5 Essential Tips on How to Hydrate Your Skin All Year Round

Whether it’s a rigorous winter or a sultry summer, knowing how to hydrate your skin is the secret to a glowing complexion throughout the year. Plunge into these essential tips to streamline your skincare routine and ensure your body stays nourished, radiant, and healthy, no matter what the weather is like outside.

Why Is Hydration Important

Before we shift to tips, let’s find out how our body stays hydrated. Our skin barrier (known as the stratum corneum in scientific circles) keeps your body away from infections, allergens, toxins, and other elements from the outside. It also weakens the impact of ultraviolet light and keeps the needed amount of water inside your body. Without it, the liquid would flow away, making you dehydrated. In other words, our skin takes care of its moisture balance.

However, there are a bunch of reasons that can cause dehydration and dry skin despite the protective layer watch. Cold weather, sun, salty sea, poor diet, hot water, and your lifestyle can all contribute to that. Dry skin can disrupt the skin’s natural functions and make it weak. This can lead to less elasticity and a higher chance of inflammation, for instance.

Moreover, dryness can show up no matter what your skin type is (we bet you know yours, but here’s a brief guide just in case).

How to Hydrate Skin

These hassle-free tips will make your body glow. 

1. Consume water.

The importance of drinking plenty of water throughout the day is on everybody’s lips. Gym instructors, nutritionists, experts on TV, and marketing specialists keep repeating it endlessly. In fact, the amount of water needed is still questionable. Harvard Medical School says that four to six cups of plain water (approximately 0.9-1.4 liters) a day will be enough for a healthy person. The Institute of Medicine concluded that 3.7 liters of liquid for men and 2.7 liters for women including liquids obtained from fruits and vegetables would fit the bill. Anyway, the benefits of drinking water every day are indisputable and it can be just as helpful for your skin as using a moisturizer.

Now let’s shift to the most delicious part of the article. A healthy snack or a proper dinner can also contain water-rich ingredients. These foods include watermelon, strawberries, skim milk, melon, zucchini, tomatoes, cottage cheese, and cucumber. Bone broth is also on the menu. Yummy!

2. Use humidifiers wisely.

Humidifiers increase the moisture level in your home. They can be especially helpful in dry climates or during harsh winters when your radiator is so hot that one can scramble eggs on it. 

However, humidifiers are not a silver bullet. The WHO says, the moisture level inside the house should be between 30% and 50%. Humidity above 65% may lead to respiratory illnesses, especially for those with asthma and allergies.

Moreover, humidifiers can become a breeding ground for bacteria and mold and cause humidifier fever. That’s why it’s important to check the manual and clean the device as often as the manufacturer tells you.

3. Choose a gentle cleanser.

The right cleanser is also among the tips on how to hydrate your skin. The choice of it depends on your skin type. Still, there’s one simple rule—if there are no drying or pore-clogging ingredients in its formula, the effect will be beneficial irrespective of whether your skin is oily, dry, or combination.

Yes, reading these tiny letters on a handkerchief-sized bottle or a flask can be tricky. Not to mention that you should look up all the ingredients online afterwards, trying to find a reliable source. With the OnSkin app, you just need to take a picture or scan the product’s barcode, and it will show all the pros and cons of its actives, taking into account your skin type as well.

4. Find the right moisturizer.

Make the most of your moisturizer by applying it on damp skin after your shower. Stick to creams, lotions, and masks with niacinamide, hyaluronic acid, and ceramides in their formula. These are the ingredients that keep your skin moist.

5. Adjust your daily habits.

The way we live also affects the well-being of our skin. Tuning up daily habits a bit will help your body be hydrated.

Sleep well. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends adults sleep at least 8 hours. Adults who rest less than 6 hours are more than twice as likely to be dehydrated as those who sleep two hours more.

Here are a few tips to help you sleep well.

• Try to go to bed and wake up at the same time.
• Stop surfing the Internet or checking your email at least half an hour before bedtime. Late-night TV is also not a good call.
• Don’t drink coffee or alcohol, or eat dinner late in the evening.
• Keep your bedroom dark and air-conditioned.
• Don’t push yourself. If you can’t fall asleep, it’s better not to force your hand. Just do something calm until you feel like going to bed.

Take a shower with a comfortable water temperature. Hot liquid dries out your skin, so sticking to lukewarm water is better. It’s also good not to rub your skin with a towel because it can cause irritation and inflammation. Patting it would be better.

Use sunscreen to protect your skin. Everybody (except a certain blood enthusiast from Transylvania) loves the sun. But the plain truth is that UV rays dry out and damage your skin. Sunscreen protects your skin and keeps the moisture barrier in good shape.

Quit smoking. Smoking makes your skin age faster and increases the risk of wrinkles.

In short, these small changes in your routine and tips on how to hydrate your skin can make a big difference in keeping your body healthy.