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Tips for Healthy Skin, Hair, and Nails

With the onset of colder weather, your skin, hair, and nails may become more susceptible to dryness and breakage. You may find yourself already trying to avoid dry hands by taking preventative measures such as wearing gloves, but your skin and your hair also need attention! Try the following tips to help reach your goal of healthy hair, skin, and nails.

 

Tip 1: Reduce Wrinkles

Unfortunately, wrinkles are inevitable as we age. However, there are some tricks to help slow the first sign of wrinkles early on and reduce the escalation of wrinkle formation. Such measures include limiting sun exposure and wearing sunscreen. Sunlight contains ultraviolet rays that are harmful to the skin due to its detrimental effects to DNA. Wearing sunscreen, even on cloudy or rainy days, helps to block some of the UV rays from penetrating your skin. It’s important to find sunscreen that has both UVA and UVB protection. The position that you sleep in at night can also be a leading factor to wrinkle formation. Sleeping on your side or stomach may result in sleep lines on the neck and chest. It’s best to sleep on your back so that the skin does not bunch up.

 

Tip 2: Remove Makeup and Hydrate Eyelids

Taking off makeup may not be as fun as putting makeup on, but it’s an important step in your skincare routine. At night, your skin needs to breathe and be free of pore-clogging material. Using petroleum jelly is a gentle and effective way to remove makeup without harming the skin’s natural barrier. Petroleum jelly not only helps to remove makeup, it also aids in the hydration of your eyelids. To use, first apply a thin coat of petroleum jelly on your face, then lightly wipe off with a tissue, and finally gently rub in the excess petroleum on the eyelids.

 

Tip 3: Reduce Irritation When Using Retinol

Retinols are highly recommended by dermatologists due to their ability to reduce inflammation, clear pores, reduce wrinkles, along with other benefits. However, when first introducing retinol to a skin care routine, it may cause redness, irritation, and dryness. To alleviate some of these symptoms, try only using the serum two to three times a week for a few weeks, then increase the frequency once the skin becomes more tolerant. If irritation persists, applying petroleum jelly to areas around the eyes, nose, and mouth can help with extra hydration.  

 

Tip 4: Revive Dry Hands and Brittle Nails

Frequent hand washing and sanitizing is imperative for your health but can lead to excessively dry hands and nails! To prevent dryness, use an ointment-based lotion, such as petroleum jelly, after every wash. This way, your hands will be clean and also moisturized!

 

Tip 5: Prevent Nail Fungus

A condition called athlete's foot or other alternatives such as excessive sweating can lead to fungus in the nail and result in the nail hardening, lifting, and turning yellow. Promptly treating athlete's foot or keeping your feet dry may help prevent the formation of fungus. 

 

Tip 6: Healthy Hair

Believe it or not, cutting split ends is beneficial towards hair growth. Getting a haircut does not make your hair grow faster, but it will help your hair grow longer. This is because split ends travel up the hair shaft towards your scalp. If you neglect going in for a regular haircut, the split ends will continue to travel up the hair shaft and result in the need to trim even more hair to get rid of the split ends. Improving hair growth faster hones in on scalp health.

 

Work Cited

Lane, R. (2022, November 9). National healthy skin month: 7 skin care tips from dermatologists. MedEsthetics. Retrieved December 7, 2022, from https://www.medestheticsmag.com/news/news/22539142/american-academy-of-dermatology-aad-national-healthy-skin-month-7-skin-care-tips-from-dermatologists?utm_source=newsletter-html&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ME%2BE-Newsletter%2B11-14-2022 

 

November is National Healthy Skin month®. American Academy of Dermatology. (n.d.). Retrieved December 7, 2022, from https://www.aad.org/public/public-health/awareness-campaigns/national-healthy-skin-month 

Author
Ava Zoltanski Ava is a graduate from the University of Pittsburgh with a degree in Psychology. She aims to further her medical career through Physician Assistant studies, where she hopes to educate, inspire, and care for others.

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