Winter Care Tips For Healthy, Soft and Smooth Skin:

©Harish Jharia


The environment becomes dry during winters and so will be the condition of our skin. People, with dry and oily skin are equally affected adversely in the dehydrated cold weather.  In winters our skin becomes dry, rough and hard as the moisture and the natural oil that the skin needs goes scarce under the chilling temperature. Our skin might even develop cracks if proper care is not taken and adequate moisture and supplements for the natural oil are not provided for keeping the skin soft, smooth and healthy. Some specific portions of our body like the lower back are more susceptible for drying fast.

Children are usually found scratching these portions of their bodies as the skin becomes dry and might even develop scaling of dead cells. Scratching of skin might also develop infection and inflammation if the skin is damaged and left unprotected and unattended.  


Keeping the above in mind we should firstly stop the activities that might take away the moisture and natural oil from our body and secondly we should provide adequate moisture and supplements to our skin for keeping it healthy, soft and smooth. The following tips may help you in keeping your skin in good shape and condition in the chilly weather during winters:

1. Maintain the humidity of your house at a proper level by using humidifiers. You may also keep broad trays filled with water in each room. 
2. I tried spreading wet towels in my rooms in absence of humidifiers and found that they helped in maintaining good level of humidity indoors. 
3. Keep the major portion of your body covered as the exposed area of our skin loses moisture when it comes in contact with the dry air outdoors. 
4. We should take bath every day, preferably tub-baths as the skin of our body will absorb moisture during the process of bathing. 
5. We should remember that skipping bath will result in missing a vital process of moisturizing our body in addition to cleansing and conditioning it. 
6. We should apply body lotion, olive oil, coconut oil or any other vegetable oil, immediately after the bath, all over your body, except our face, before the skin dries completely. 
7. We need not apply soap or body wash all over our body daily in winters as we do not sweat in this weather as we do in summers. 
8. We need to apply soap on the exposed portions susceptible for deposition of filth or those that might develop body odor. 
9. We should apply moisturizer or cold cream on our face immediately after our bath and may repeat it as and when we clean or wash it. The cosmetics may be selected depending on the atmospheric temperature and relative humidity RH of the place we live. 
10. Body lotions should be kept handy during winters for applying on our hands as and when we wash them. 
11. We need to take comparatively more and intense care if we live in the places where there is snow-fall and the temperature goes down to subzero level. 
12. We need to relax our dieting restrictions during winters for supplementing the losses of vital body oils and moisture. We should take balanced diet inclusive of proteins, carbohydrates, fibers, fruits, eggs, fish, butter, milk and plenty of salads in our day-to-day diet. 

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