Do Remember
- Be cool. Take lukewarm or cool showers. This may not sound very appealing if you like lounging in the hot steam, but your skin will thank you. Hot water draws out skin’s valuable oils, which will dry out your skin.
- Be selective about soap. Pretty, perfume-laden soap may look and smell nice, but it can leave your skin screaming. Try soaps with fat or oil in them, such as Dove or Basis. Liquid soaps tend to be milder than bar soaps.
- Douse while you’re still damp. Slathering lotion on damp skin is your best bet for retaining moisture. When you get out of the bath or shower, pat, don’t rub, to get rid of just enough water so you don’t leave a wet trail to the sink. Then spread on your lotion while you’ve still got droplets clinging to your skin. This will help seal in the moisture.
- Avoid alcohol. That means both the kind you drink and the kind you use to cleanse. Drinking alcohol can cause your body to soak up water from skin. Limit yourself to no more than 2 ounces a day to keep your skin healthy. Alcohol-based cleansing products (such as astringents) dry out your skin, too. It’s best to skip them altogether.
- Watch the sun. You put your wet sneakers outside to dry out. Well, just as the sun evaporates moisture from your water-soaked shoes, it evaporates moisture from your skin. Though a little bit of that evaporation is healthy (sweat evaporating keeps you cool when you exercise), too much can be a problem. So protect your skin by wearing sunscreen and moisturizing lotions if you spend lots of time in the sun.