lip Moisturizing Tube ($6.92 for three, amazon.com), as the combination of beeswax and mineral oil will add moisture while the menthol can dull some of the pain. This isn’t a good long-term solution, however, as the menthol and camphor could be irritating when used over an extended period. For the long, term, Dr. Taha recommends something like Eos Lip Balm Sphere Lemon Drop with SPF 15 ($4.49, amazon.com), which is moisturizing and contains SPF.

3. Hot, Hot, Hot Water for Too, Too, Too Long

Oh, yeah, nothing feels better in winter than a nice, long, hot, steamy shower. Except that afterwards your skin is likely to feel very, very dry. You see, hot water strips moisture from the skin faster than warm or cool water. A lengthy exposure to hot water will actually be more likely to break down the lipid barrier in skin (this about it, heat softens the skin more, as does a longer time spent in water).

Worse still, the hot showers can make irritants even worse. In this 1995 study on irritation from surfactants (sodium laurly sulfate, to be exact), researchers found that the hotter the water, the more irritated participants skin was (Contact Dermatitis). The skin barrier is compromised and softened, allowing ingredients to penetrate the skin better, meaning that irritating ingredients do more damage. In addition, these irritants are compounding the irritation that might come from being in overly hot water for an elongated time period.

You might not like the solution, which is to keep showers short — think 10 minutes or less — and to use warm, not hot, water. But your skin will definitely thank you for reducing the heat and time of your showers.

4. Sugar, Sugar, and More Sugar

Winter is a time when it seems like confectionary feats of beauty and sugar are literally everywhere. They’re inescapable. I mean, we actually build gingerbread houses that are just big, decorative monuments to our sweet tooths. It’s not just the obviously extra sugary stuff, either. Refined foods that fall high on the glycermic index can do a number on your skin in two ways: acne and aging. Yikes!

The glycemic index is a system that rates food on a scale from 1-100 based on how much these foods raise blood sugar after eating them (University of Sydney). When you get too much sugar in your body, it has some pretty profoundly negative effects on your skin — not to mention the rest of your body. Studies on Western populations, where acne is more prevalent, demonstrate that diets high in sugar and high-glycemic foods could be the culprit for this skin condition. A 2007 study demonstrated that putting teen acne sufferers on a low glycemic diet helped to reduce acne appreciably (The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition).

And in addition to sugar being a culprit for one earlier in life problem, it’s also one of the culprits for later in life issues. Sugar can age you in high amounts — though in moderation, it’s not bad for you or your skin. What happens when you overdo it on the sweet stuff is an increase in Advanced Glycation Endproducts (aka AGE). AGE occur during the processing of blood sugar, which is inevitably increased when you eat sugar. In a multistep process, AGE inevitably ends up cross-linking into neighboring proteins and causing the hardening of collagen. And while free radicals speed this up, antioxidants won’t prevent it (Ending Aging).But you don’t have to skin sugar entirely. Skipping out completely — on a sugar avoidant diet — can put the body in ketosis, increasing production of methylglyoxal, which is a crucial component in producing AGE (Annals of the New York Academy of Science).

The key here is the age old suggestion of moderation. Mindfulness is a good thing to practice this holiday season, remembering that dessert after a superb meal is OK, but mindlessly reaching into the chocolate bark and Bavarian cream puffs set out in a holiday buffet is going to cost you.

5. Retiring Your Sunnies for Winter

The other day I realized I’d left my sunglasses at home and I spent about a half hour squinting my way to work, which was especially bright because there was fresh, white snow reflecting the sun’s rays by what felt like appropximately a million times. Multiply that by an entire season and you’re looking at a fast track to periorbital wrinkles. Wearing sunglasses has immediate benefits — like not squinting and being able to see — but it also has long-term benefits. In addition to keeping you from squinting your way to wrinkles around your eyes, they also protect your eyes.

Even worse, the UV exposure is terrible for your eyes. In the short term, it can cause photokeratitis, also known as snow blindness, which is termporary blindness that comes from spending a lot of time around reflective surfaces like snow or tanning beds as a result from a bad burn to the cornea (Time; EPA). In the long-term, the effects are more severe. Over time, UV exposure can cause cataracts to form and cloud your vision. Untreated, cataracts can result in blindness. And while cancer of the actual eye is rare, it’s possible to get cancer in the skin around the eyes, such as the eyelids (MedlinePlus).

You absolutely need sunglasses with broad-spectrum protection that blocks 99% or more rays. If you really want to get a great pair of sunglasses, look for some that are polarized, which will help reduce glare significantly.

6. Skimping on Sunscreen, Particularly on the Slopes

Ever seen those old time images of women sunbathing with a reflector? Snow is like that, except instead of being confined to just the reflectors in your hands, it’s everywhere. Guess how many rays of sun get through the clouds in winter? 80%! And of those 80%, guess how many snow reflects? Another 80%! That’s a lot of sun damage for what feels like an overcast day (Skin Cancer Foundation). And — oh my gosh — even worse, for every 1000 feet you are above sea level, UV radiation goes up by 4-5%, so when you’re on the slopes it can go up by as much as 35-45% (National Weather Service).

And Dr. Kolansky said the biggest mistake that most of his patients make in winter is to think they’re safe without sunscreen. Even sitting out for a few hours can cause sunburn. He said that it’s pretty often that patients come in and say they’re surprised that they’ve got sunburn, because they were just sitting out at a sporting event for a few hours in overcast weather. The moral? There’s never a time when the sun is out and you do not need sunscreen. Just don’t even question it; slather it on every day.

Not only am I personally a fan of Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Dry-Touch Sunscreen ($14.37, amazon.com), but I’ve heard plenty of dermatologists rave about it, so I’d recommend making it a part of your daily routine all year round.

Bottom Line

Winter and the holidays can be tough on your skin, so get defensive with your skin care. Keep things moisturized, don’t lick your lips, take shorter, warmer showers, skip the sugar, keep rocking your sunscreen, and remember to always, always, always wear sunscreen.

Similar Posts You Might Enjoy…

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UV-Protection Still Important in Winter: Sunglasses and Sunscreen Still Matter

How Should You Take Care of Your Skin in Winter?: An Interview with Dr. Glenn Kolansky, M.D.

Want to Postpone Peri-orbital Wrinkles? Make Sure your Sunglasses are Polarized!

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