Winter has come: Tips to take care of your hair and skin

CHENNAI: The most noticeable change during this season is dry skin on the body and flakes on the scalp. For this part of the world, the dandruff season has officially begun.

Why does this happen? As dwellers in a region with very high humidity, we are always used to having moist and sweaty skin. With the humidity drop, our skin moves to dry skin mode, and dandruff starts getting aggravated during this colder weather. Those with dermatological conditions like psoriasis may experience a seasonal exacerbation.

What are the best skin care habits for this season?

Invest five minutes every day in a body moisturiser, focusing on the hands, feet, elbows, knees and neck. These exposed areas tend to get very dry and flaky during this season, so we must take special care of them. The moisturising can be done at bedtime after wiping down the skin gently with a wet towel, or within three minutes after your bath, before bedtime.

You can also moisturise during the day, but in areas with some humidity and heat, you may still feel very sweaty and uncomfortable with moisturising during the day. If you tend to sweat a lot or work in a warm environment, moisturising during the day is nearly impossible, and you can do this step at bedtime. Move from harsh soaps to moisturising body washes, which can balance the dryness. Baby body washes are an easy choice.

Wash your hair and scalp every other day. Despite it feeling chilly, washing the hair less frequently is very likely to worsen dandruff. So make sure to wash the scalp often.

Always follow through with a nourishing leave-in serum for the hair, once it is about 70-80% dry. If you do not have much hair loss, you can also consider a rinse-off conditioner, but basically, a leave-in hair smoothing or detangling serum is all that you need for hair care.

You can include an anti-dandruff shampoo or scalp lotion containing ketoconazole, zinc pyrithione, lactic acid, salicylic acid, piroctone olamine or climbazole to help reduce the fungal element that worsens dandruff. Since most vegetable oils promote the fungal element, it is best to not oil the scalp. Instead, you can use mineral oils like liquid paraffin to soak the scalp for a few minutes, before wash, which will then loosen the scales when you wash your scalp with shampoo.

A lot of dandruff can also mean a lot of body acne, typically what would be fungal acne. You can extend your anti-dandruff shampoo to the back as well. Definitely, add on a salicylic or lactic acid exfoliant to help get rid of the truncal acne faster.

So, how long is this dry spell likely to last? Well, usually this season starts around Deepavali and gets better after Pongal, sometimes even extending into early March. So you may need to stock up on your body moisturiser and anti-dandruff products to last till then.

— Dr Renita Rajan, Chief Consultant Dermatologist, Render Skin and Hair.