Knowing how to avoid dry skin with hand sanitizers may just be your saving grace in winter. With the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic imminent, the use of hand sanitizers will continue for the considerable future. As a result, you need all the help you can get to protect yourself against a familiar foe — dry skin.
With the pandemic, there have been changes in our hygiene habits. One of the changes includes regular washing of hands under running water. As the guidelines from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states, regular hand washing and sanitizer usage curbs the spread of the virus.
In the same vein, frequent use of these preventive methods can lead to dry skin issues. What then are you to do?
A dermatologist will advise that people with skin problems should take extra care of their skin in winter. Skin problems like eczema can be caused by dry skin in winter. It also opens you up to the entry of infections.
Regardless of the circumstances, you need to protect yourself from the coronavirus and still keep healthy skin. In this article, we will be helping you do just that.
Reasons You Need To Moisturize Your Hands
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says you should wash your hands for an average of 15 seconds with lukewarm water. Doing this too often can lead to dry skin. Here’s how:
There is a layer of protective oil on your skin that helps prevent cracking and dryness on your skin. Washing your hands with soap and water removes this protective oil from your skin. In doing so, it leaves your skin open to dryness.
Additionally, dry skin increases your risks of contracting infections through the fissures they create on your skin. Infections like eczema, even for those who do not traditionally suffer from it, are common.
Applying moisturizer helps replenish this protective oil and keep your skin moist again. A perfect moisturizer to protect and keep your skin healthy is a hand sanitizer. However, your choice of hand sanitizer is dependent on some factors. Keep reading to see what we mean.
How To Avoid Dry Skin With A Hand Sanitizer
Having seen that excess hand washing leaves the skin all dry and scaly. It is now of high importance to know how to use hand sanitizers to avoid dry skin. Below are some effective tips:
Use the right soap
Due to the pandemic, most people wash their hands several times daily. Some do not even know the right amount of soap to use. When using soaps, the amount of soap is not equal cleansing.
Limit the washing of your hands to just when you are indoors. Use hand sanitizers only when you step out. This will help reduce water contact with your skin.
Also, some soaps contain highly sensitive chemicals that can irritate the skin. We often advise that you stay clear of soaps that contain fragrances. Most times, they irritate the skin.
Gently pat dry
After washing your hands, ensure your hands are not entirely dry before you use a hand sanitizer. Hand sanitizers are not effective on dry skins. Using hand sanitizer on wet skin locks in on your skin and prevents dryness.
Just after washing your hands, gently pat your hands on a towel. Try to use a moist towel. Dry towels can irritate your skin. You can also leave it to dry out if you want to. Just ensure that you do not use hand sanitizers on dry skin.
Your choice of moisturizer
There are several moisturizers that you can apply to prevent dry skin in winter. However, when choosing a moisturizer, always go for the ones without fragrance. The ones without fragrance cause less irritation on the skin.
Also, use hand creams instead of body lotions. Body lotions are primarily water-based while hand creams are not. Since you need your skin moist, lotions may not suit this purpose.
Another vital thing to consider is the size of the moisturizer. Since you are trying to keep your skin moist and kill germs, you will be needing a personal tube moisturizer. Personal tube moisturizers prevent the spread of germs since you don’t have to share with others.
Use hand sanitizers only when necessary
Before you use a hand sanitizer, ensure you wash your hands first. In doing so, you are preparing your hands for moisturizing. However, most people do not correctly wash their hands before moisturizing.
To perfectly keep your skin healthy with hand sanitizers, completely wash your hands. As part of proper handwashing, make sure there is no soap residue left on your hands. Soap residues can cause further irritation after moisturizing.
That said, hand sanitizers contain a high level of alcohol, 60% to 70%. Alcohol abhors germs, so they entirely wipe germs off your skin. But on the other hand, they dry out your skin. You may want to keep your skin moist but in the end, dry it off.
How then do you avoid dry skin with hand sanitizers? The solution is to check how often you use hand sanitizers. When you buy hand sanitizers, avoid using them at the slightest provocation. Watch when you use the.
An important tip to prevent dry skin when using hand sanitizers is to use them when you touch door handles. Also, you can use them when you sneeze or touch surfaces that may be carrying germs.
What To Do If You Experience Skin Dryness
Some people still experience dryness even after using hand sanitizers. Here’s how you can protect yourself from that:
Check the ingredients of your hand sanitizer
Most people know that excess hand sanitizer dries out their skin. They do not know there are certain hand sanitizer ingredients that can dry out the skin. Apart from alcohol, certain ingredients in a hand sanitizer can dry out your skin.
Hand sanitizers that contain anti-ageing serum, retinol, and allergens can cause much irritation on your skin. The influence of the chemicals contained in these hand sanitizers can remove moisture from your skin. Instead, go for hand sanitizers that have vitamins E as an ingredient to avoid dry skin.
Avoid contact with water
In avoiding dry skin with hand sanitizers, avoid contact with water. The sole aim of using moisturizers is to create a barrier between water and your skin. Contact with water may not cause dryness, but frequent contact with water can do just that.
So we always advise that you wear utility gloves when doing the dishes and laundry. Not only will you avoid contact with water, but with chemicals that can irritate your skin m.
Regulate your humidifier
Even if you are still finding it difficult to avoid dry skin with a hand sanitizer, there is one more factor to check — your humidifier. Here, knowledge of the standard range to set a humidifier will come in handy.
In high humidity levels, your skin can get dry. By high humidity levels, we mean when the amount of moisture in the air is low. Regulating your humidifier to 30% to 50% is a great tip to keep your skin healthy in such weather conditions.
Always use moisturizers before going to bed
People with eczema are prone to drier skin in the winter. If you have eczema from frequent hand washing, here is a remedy for you. Apply hand sanitizer before going to bed or anytime that you are free.
Hand sanitizers before bed act as a liquid adhesive to avoid dry skin. Proper application of hand sanitizers will allow your skin to absorb its lost nutrients through your skin. Plus, you’re also protecting yourself from the coronavirus and any other possible infections.
To Wrap It Up
Avoiding dry skin with hand sanitizer may not be that difficult after all. In this article, we have discussed effective tips to prevent dry skin when using a hand sanitizer. Tips like washing your hands and ensuring they are wet before using a hand sanitizer can be a godsend.
Furthermore, your choice of hand sanitizer is dependent on its ingredients. Additionally, endeavour to always moisturize your skin before going to bed.
Here at Buy Gloves, our hand sanitizers are specially formulated to keep your skin moisturized. We understand the struggle of protecting yourself against dry skin, so we take the time to make sure our hand sanitizers can help you lock in moisture. Check through our collections today!
