How to take care of your skin over the winter months
And now, talking to La Roche Posey dermatologist Dr Justine Hextall, we’ll be taking a look at how you can plan on better taking care of your skin this winter. Whether you have sensitive, oily, dry or combination skin, or even if you don’t know what any of that means and just want a bit of advice to keep your skin healthy, we have all you need to know.
Transcript
00:00 Being one of the biggest organs on our bodies, you might have thought things might be a little
00:06 bit more straightforward when it comes to skin care. But it being such a subjective
00:10 field with so much information out there, do we as a nation need a little bit more of
00:15 a helping hand when it comes to understanding skin health? With the winter comes dry and
00:20 flaky skin and if you're looking for some top tips on how to protect yourself in the
00:23 cold weather, you're in the right place.
00:26 Now with social media, there's a democratisation of beauty and skin advice and that's great.
00:33 But it's not always the advice that you as an individual need. And again, there's a survey
00:37 done recently, 14% of people have problems during the winter months with their skin.
00:41 And that's because we have central heating put on, the air is dry and cold, so we lose
00:46 moisture from our skin. So the first, the top tip I would say is use the most gentle
00:51 cleanser. We all over strip our skin, we all are obsessed by cleansing our skin. It's important
00:56 to clean our skin, but not to strip the skin barrier. So using a really lovely, gentle
01:01 sort of hydrating skin product to wash your skin is really important. And the way you
01:05 can tell is when you finish cleansing your skin, it should feel soft and hydrated, it
01:09 shouldn't feel dry and tight. Dry and tight does not mean deeply cleaned, it means a disruptive
01:14 skin barrier. And then use moisturisers, you're going to put something back into the skin
01:17 barrier. So products like shea butter, ceramides, hyaluronic acid, glycerin, all of these draw
01:23 moisture and hold moisture and protect the skin barrier. And that's really important
01:27 during the winter months. You want to make the skin barrier hydrated and robust so it
01:32 can weather that cold wind, that cold dry air basically.
01:36 Understanding your skin type might be difficult. So let's put things simply. If your skin stings
01:41 or hurts often when using new products, you might have sensitive skin. If you find you're
01:45 very shiny and greasy, you might have oily skin. Maybe your skin gets flaky, itchy or
01:49 rough, that suggests you have dry skin. And if you have several of these, you might have
01:54 combination skin. So now you're a little bit more clued up on where to start, what are
01:58 the next steps to unlocking your skin potential?
02:01 The most expensive skincare regime is one that doesn't work for your skin, that's going
02:05 to disrupt your skin, it's going to cause problems. Then you're going to spend time
02:08 and money getting your skin back on track. That is the whole point of this concept, is
02:12 that getting the right products in the right order will be very helpful to your skin. It's
02:17 going to make your skin feel robust and healthy in the long term, and you're going to end
02:21 up spending a lot less. Obviously, do not expose your skin to too much sun, don't get
02:26 sunburnt, etc. Remember that there's UV all the year round. So UVA, the longer wavelength,
02:32 which really damages our skin, we often call it UV ageing in dermatology circles, is around
02:37 all the year, will come through clouds, will come through windows. So using a really good
02:41 high factor broad spectrum sun cream to protect your skin, you'll really thank yourself in
02:45 the long term for how your skin will look towards your 50s, 60s and 70s. So remember
02:50 that there is UV all the year round, pollution will also damage your skin, so make sure you
02:54 clean your skin at the end of the day, but don't over strip your skin, use gentle products,
02:59 soothing products, and your skin will definitely thank you.