The Dry Skin Rescue Plan

Since I claim my skin type is "oily skin" and "acne prone" in every other product review, me writing about dry skin might seem a little odd, but I have quite the mad skin - oily-combination skin for the face and crazy dry skin everywhere else!   In fact, that's how I started using Lush products - nothing else worked for my dry skin.  A bit wiser now, I thought I would list what I learned on dealing with dry skin.

The main reasons for dry skin (specifically for me, others could have a million other reasons):

• Love taking long hot water baths.
• The tap water supplied is hard water.

Some things that work for me, and I think would work just as easily for most other people:

• Avoid hot water baths - but I cannot do that - so try to at least avoid long baths :)
• Before a bath, give your skin a deep conditioning treatment like you would do for your hair - lightly heat up an oil like coconut oil/olive oil/sesame oil and massage into skin  - wait for at least 20-30 minutes before washing off.

• Use milder soaps - ideally just use glycerin-based soaps or soaps that use natural ingredients.  Read the labels - the oils and other good stuff should be at the top of the list and not a part of "key ingredients."  There is no point buying an overpriced soap if the "extracts and oils" add up to less than 10% of the total ingredients.  It doesn't need a lot of brainpower or money - just pick up the transparent looking soaps even if you are shopping at the drugstore :)

• Avoid soap-based cleansers and opt for cleansers such as gram flour or powdered moong dal.  This is not something I follow, but I have seen it recommended by doctors for a lot of people with dry skin problems.  Kama makes one - I bought and haven't tried it :|
• Once a week, use an oil-based scrub or a gentle gramflour/dal based scrub to exfoliate the skin and remove any dry flaky skin.  Follow with a generous rich moisturizer.  At least in India, there are a lot of brands that make ubtans (herbal cleanser/scrubs), that are gentle enough to work great for dry/sensitive skins.

Kama Ayurveda Ubtan - bought
but haven't tried yet :P

Try a DIY oil-sugar-coffee scrub :D

• Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize - a good moisturizer (again, read labels) applied immediately after patting the skin dry with a soft towel - applying the moisturizer while the skin is still damp helps seal in the moisture present in the skin as well as helps the moisturizer spread better :)  If you aren't stepping out of the house and don't mind the smell, a light oil like the TBS Monoi Miracle also works great.  If you use an oil-based scrub, you can skip the moisturizer part :D

I prefer using a heavier body butter like
the ones from TBS or the trusty Nivea
cream for the winters (and for my hands
and feet all through the year).
For summers, a lighter lotions would work :)

TBS Monoi Miracle Oil

•  A healthy diet helps fight dry skin from inside out.  Include a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts like almonds and walnuts, olives/olive oil, and fish (if you are the fish-eating kinds :P - but my granny gets skin inflammation with eating fish, so I suppose with diet at least there is no generalization) to help keep the skin healthy.
• A brisk 30-minute walk a day apart from the very obvious benefit of keeping you thin also helps keep the skin healthy because of the increased blood circulation - I preach but am terribly lazy with doing it, might as well confess before the finger-pointing and snickering starts.
• I find it helps to use cotton clothes rather than synthetic materials - keeps the skin less irritated.

So these were some things I found useful in solving my dry skin problem...do you have any helpful ideas?

I found a very useful comment from a blogger in one of my DIY trial/failure articles - an easy way to get the benefits of oats without the messy cleanup:

perfectskincareforyou said...

leaving oats as it is is a better idea instead of making them into a fine powder...milk and oats do make the skin fairer by removing the tan...even tomato helps... a better idea to use oats is to tie a handful of oats in a muslin cloth and soak it into hot water for half hour or an hour...the water would turn milky by then...squeeze the muslin wrap once to squeeze out all the liquid....add it to your bath water...it makes the skin extremely soft and no mess too...