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Dry skin: Six easy steps to heal the winter itch

A lot of our patients at SkinCare Physicians are experiencing dry itchy skin at this time of year. This infographic shows in 6 easy steps what you can do to minimize your symptoms and moisturize your skin more effectively.

• Step 1: Take short warm showers. It’s always tempting to take a long hot shower in winter, but this will make your skin’s dryness and itching worse.
• Step 2: Use a mild unscented soap or soap free cleanser, such as Dove or Cetaphil. Harsh soaps can dry out your skin. Harsh soaps can dry out your skin.
• Step 3: Only use soap where needed. Soap is not really required all over the body every day!
• Step 4: Don’t dry your skin completely after showering; just pat dry with a towel.
• Step 5: Apply moisturizer immediately to damp skin. Look for unscented moisturizers that contain lactic acid or urea; they can be effective for extremely dry itchy skin. Ointments such as Aquaphor or Vaseline can be greasy, but trap moisture better than lotions.
• Step 6: Turn on humidifiers in your house; they can help make the air less dry, which will benefit your skin. If you don’t have one, place bowls of water on top of radiators.

The good news is that once spring arrives, the ambient air is moister, and skin dryness and itch tend to improve.

If these simple measures do not help, see your dermatologist or contact us. You may need a prescription medication to relieve your symptoms.

Editor’s note: This updated blog was originally published on March 25, 2013.

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4 Responses to Dry skin: Six easy steps to heal the winter itch

• Shani says:

  July 26, 2013 at 2:19 am

  Olive oil is also great when it comes to moisturizing the dermis.

  In the world of credit crunch beauty, a natural
  dry skin treatment is exactly what you need.

  Dry skin results from lack sebum or oil production.

  Reply
• Tania Phillips says:

  May 21, 2013 at 12:44 pm

  Yes, all of these ingredients would be helpful to relieve dry skin itches.

  Reply
• Bella says:

  April 18, 2013 at 8:39 am

  Great infographic, Dr. Phillips. It’s good to know that you don’t have to pay a fortune for a good, rich moisturizer.

  But anyway one has to buy some sort of moisturizer in particularly dry seasons. But which one? I’ve dug up a list of a few moisturizer ingredients that may be helpful for dry skin:

  Ceramides
  Dimethicone
  Glycerin
  Lanolin
  Mineral oil
  Petroleum jelly

  All of these basically help skin hold on to water absorbed, and the cream/lotion that has the largest combination of them is obviously the best. But what I didn’t find out that if any of these have side effects or if they are compatible with each other. Maybe you’ll be able to help there, doctor?

  Hope this helps when people choose what moisturizer to buy!

  Reply