THEand temperatures slowly drop and during this period it is essential to have a lip balm in your pocket to protect your lips from the winter. Dryness, chapping, tingling and burning are in fact the order of the day. The However, the causes are not only external. As run for cover.
Why do lips chap in winter?
Dry lips are commonplace during the colder months. THEthe cause is not only to be found in low temperatures: indeed, there are bad habits, for example the fact of bathing them often, or even stress, which alters the surface of the mouth.
Added to this is the natural structure of the lips themselves: these are in fact thinner and more fragile than other parts of the body so it is inevitable that they feel the effects of the cold more quickly.
«In general, it can be said that the The main causes of chapping lie in a reduced blood supply to the skin during the cold months, with a lower supply, if you can call it that, of hydration and lipids. Added to this are the temperature changes but also thevery widespread habit of performing cleansing that is too hot: the high temperature of the environment facilitates and speeds up the evaporation of liquids present on the skin of the lips which are therefore damaged” explains the Dr. Alma Sesti, MioDottore Dermatologist.
Stress can be “read” on the lips
Not just external causes. Often lips also dry out and deteriorate due to internal factors such as stress and anxiety. In fact, it seems that these two factors can cause psychosomatic reactions such as the sensation of dry lips. Added to this is the mechanical stress: you often find yourself “torturing” your lips, continuing to nibble them and remove the hangnails, damaging them further.
How to prevent damage?
«Lip care and prevention in winter go hand in hand: good and constant hydration and application of exogenous lipids, even several times a day, is a valid solution” explains the doctor.
Yes to specific balms, or even hydrating lipsticks: it is in fact essential to choose soft formulations with humectant and nourishing ingredients, leaving aside those that quickly dry out the lips.
From Don’t underestimate nutrition too: «Chronic dryness of the lips can be an indicator of lack of zinc in your diet whose symptoms are precisely the appearance of fissures and dermatitis on both the upper and lower lips.”
Anti-dryness remedies: from Vaseline to shea butter
If your lips are already dry, the first move to make is to remove all hangnails with exfoliation to be performed with a specific scrub. From simple brown sugar combined with honey or by rubbing the toothbrush on your mouth. Once the dryness has been eliminated, we move on to nourishment.
In this case we focus on lip masks, or even face masks, lip balms in jars, creamier and denserwhich nourish deeply. A practical tip: to get a faster result, it is better to do a real compress before going to bed so that it works at night.
After bringing the lips back to their usual appearance, we move on todaily hydration: “Essential a product that acts as a film or lipid film that acts as a barrier between the lips and the external environment. There pure Vaseline it is a good ally especially in the presence of fissures. Also very useful shea butter, cera albaobtained from bees, Shea oil or butter, or other triglycerides such as caprylic glycol or glycerol monostearate».
iO Donna © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED