Dry Skin - Home Remedy

By Helen Wang

People around the world have been taking it upon themselves to cure their own ailments for many centuries. Dry skin is one of those.

Throughout history, home remedies for ailments have been some of the most popular treatments. Centuries ago it was because there was little or no professional medical care available.

Nowadays it seems as if the tradition of finding a home remedy to cure yourself has been passed on through the years. Oftentimes, home remedies that people swear by have been passed down from one generation to the next.

Dry skin is one ailment that has been commonly treated with a variety of home remedies since it is often not an extremely dangerous condition.

It makes it more practical for some people to treat minor complaints with home remedies rather than spending money and time to see a medical professional.

For most people, dry skin typically appears during the winter months. Dryness typically occurs because your skin lacks moisture. In the past some magazines have suggested that drinking at least eight glasses of water a day will cure this ailment.

However, this home remedy has been proven false by medical professionals. Drinking lots of water will simply keep your body hydrated, not your skin.

Instead, to hydrate the skin, medical professionals suggest soaking it in water, rather than take water in by mouth.

Soaking for a short period of something like fifteen minutes in lukewarm water should put water back into the skin and help to ease the dryness. Doctors also remind patients, that bathing everyday can be negative for their condition.

In fact, people with excessively dry skin should only bathe every other day in cooler water than normal. Moisturizing is perhaps the most helpful thing a person can do at home.

Moisturizing skin with a moisturizing lotion will help immensely. The lubrication of the lotion will almost immediately be sucked into the skin.

Moisturizing lotion put on the skin after a bath or shower will also help contain the moisture from the bath or shower in the skin.

The moisturizing lotion will also work to moisturize by itself which gives your skin twice the hydration. Oatmeal is a famous home remedy for this skin dryness. Believe it or not, this home remedy, which was discovered over 4,000 years ago, is still being used today.

Colloidal oatmeal, which has been ground into a fine powder for easy use, can be poured into bath water to provide relief for skin dryness.

Throughout the years, oatmeal has been used to relieve itching and other discomfort related to skin. Colloidal oatmeal can be found at almost all pharmacies and is extremely easy to use.

Oatmeal can also be substituted and used as soap since some soap that contains deodorants can be harmful to dry skin.

However, there are also soaps made that should not harm your skin. Lye is a common ingredient in much soap that can harm and irritate people with sensitive and dry skin.

But there are certain brands of soap that have been made without lye in order to provide a safe alternative for those with this skin problems.

Well-known companies such as Neutrogena and Dove have manufactured soaps that are considerably less strong than deodorized soaps. These soaps contain natural ingredients instead, such as cream, cocoa butter and coconut oil.

If you have excessively dry skin you should try to use as little soap as possible or use soap when they are dirty. Many medical professionals have admitted that in American society today, we often over wash when we are not dirty.

Provide some relief to dry skin by using soap only when the body really needs it. There are a number of home remedies available for people with this type of skin.

Home remedies may be worth trying out for people who have tried conventional medical methods and have found that they did not work. There are a number of home remedy books available at most book stores that will likely hold even more home remedy ideas.