Having dry chapped lips can feel like a never-ending battle, where you use countless products in the hope that one of them will turn out to be the magic cure for your lips. Apart from looking bad, if left untreated dry lips can even crack and start bleeding, and that is a very painful scenario to encounter.
How to get Rid of Dry Lips?
Well, there is no one time solution for that. You will just have to develop a routine to keep your lips feeling their best by not letting them dry out.
[Also Read: Dry Lips And Mouth Symptoms]
The very first thing that you need to know is that licking your lips will only dry it further. So never lick your lips. Needless to say you should also never bite or chew on your lips.
What causes Dry Lips?
There are a number of factors that could contribute to dry lips.
1. The most likely factor is dehydration, so make sure you drink a lot of water. Some people need more water than others, so even if you feel you’re drinking enough water try to double the amount and see if there is any improvement. Dehydration leads to dry skin and dry lips. So keeping yourself well hydrated with water and fruit juices is paramount.
Source: onsugar.com
[sc:mediad]
2. Climate could also be a contributing factor. Notice how your lips dry up and crack during winter? So knowing if the climate affects your lips will help you be prepared well in advance.
3. Apart from dehydration and the weather, other factors such as pollution, the lipsticks that you use, and even a vitamin B deficiency can lead to dry lips.
Before you start trying to heal your dry lips, you need to exfoliate it to get rid of the dried out scaly skin.
Exfoliate Your Lips
Prepare a lip scrub by mixing half a teaspoon of sugar with half a teaspoon of honey. Mix and apply this onto your lips. Scrub your lips gently with your finger to remove dead skin cells. Always scrub with your finger and not with a toothbrush as the bristles can be harsh on your lips.
You can also apply a thick layer of Vaseline and leave it on for twenty minutes and wipe it off with a sponge. The Vaseline will soften the dry layer and loosen it so that it becomes easier to exfoliate.
Once your lips have been properly exfoliated, the next step is to heal them. You can apply a few drops of vitamin E oil to your lips and the surrounding area. Vitamin E helps speed up the healing process.
[Also Read: Treatment For Chapped Lips]
One trick to keep your lips moisturized for longer is to wet them with water and apply your lip balm over the wet lips. This way you are effectively locking in the moisture, allowing your lips to heal. When picking a lip balm, make sure you pick one that is not flavoured. Your lip balm should be specifically designed to hydrate extremely dry lips.
Avoid wearing lipsticks as much as possible as they can also dry out the lips. Moreover, if you have chapped lips, then lipstick will only end up highlighting how damaged your lips are. If you have to wear lipsticks, then opt for creamy lipsticks that won’t dry out your lips too much. And always wear your lip balm before you put on your lipstick.
Have plenty of citrus fruits as they help make your lips supple and plump. If you are a smoker, then not only will your lips get dry, but they will also get discoloured eventually. So quitting smoking is your only option to help your lips.
