6 Tricks for Preventing Dry Lips
One area that deserves more attention than we often realize is the lips. Year round, we need to keep them moisturized and supple in order to keep them youthful and free of discomfort. Here are the best tricks for preventing dry lips.
Why Lips Should Be Cared For
Besides our eyes, the lips have the most delicate skin on our faces. Because of this, they can become easily dry, causing them to become chapped, crack, and even bleed.
Our lips never get a break. From talking to eating, kissing, and simply breathing, the lips are constantly exposed to numerous environments and materials. So you can imagine how often the lips must dry out. Luckily, this can all be prevented by trying out our moisturizing lips tricks below.
How to Prevent Dry Lips
Use Flavorless Chapstick
Berry Berry Blast and Lip Smackin’ Strawberry sound like fun flavors but they can actually be harmful to your lips. Flavored chapstick can potentially contain harmful chemicals and are under no obligation to make you aware. According to the FDA regulation, health and beauty products like lip balm, are allowed to simply list “fragrance” as an ingredient without specifying the chemicals that create the scent. While there is no proof that these fragrance producers are harmful or if they further dry out your lips, the fact that we simply do not know is enough cause to avoid flavored chapstick.
Avoid Licking Your Lips
We all tend to involuntarily lick our lips when they’re feeling dry and chapped. While it may provide instant relief, a few seconds later, your lips will be drier than they were. Saliva is filled with enzymes called amylase and maltase that help breakdown and digest foods. For the delicate skin on our lips, those enzymes can wreak havoc and start to break down the skin cells. Now imagine adding a fresh layer of those enzymes repeatedly throughout the day. You could end up with split, cracked, or bleeding lips!
Use Lip Sunscreen
It doesn’t matter if it’s cloudy or if it’s the dead winter, as long as there’s daylight, the sun is hard at work drying out your lips. Using lip balm with SPF (or sun protection factor) is an absolute must to keep the sun’s harmful UV rays from whisking moisture from your lips.
Keep Them Sheltered In Colder Weather
Cold weather and harsh winds can be brutal for your precious lips. This is why our lips tend to dry and crack more frequently during the fall and winter. Whenever you step out into the cold, be sure to wear a scarf and pull it up to cover your lips. This can help create much-needed moisture underneath the scarf while sheltering your lips from the cold winds.
Stay Hydrated
When it comes to preventing lip dryness, nothing is more important than staying hydrated. Dry and chapped lips are often a symptom of dehydration. When you’re dehydrated, your body will attempt to pull water from various sources to keep cells hydrated. This includes your lips. To keep this from happening, be sure to drink about 8 glasses of water daily.
Moisturize As Often As You Need To
You’ve probably figured by now that moisturizer is necessary. Whether you use flavorless lip balm, lip sunscreen, vaseline or any other type of natural lip moisturizer, use them as often as necessary. This could be before going out, when you wake up, after eating or drinking, whenever they’re feeling dry, etc. Whatever you do, just make sure your lips are always moisturized.
If you want more information and are in Cincinnati, Ohio, then feel free to reach out to our experts at The Dermatology Group. We are here to help you explore treatment options, give you advice, resources, and more. Give us a call today!