From Healthline.com:

Cold and dry winters may cause your skin to flake and show other signs of dryness. If you notice this, include moisturizing skin care ingredients, such as emollients and occlusives, in your routine and skip other ingredients. Cold air, dry indoor heat, low humidity levels, and harsh winter wind can all zap your skin of its moisture. This may leave the skin on your face, hands, feet, and other areas exposed to the elements looking a lot less radiant. You can, however, take steps to help keep your skin looking healthy, even when temperatures dip and there’s no escape from winter’s dry, cold air.

How to Prevent Winter Skin

By making some changes to your skin care regimen and habits and using the right products, you may be able to keep your skin looking soft, smooth, and vibrant all winter long.

Moisturize right after washing

Washing your face, hands, or body strips your skin of its natural oils. Since these oils help lock in moisture, it’s important to replace them. That’s why you should try to use a moisturizer after you wash your skin every time, especially in the winter. As a helpful reminder, try stocking a bottle of moisturizer next to your sink and keep a travel-size moisturizer with you when you’re on the go.

Look for moisturizers:

with:

ceramides

hyaluronic acid (and other humectants)

glycerin

urea

without:

fragrance

dyes

alcohol and denatured alcohol

Apply sunscreen daily

Given the shorter winter days and less sunlight, it can be tempting to cut sunscreen from your morning routine. But even in the winter, harmful UV light can still stress your skin’s moisture barrier, which is necessary for maintaining skin health and hydration. Try adding a layer of broad spectrum sunscreen with at least SPF 30 each morning on top of your moisturizer. You can also opt for a moisturizing sunscreen.

Use overnight treatments

Overnight treatments are an excellent way to revitalize or prevent dry skin. Emollients are great for moisturizing and are commonly added to moisturizers. However, because they’re a heavier type of cream, it can take longer for your skin to absorb them. By applying an emollient to your skin overnight, your skin will have the time it needs to absorb the treatment and for the emollient to replenish your skin with the moisture and oils it needs.  If you’re applying an ointment to your hands or feet, consider wearing gloves or socks to prevent spreading the emollient on your sheets or bed covers.

Adjust your skin care routine

If the skin on your face seems to be especially sensitive or irritated due to the dry winter air, you may want to consider simplifying your skin care routine for the time being.  Keep in mind that your skin’s moisture barrier needs to be healthy for it to respond well to serums, toners, and other treatments. Irritated skin might be more sensitive to ingredients like fragrance and alcohol. Consider using just a gentle moisturizer and sunscreen in the morning, and a gentle cleanser and a thicker cream or moisturizer at night. Once you feel confident that your skin’s moisture barrier has healed, you can slowly incorporate other treatments back into your routine.

Use a humidifier

Humidifiers add moisture back into the air, which can be especially helpful in the cold and dry winter months. A more humid environment may be naturally moisturizing, which may help prevent and relieve skin dryness.

Dial down the temperature

A hot shower or bath at the end of a cold winter’s day may feel especially soothing. But, to keep your skin nourished, you may want to keep the water temperature closer to warm than scalding. Hot water strips away your skin’s natural oils faster than lukewarm water (which is typically around 98.6°F [37°C]), and may damage your skin barrier.

Go easy on exfoliants, scrubbing, and rubbing

Exfoliation helps remove dead skin cells from the surface of your skin and may result in smooth and vibrant skin. But it’s possible to overexfoliate your skin if you do it too often or use the wrong products. Harsher scrubs with large particles may be more likely to break down your skin’s moisture barrier and cause damage. If your skin looks dry or flaky, you may want to opt for a gentler chemical exfoliant, such as AHAs or BHAs, rather than a physical scrub.

But even these may still be too strong for severely dry skin. If this is the case, or if your skin is cracked, raw, or irritated, it may be best to avoid exfoliation altogether until your skin has healed. After bathing or showering (in warm water, remember), carefully pat your skin dry instead of vigorously rubbing. This may allow some of the moisture to hydrate the top layer of your skin and cause less irritation.

Add occlusives to your routine

Earlier, we mentioned using emollients to help soothe and repair your skin barrier. But if you find that emollient ingredients alone aren’t doing enough to heal your dry skin, you may want to consider incorporating occlusive ingredients into your skin care routine. Occlusive ingredients provide a physical barrier to lock moisture into your skin. Examples of occlusive ingredients include:

petroleum jelly-based products like Vaseline and Aquaphor

shea butter

rosehip oil

jojoba oil

cocoa butter

The best way to work these products into your routine is to apply them once or twice per day after moisturizing.

Hydrate from the inside

Make sure you’re staying properly hydrated throughout the day. Not taking in enough fluid may affect the appearance of your skin and make it more susceptible to drying out, but scientific evidence to support this is lacking. You may also want to focus on eating foods that are high in antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids. These nutrients may help protect your cells from environmental damage and help your body make healthy cells, including skin cells.

Opt for nonirritating fabrics and detergents

A good rule of thumb when facing any skin problem, including dry skin, is to try to avoid wearing or sleeping on harsh or abrasive materials. Though limited scientific evidence supports that they’ll help with dry skin. If your body’s skin is extra dry, try wearing loose, comfortable, natural fabrics, like cotton, to reduce the risk of extra physical irritation. Try to avoid washing your clothes in regular detergents. Instead, look for detergents formulated specifically for sensitive skin, which will likely be free of harsh chemicals and fragrances.

Wear gloves

Gloves are the ultimate physical barrier against environmental agents that can dry out the skin on your hands. To protect your hands, try wearing insulated gloves when stepping out into the cold and using silicone gloves when washing dishes. Limiting the dry air and hot water that touches your skin can help keep your hands smooth and well hydrated.

SOURCE: HEALTHLINE.COM