Dry and itchy skin is an all-year round grooming and skincare problem. Whether you’ve found a good skincare regimen or not (Did you try slugging?), you will often find yourself dealing with dry and itchy skin. Even though this is a more common problem in cold weather, you can find yourself facing a similar predicament even in the summer. It’s still a little hard to figure out how to avoid this situation, but there are definitely multiple things that you can do in order to get rid of dry skin and itchiness – also note that dry and dehydrated skin are totally different.

Showers, make them shorter and cooler

We all know the powers of a long and hot shower. It makes you feel warm and relaxed, and nothing really compares to it. But, they really do have negative side effects on your skin. For one, hot water robs you of moisture that the natural oils on your skin need to stay soft and smooth. A good tip, if you can manage it, is to turn down the temperature a little bit during your showers, and make them a quick affair. And while we’re on this note, we know that some of you take multiple showers a day, but a good tip is to limit yourself to having one shower per day, if you can. Also avoid these 5 bad shower habits.

Immediate hydration

We say this all the time but a lot of us skip this altogether. You’ve just showered, and after drying all you want to do is put on clothes and be on your way or head to bed immediately. But don’t. It is extremely important to moisturize every single part of your body immediately after showering. We know, we know, it may be a lot to ask. But after showering, your body’s natural oils need some help and a boost. If you have invested in a good full body moisturizer, make sure you’re rubbing it on your skin immediately after showering. If you don’t have access to that, I’ve found that coconut oil does the trick and leaves your skin feeling smooth, supple, and radiant after showering.

And voila! These are two incredible easy and low maintenance habits that you can build in order to slowly get rid of dry and itchy skin. You will have to really be regimented with it if you are looking for long term solutions to avoiding that horrible feeling of skin so dry it itches. Everyone has access to these two easy tools to use for the long term health of your skin, and trust us on this, they really do work.

Photo via WebMD