Dry Skin in Winter!
 

I'm convinced that, some morning, I'm going to wake up with just piles of dust on the ends of my arms. My hands are just dying! All my knuckles are cracked!

Where are your best tips for keeping your skin healthy during the cold months?

I resist the urge to take super hot showers, since the hotter they are the more dry my skin is.

I also moisturize with coconut oil, the kind you cook with. I keep it in the fridge so it doesn't go bad, and slather it on right after a shower. It helps lots, and makes me think of warmer places!

I agree on the hot showers...but it is soooooo hard....cuz they feel good. I also think drinking more water helps. I am not a big water person...so I am trying to drink more water!

I had this problem when I visited my sister during Thanksgiving (flew from FL to NYC ><)

solution?

lathered cocoa butter on my face at night
washed my face with face wash for sensitive dry skin
semi dried my face/body and put on lotion when skin was still moist
stayed hydrated
re-applied lotion during the day

Susan, since you're a nurse, you'll probably have to give up on the nice, moist hands in the winter--I know you wash every time you turn around!! Avon used to make some kind of lotion that was supposed to stand up to several hand-washings, but I don't remember which one it was. Maybe Silicone Glove?

We even have a bacteriostatic lotion that is supposed to support our waterless hand cleaners. It helps but oh man!

Maybe I should have asked Santa for cocoabutter ;)

Try Mary Kay Satin Hands. The best hand treatment I've ever had. Just keep the items next to the sink and use when needed. I also use the hand cream religiously.

I suffer from a horribly dry skin on my legs in winter. I tried a lot of different moisturizers but the only thing that works for me is the Body Shop's Coconut Body Butter. It is pricey ($22 per tub) but it works wonders on my skin.

I've been wanting to try that. Does it make your sheets greasy?

I use Cetaphil moisturizer in the jar. They also have lotion, soap and body wash. It's wonderful and I don't have to apply it every time I wash my hands. It is allergen-free and unscented.

I slather my hands with olive oil and then wear surgical gloves for an hour or so. The oil disappears completely and even the insides of the gloves aren't greasy. Works fine for me. Now if I had surgical socks, I could do my feet!

Get a humidifier for your house or for the room you spend the most time in. It helps, a lot.

Our last one broke and my hands, legs, well actually, all of me is very dry! I need to go out and buy a new one. Ah, living in the high desert.

I have a pair of white cotton spa gloves that I wear to sleep at night when I feel this problem starting. I slather L'Occitane hand creme with shea butter on my hands & put on the gloves before I go to bed. (I think the gloves are more important than the moisturizer brand.) I have to watch it with hand cremes. I am allegeric to lanolin & that is a favorite ingredient in moisturizers. It makes my hands break out in a rash & itch.

My skin is so dry that it will crack and bleed. I found the "wonder cream" a couple of years ago,,,Amlactin. It used to be by prescription, but is now over the counter.I get it at Walgreen's. My skin is soft and smooth all over now. It does not smell very good, so I add essential oils to it, like Patchouli, lavender etc.

Drinking lots of water and adding ground flax seeds to food really helps too.

I used to love them but they discontinued my Pink Grapefruit scent and I am heartbroken. I loved the body cream in that scent! I haven't tried the triple moisture stuff; I'll have to give it a try. My legs especially are dry this time of year.

Not at all. It really doesn't take much oil, just warm it in your hands first or you'll end up with a huge mess.

Neutrogena Norwegian formula hand cream works really well for very dry hands (it's even improved cracked fingertips for me), I think for less dry hands it could probably be a bit too much. And I can recommend Avon foot cream too, it's very moisturising but not greasy. I also like Nivea (not sure if available outside Europe) shower oil because it's not as drying as normal bodywash, but I think it smells a bit strange.

I recently discovered this new Olay product that is called Shower lotion or something like that. U put it on in the shower after you use soap or shower gel. Ive noticed a big difference using that. Also baby oil is great on my legs. I live in CO and its super dry and that really helps.

SHEA BUTTER. The African miracle. I mixed pure shea butter (usually have to go to a health food store) with jojoba or avocado oil and put it on after I shower, with skin still damp and dress for bed. I wear thick cotton socks and cotton gloves to trap the moisturizing ingredients.

I give a great big second for the tip about olive oil and gloves. I even use EVOO in the shower on my legs and arms and wherever I get dry, and it really seems to soothe my sensitive skin and it soaks in and just really seems to be the closest thing to my own natural skin oils that I've found. I really believe EVOO is the best thing ever for skin. And it's not expensive at all, if you consider that a bottle of it should last you a year or longer. The expensive stuff seems to work best for me, rather than the bargain EVOO's. Don't know why.

Another thing I do that sounds gross is, after the olive oil, sometimes I glop on some plain old vaseline. It works as an occlusive agent to seal moisture into my legs which tend to get dry and uncomfortable in the winter.

If you can stand the smell (it's kind of stinky at first, but fades to a kind of feint sandalwood fragrance), The Body Shop has a really great Hemp hand lotion. My husband gets terribly dry, cracked hands and it works well for him. I didn't like the smell at first, but it's grown on me.

And there's always good old Aquaphore.

I am a fanatic with lotion! I love and vaseline brand lotion or dove. NOTHING scented. No matter what, I always, always put lotion on my full body after I take a shower. As well as every time I wash my hands I put lotion on to above my elbows. I never have dry skin. If my lips start to get dry or crackly I know I am not drinking enough water, so I chug a few cups.

Lotion is the answer. :dizzy:

i like dove's cream oil lotion, and i just bought olay's body wash with lotion ribbons and I have seen a marked improvement in just a week of using that soap. it's amazing- the skin on my chest was dry and flaking before and now it's not.

i just read an article somewhere that drinking water to improve skin was a myth.. can't remember where i read it though.

The past few years I've had dry skin, especially on my legs, and it gets really bad in winter. The best luck I've had is with a thick lotion or cream, lately I've been using Vaseline intensive rescue extra strength lotion. It has a nice scent (only one I avoid is the body butter of the same name). I put this on as soon as I turn the water off in the shower, even on my face (only in winter. I use a face moisturizer in the summer), then I let it soak in while I brush my teeth and brush my hair, then pat dry. A big plus with this is it makes your towel into a sort of air freshener since some of the scent from the lotion you're using will be absorbed.

I agree..bath and body works. I sometimes hate paying the price for their lotion when I can go to walmart and get a tub of lotion for half price. However the bath and body works lotion is just so much better

I know it sounds gross, but nothing works for me like good old vaseline petroleum jelly. I put it on my calves, shins and heels at night with socks. If I don't my excema starts to act up and I'll wake myself up scratching. I will second the sleeping with gloves on. I had to for years because the excema on my hands was so bad. I would lube up with either my rx or vaseline depending on how bad it was and slide on my cotton gloves before bed. I also really like the Suave vitamin E lotion. I've only been able to find it at Walmart in a big pump bottle.

I find that Aveeno works the best for dry chapped skin!!

I get unbelievably dry skin on my legs in the winter and I have a terrible time resisting hot showers. I have found eucerin to be incredibly effective.

For my feet I use Burts Bees Foot Cream (coconut mint scented). I put this on my feet at night and then put on socks. My feet feel SO soft in the morning.

As for a moisturizer raw organic coconut oil really moisturizes the body nicely.

It can also be used as a makeup remover. Deep hair conditioner. and even a shaving oil rather than a cream.

Stay away from perfumed creams like Bath and Body Works if your skin is truly dry the perfumes will only dry it out more. I've been using Eucerin original moisturizing lotion on my body for the last two years and I LOVE it. I use their cream (which is like butter) on my hands and feet.

i suffer from psoriasis, so along with that, my hands are SO dry! I found this aveeno lotion that has done wonders. It's new, it's Positively Nourishing 24-hour body moisturizer. It smells so good and it leaves my hands feeling smooth.

I also got this cream called Working Hands. It has a waxy texture to it, but it stays on your hands after several washings, and it heals any cracks you have within a couple days. This stuff you can either order online (just google Working Hands) or you can get it at Lowe's Hardware.

I've used bath and body works antibacterial for a couple of winters now. Not at work, just around home a couple of times a day instead of washing. My daughter introduced me to B&BW Antibacterial Moisturizing Hand Lotion. It's making a nice bit of difference.
I don't think my knuckles have cracked since I got it.

I just talked to the dermatologist last week about my dry skin. He said vaseline on dripping wet skin will do the trick. So he got my hands wet and put a dab of it on me and told me to rub it in...my what a difference. My skin is smooth and soft. No dry, scaley skin for me. I do immediately after I cut the shower off or before all the water is out of the tub. More cost effective as well!!!

Ooh, I've never heard about using vaseline when I'm wet! Thanks JiggleFree! I'm going to try that.

I have horribly dry skin, especially in the winter. My legs look like scales (those dry skin lines) . . . yuk. I recently became an Avon rep and the other day while getting into my stash of stuff from my kit I came acrossed a tube of Skin So Soft Gelled Body Oil. The kind I have is called "soft & sensual." That stuff is amazing! Didn't matter what kind of lotion I used before, by noon I was itchy all over from the dry skin. I've also tried the EVOO and baby oil while still wet from the shower. With this, my skin still feels nice 24 hours later and it has a nice clean smell. I'm not a fan of anything perfumy - I like the way this smells. I just ordered myself two more tubes of it because I definately don't want to run out.

i love gold bond - my mom's a nurse & has to wash her hands a million times a day, so that's what she uses. i also like jergen's shea butter.

I have to recommend CeraVe cream– it comes in a tub at Walgreens. It works really, really well! In fact my mom started using it because her hands were so dry and all the wrinkles disappeared from her hand. So she started using it on her neck/chest and wrinkles disappeared from there too. So if you need something for dry skin and want to reduce wrinkles I recommend it!

http://www.cerave.com/index.htm

I use Vaseline's Cocoa Butter. Amazing stuff and cheap too!

same here Allison. Just got it not long ago & love it.
I had been using Nivea (however that is spelled) but the Vaseline cocoa butter is just as good - if not, better. My skin is VERY dry, not just in winter but all the time. Sometime I have to use layers to get relief. Crazy.