What causes dry skin? Is diet important? Do I need to change the products I use?

As the cold weather approaches, our skin is affected.  Cold winds, cool temperatures and low humidity levels, combined with hot showers and soap based products can pull moisture from your skin. On the surface your skin may feel tight, dry and itchy and look dull.
Its not just the weather, factors in your diet can also lead to dry skin. Fashionable fat free or low fat diets can provide too little of the essential fatty acids (EFAs) which are critical to all parts of a healthy body including healthy skin. In addition they help protect against water loss from skin cells and help to prevent dryness, keeping your skin supple and well hydrated.

Smoking can have a drying effect on your skin as it drains the skin and body of vitamin A and vitamin C constricting the blood vessels (less blood flow).  Smoking suffocates the skin from the inside.

It is important to keep your skin hydrated to avoid lines and wrinkles. Layering product is far more effective than one heavy night cream!  Try a hydrating booster or serum in addition to your moisturiser. Also remember to exfoliate twice weekly to get rid of dead skin cells which may sit on the surface of your skin.  This layer of dead skin cells will make your skin look dry, dull and lack lustre and will stop your moisturiser reaching the lower levels of your skin where it needs to reach to do its job.

Visit a professional skincare therapist to check that the moisturiser you are currently using is rich enough to hydrate your skin through the winter months. Usually your skin will require a lighter weight moisturiser in summer months and you will need to alter your moisturiser during the colder winter months

Alcohol and certain medications also lead to dry skin. Medications such as nasal decongestants.

Its important to treat dry skin as it can lead very quickly to other skin conditions such as skin sensitivity. When your skin is dry,  it is depleted of its natural protective lipid barrier which in turn lowers the skin’s defences.  When  your skin comes into contact with environment assaults, chemicals in cleaning products, cold weather, smoking,  a sensitized reaction will occur in the skin causing itchiness and redness.

Visit a skincare professional for advice on how treatments available and layer on extra hydration through boosters during colder seasons to  restore lost moisture and relieve dry thirsty skin.