Now that we are firmly into our second national lockdown, we can reflect on what we have learnt from the first one. The queues forming outside barbers in the week prior to everything shutting showed that we certainly learned to get out hair cut before hand this time round, and most of use have learned to stock up on healthy food rather than multi-packs of crisps and chocolate bars, but perhaps we didn’t learn the lesson of skin care, because we didn’t need to so much.
Last lockdown we were heading into the summer months and that is an important distinction; this time round, we aren’t far off the depths of winter, and we all have out gas-fired central heating/Biomass heating systems/Scandinavian log burners going full blast, and all that dryness is going to take it out of our skin! Stuck indoors with whatever trendy heating system you own going like a ship’s boiler room is going to dry you out like a kipper in no time, and you risk ending up resembling a smoked fish if you don’t do something about it!
Winter is always hard on the skin anyway, but even more so if you are not going outside at all. Never has it been more important to consider your skin and plan to moisturise it properly, but luckily, we have the products that your skin craves, and getting into a routine is pretty easy.
To moisturise properly, you need to follow a series of steps, but if you have a shaving routine, do that first so that you don’t have to do it once you have moisturised:
Step 1: Clean your Beard if you have one. No point in washing your face if your beard is a bit grubby, so clean it as you normally would using a good quality beard shampoo, and rinse it off fully with lashings of warm water.
Step 1: Deep clean your face. You need to wash the days dirt out of your face using a good foaming facewash. Apply the wash to your (clean) hands and mix with a little warm water before gently applying it to the wet skin of your face using circular motions to help open up your pores. Rinse fully with copious amounts of warm water.
Step 3: Pat dry with a soft towel. Just because your face is wet, it doesn’t mean that it is moisturised. The fact is that when a thin layer of water that comes into contact with your skin, it evaporates away very quickly with body heat and takes a good deal of the skin's natural surface oils with it. Never just leave water on your face and body skin.
Step 4: Moisturise liberally. With your skin now clean and dry, it’s time to start getting some of the good stuff back into it. You have a couple of choices here, depending upon your skin type. If you have normal skin, you might want to use a normal daily moisturiser, however if you have oily or greasy skin, you might want to opt for an oil control moisturiser instead. Once again, apply in circular motions where you can.
Step 5: Don’t forget your eyes. The skin surrounding your eyes is especially sensitive and needs special care. Gently apply a special eye moisturiser around the whole area and let it settle.
Do this every day and you will stop the worst ravages of winter lockdown from drying out your face. And with Christmas only just around the corner, maybe the significant person in your life might get you a face care kit. You lucky thing!
