Keeping your skin healthy during winter

It's cold outside, and you're probably starting to bundle up in your big jackets. But even a little bit of skin exposed to the elements can be harmful to your health. Jane Balderidge and Sonja Powell spend most of their time outdoors. Even in the winter, they try not to neglect their skin. Powell said, "I still do the sunscreen, especially on mornings like this, and lots of chapstick." Balderidge said, "Luckily I started when I was 15, because I'm outside most of my life and I would look 100 years old right now if I didn't. So I try never to miss a day." But not everyone is so careful during the winter months. When you're outside or at the beach in the summertime many people remember to put on sun screen but experts say in the winter, the same rules still apply. Dr. Jonathon Crane said, "You do get a lot of sun exposure during the winter time and the ultraviolet a exposure also in the winter time so you definitely want to use that sunscreen." Dr. Crane says dry skin is also a problem. "If it starts to dry out bad it could itch more, it could start flaking more, you could get areas of redness which we call dry skin eczema. Dry skin eczema could sometimes get infected easier than normal skin." But he says there are steps to prevent your skin from drying. "You want to take quick cool showers, because if you take a long shower it rinses off a lot of your skin oils," Crane said. He recommends using a mild bar soap to keep in your skin's natural oils. "When you get out of that shower you want to moisturize. And creams are a lot better than lotions." And last but not least, Dr. Crane says don't forget the sunscreen. "If you want to avoid skin cancer it pays to use sunscreen and that's the easiest way to avoid skin cancer is just by using good sunscreen." That's something Powell tries to do. "I do it because n 10 or 15 years from now I don't want to have lots of wrinkles." Crane says even though you may not be outside as much in the winter or you may not have as much skin exposed, it doesn't matter, sun damage adds up. He says to use a sunscreen with an SPF of 15 or higher.