Cracked skin is a common skin issue resulting from both medical and nonmedical causes. Most people experience cracked skin several times in their lifetime. In nonmedical cases, this skin issue occurs seasonally, especially during the dry, cold winter. It’s not so serious but easeless and even causes pain. That’s why most people who are suffering from it want to explore how to heal cracked skin quickly and effectively.
Let’s find some useful ways to get rid of cracked skin in the following article, giving your skin the original smooth surface.
Causes of cracked skin
Before looking for how to treat cracked skin, it’s necessary to make clear what is cracked skin (also known as chapped skin) and its causes. Because the solutions are effective only when they can directly eject the effect of the factors causing the problem.
What is chapped skin?
Chapped skin is dry cracked skin which often appears on lips, fingertips, elbows, heels and around toes. This skin issue is recognized by skin fissures, rough and dry surface of skin, making it difficult to stretch skin without a bit pain or itchy. In some thin and sensitive skin parts such as lips, chapped skin is significantly painful and can create open wounds.
Causes of chapped skin
Except for the cases of cracked skin resulting from serious skin conditions, it mainly results from the exposure to the environment which has low humidity. In general, not all skin surfaces will be cracked when exposed to the outdoor environment. The skin parts which cover bone joints such as elbows or directly touch the surface of objects and detergent such as fingertips, heels and toes are more likely to be chapped.
These skin parts originally are dryer than the others, because they are thicker to stand with stretch, pressure and friction. In normal environmental conditions, our skin can naturally hydrate itself with sebum production of sebaceous glands under the skin’s surface. But with low humidity, this production is not enough and obviously leads to a moisture deficit, causing dry and then cracked skin.
As we get older, the aging process makes sebaceous glands under the skin’s surface activate less effectively. At the same time, aging skin with rough, dry, loose and saggy surfaces is another factor making it more likely to be cracked when exposed to the external environment. Thus, cracked skin is more common with people from the age of 40.
Explore how to heal cracked skin with simple and effective solutions
The good advice is that you should treat cracked skin as soon as possible. Because this skin issue not only gives you uneasiness, but also probably causes open wounds. Thus, it’s necessary to find the right cracked skin treatment to solve this skin issue immediately for healthy skin and ease.
In case of cracked skin resulting from skin conditions, you should speak to a dermatologist for medications and don’t treat yourself. If your cracked skin results from nonmedical causes, here are 4 ways on how to get rid of dry cracked skin you can try.
Gentle exfoliation
Not just a method to increase blood circulation, help sleep better, water soak is also an effective way to heal chapped foot skin, especially in case of heavily dry cracked skin which is rather painful. What you need is a bath of warm water, added a little oil. It can soften your skin, help easily exfoliate dead skin just by gentle scrub, at the same time significantly relieve the pain. Water soak is the best way to exfoliate cracked skin.
You should soak your feet in warm water within 5 to 10 minutes, then gently dry them with a soft cotton towel and keep your feet relaxing. The oil added helps moisturize your skin slightly.
With other cracked skin parts such as elbows, it’s a bit inconvenient with water soak. So, you can try exfoliation products for the body and lips to gently remove dead skin. Exfoliation is an important step to impulses new skin production and creates good conditions for effective moisturization.
Suitable moisturizers
Dry skin in general needs to be taken care of thoroughly with suitable moisturizers. In case of cracked skin, a serious type of dry skin, ideal moisturizers should have more than one use. Besides moisturizing, these products also help to restore skin, repair the outer layer of skin and prevent the bad effects from low-humidity environments on skin.
It’s exactly how to treat skin fissures, replace rough and dry surface of skin with smooth, soft and elastic one.
Humidifier
Within small spaces such as the workplace or house, you can completely increase the humidity for the environment by humidifiers to reduce dry cracked skin.
This appliance turns water into mist, which can be released into the air. Thereby, a large amount of moisture in the air helps to raise the humidity, preventing our skin from being exposed to a dry environment, the main cause of cracked skin.
What you should avoid
Avoid picking flaking skin
After being dry and cracked, flaking skin will appear and make us rather easeless. Thus, there are many people trying to pick flaking skin to hopefully restore the smooth surface. But, it just makes everything worse. Flaking skin or dead skin should be removed by right exfoliation.
Avoid over stretch, friction and detergent
Stretch, friction and detergent are the physical and chemical factors which can make your skin dryer and more likely to be cracked. It’s impossible to keep your skin completely away from these factors but you’d better avoid them as much as possible to protect your skin.
Conclusion
There are many causes to your cracked skin. But the most important thing is that prevention is always better. With nonmedical skin issues, taking care of your skin carefully, focusing on moisturizing is an effective way to treat, as well as protect and keep it healthy and also the right answer to the question: “How to get rid of chapped skin”.
