Keep your skin and hair healthy this rainy season

MANILA, Philippines – Being cooped up indoors during the rainy season is no excuse to stop your daily skin and hair regimen.

In fact, you should have more reason to tend to your skin and hair during because of a high risk of skin infection and hair damage caused by damp and humid weather. 

Here are 6 tips to keep both your skin supple and your hair glossy during this season:

1. Load up on H2O. 

Most of us forget to drink enough water (7-8 glasses a day) during the rainy season because the low temperature hardly makes us feel thirsty. However, keeping yourself hydrated is important (all dermatologists swear by this) to keep your skin and hair healthy. Dehydration leads to dry, blotchy skin and brittle hair.

2. Keep your regimen

Being indoors is also no excuse to be lazy and miss out on your skin care regimen. Cleanse, tone, and moisturize. If you need to go outdoors and you get your hair and your skin wet, the more that you should clean up afterwards. Some people who don’t feel that much oil on their skin during cold weather think this is a sign that their face is fine. But it’s the exact opposite.

Aside from cleaning, toning is also a must as this will maintain your skin’s pH balance. You should also moisturize your skin regularly — even those with oily skin (just use water-based moisturizers).

For your hair; if you’re used to washing it daily, make sure that you use a mild shampoo formula and conditioner. For extra dry hair, get extra moisture in your scalp by washing it with mild shampoo and moisturizing conditioner only every other day.

3. Disinfect

The skin covering your face is not the only part that needs special attention. A wide variety of skin infection types can be contracted from flood and sometimes, even rain water. If you went out in the rain or was exposed to flood water, always remember to wash up and use anti-fungal soap on your skin exposed to flood water.

The Department of Health often warns of leptospirosis which you get from flood water laced with rat pee getting into your open wounds. But even though you dont have any cuts, remember that your skin has pores which bacteria can penetrate. Avoid skin infection by making sure your skin is  clean.

4. Gloss it

Put a bit of oil in your hair thirty minutes to an hour before taking a shower. This locks in the good type of moisture your hair needs and will naturally work as your hair’s anti-frizz system.

5. Dry your hair the natural way.

Stay away from hair dryers as often as you can. If you must, make sure that the heat is regulated. Going from too much heat to a cool environment can cause your hair to break easily.

Make sure that before going out in the rain, your hair is dry as this will help prevent scalp problems such as dandruff and hair loss. Wearing a hoodie will also keep your hair dry and protect it from humidity.

6. Avoid tight hairstyles

Tightly tying up your hair is unadvisable in the rainy season as this can trap rain water in your hair which can make it limp and frizzy. If you must style your hair, go for loose briads, buns or pony tails, making sure your hair has room to breathe and rain water can slip through in case you get wet.

Keeping your skin and hair looking good is easy once your regimen becomes part of your system. Eating healthy will also make a huge difference. Here are some great sources of vitamins and minerals that will do wonders for you hair and skin:

• Walnuts – fatty acids and omega 3 for keeping your skin supple and moisturized and your hair, shiny
• Salmon – omega 3 and selenium for protecting your skin from the sun
• Tomato – lycopene for anti-aging
• Spinach – omega 3 and Vitamin E which helps in keeping your skin healthy
• Oysters – zinc for skin cell repair
• Green Tea – polyphenol which is very good for sun damaged hair

– Rappler.com

Image of woman from Shutterstock.