Chapped lips are medically referred to as irritant contact cheilitis. While not dangerous, they can be uncomfortable and difficult to get rid of. Here are a few tips for keeping your lips from chapping in the first place.
Plan for the Weather
Chapped lips are worse in the winter because climates tend to be drier and winds more fierce. The combination irritates the skin on the lips, leading to cracking, peeling, and inflammation. If you’re prone to chapped lips, keep chapstick on hand and apply it before leaving the house. Exposure to the sun can also cause your lips to become chapped, so use a lip balm with sunscreen to provide extra protection.
Breathe Through Your Nose
An increase of congestive colds during the colder months may also influence the appearance of chapped lips. When your nose stops up, you tend to breathe through your mouth. This means you not only have wind blowing over your lips, but your breath doing the same thing at a much closer and constant level. If you have trouble with allergies or catch a cold, try to keep your nasal cavities clear.
Dry weather can also cause your nose to dry out and stop up; saline spray can help keep mucus membranes moist, making it easier to breathe through your nose. If you tend to snore or breathe through your mouth in your sleep, try applying chapstick before bedtime to protect your lips.
Moisturize
Just because the cold weather is outside does not mean you are safe inside. Running heaters through the winter to stay warm can be just as drying as the wind outside. Running a humidifier inside your house, especially at night, can help minimize some of the damage. The extra moisture forced into the air can make a noticeable difference in your lips -- not to mention your skin.
Leave Chapped Lips Alone
When your lips feel dry and sore, you may have a tendency to try to keep them wet by licking them. While it seems it should add moisture to parched skin, it may have the complete opposite effect; the constant abrasion of your saliva-covered tongue can enhance an irritant reaction.
If your lips are already chapped, it can be tempting to try to peel off those tiny flakes of skin. Don’t! Picking at chapped lips is only going to make things worse, and may peel off more skin than is ready to come, causing deep abrasions that bleed and take even longer to heal. Just as dry skin benefits from a gentle exfoliator (such as sugar mixed with almond oil), applying a gentle exfoliant to your lips can help scrub off dead skin, making room for healthier skin cells to shine through.
If you’re especially prone to chapped lips, it may be a good idea to keep them balmed most of the time. While there are hundreds of chapsticks on the market, not all of them are equal.
