Chapped lips can be extremely uncomfortable, which can have a substantial impact on your daily life. When you follow the steps to prevent chapped lips, you will be able to keep your skin healthy and greatly improve your comfort. Chapped lips may even be an indication of underlying issues, so if you are regularly experiencing chapped lips, you may want to visit your dermatologist. Our team at Allen-Taintor Dermatology can help you to identify why your lips are chapped. Here are some ways that you can prevent chapped lips and improve the health of your skin.
What are Chapped Lips?
When your lips become particularly irritated, dry, or have peeling skin, it is likely that you are experiencing chapped lips. This may also cause the lips to become red or flaky, though this depends primarily on the severity of chapping. Understanding how to prevent chapped lips can often improve your comfort and ensure that your skin remains as healthy as possible. When your lips become much to chapped, they can even bleed. This can cause a great deal of discomfort and pain, so understanding what chapped lips are and how to prevent them can be incredibly beneficial.
Take Advantage of Lip Balm
Though this may seem like a somewhat obvious step to reduce the likelihood of chapped lips, lip balm is a great method for restoring the moisture of your lips. These products are comprised of a combination of oils and waxes that will help to create a protective seal over the skin. This will ensure that moisture is trapped in and components that may dry out your skin are unable to penetrate through the seal. Some products can even add to the moisture of your skin. For example, Aquaphor makes a lip repair product that can quickly repair the damage to chapped lips. It is also beneficial to use lip balm that contains SPF, because this will prevent sun damage, which can also cause lips to become chapped.
Avoiding Ingredients when you have Chapped Lips
There are some ingredients that you may want to avoid when you are experiencing chapped lips. Many of these ingredients will ultimately cause irritation, which will simply exacerbate the initial problem that you are experiencing. Try to avoid the use of lip products that contain fragrances, salicylic acid, camphor, or menthol. This can go a long way toward providing protection for your skin and limiting issues that can result in chapping.
The Causes of Dry Lips
When you take the steps to avoid the causes of chapped lips, you will often be able to keep your skin healthier. For example, weather often results in lips that are chapped. This is especially true when the weather is particularly cold, windy, or dry. These weather conditions can remove moisture from your skin, which results in chapped lips. When you regularly lick your lips, this can also result in chapping. This is because saliva will suck the moisture from the skin when it evaporates. This can result in more chapping. It is also beneficial to avoid spicy foods when you have chapped lips, because these foods can exacerbate your condition.
When your lips become burnt, it is highly likely that you will experience chapped lips. Due to this, you should ensure that you use a lip balm with sufficient SPF to prevent your lips from becoming sunburnt. Other common reasons for chapped lips include certain medications, underlying medical conditions, and allergic reactions.
Refrain from Exfoliating
It is a common misconception that exfoliating the lips when they are chapped to remove dead skin cells will help them to heal much faster. However, when you exfoliate, you may actually exacerbate the issue with your chapped lips, which can cause the situation to be much worse. If you are experiencing lips that are chapped, you should avoid exfoliating, unless a skincare professional advises you to do otherwise.
When you take the steps to prevent your chapped lips, you will be able to keep your skin healthy, which can greatly improve your comfort level. When you have reoccurring chapped lips or a prolonged condition, it may be necessary to visit your dermatologist to have any underlying issues uncovered. Our expert team at Allen-Taintor Dermatology can help to provide these services and restore the health of your skin. For more information about the prevention of chapped lips, consult with our team today!