Winter Skin: Why It Gets Worse and What Actually Helps

Every year, skin that behaved itself all summer starts cracking around the knuckles in November. It's predictable, it's annoying, and most of what people do about it is slightly wrong. Here's what's actually happening and what helps.

Cold air holds less water

This is the root of it. Cold air physically cannot hold as much moisture as warm air, so winter air is drier — and dry air pulls water out of whatever it touches, including you.

Your skin loses water continuously through a process called transepidermal water loss. In humid conditions that loss is slow. In dry air it accelerates, and skin that was comfortable in July starts feeling tight by October.

Indoor heating makes it worse, not better

Forced-air heating dries indoor air further, often well below what's comfortable for skin. So you move between cold dry air outside and warm dry air inside, with no relief in either.

A humidifier in the room you sleep in is one of the highest-impact things you can do, and it has nothing to do with what you put on your skin.

Hot showers are the other culprit

A long hot shower feels wonderful in January and strips your skin's own oils while it does. Those oils are the barrier slowing water loss, and removing them leaves skin worse off than before you got in.

Warm rather than hot, and shorter, makes a real difference. So does the soap you use: harsh detergents compound the problem, while a tallow-based bar like Midnight Tide cleans without stripping as aggressively.

The timing trick that actually matters

Apply moisturizer to damp skin, within about three minutes of getting out of the shower.

This is the single most underused piece of advice in skincare. Moisturizer applied to damp skin traps the water that's already there. Applied to skin you've thoroughly towel-dried twenty minutes ago, it has much less to work with.

Pat dry rather than rubbing, leave your skin slightly damp, and apply straight away.

Why occlusives beat lotions in winter

Most drugstore lotion is largely water. In summer that's fine. In winter, water-heavy products can evaporate off dry skin and leave you no better than before.

What works in cold weather is something occlusive — a product that forms a barrier and slows water loss. Beef tallow does this well because its composition is close to your skin's own oils, so it absorbs rather than sitting greasily on top. Our Amber Musk lotion or the fragrance-free Pur+ both work this way.

Don't forget the parts you ignore

Hands, knuckles, heels, elbows, and shins take the worst of winter because they have fewer oil glands to begin with. They need more product and more frequent application than your arms do.

Hands in particular need reapplying after every wash, which in winter is a lot. Keeping something by the sink beats good intentions.

When it's not just dry skin

Skin that's cracked, bleeding, intensely itchy, or not improving with consistent moisturizing is worth showing to a doctor. Winter dryness responds to the basics. Something that doesn't may be a condition that needs actual treatment, and a moisturizer isn't that.

For everything short of that, the routine is unglamorous and it works: shorter cooler showers, gentler soap, damp-skin application, something occlusive, and a humidifier while you sleep. Browse the lotions if you need the occlusive part.