Chapped lips is not a serious medical condition, but it can cause a lot of discomfort and embarrassment. Lips are an important part of your face which attract attention. The skin of the lips is very delicate, so at the slightest disturbance in the environment, they can get chapped in no time.
Women have been particularly careful about their lips since times immemorial. They have been using home remedies to help chapped lips get back to their normal self. Home remedies can come to your rescue when you get chapped lips.
Symptoms of Chapped Lips
Skin is a delicate top layer of the body. During dry and cold weather it looks cracked and chapped. Lips being very delicate, become painful and may start bleeding. Needless to say that bleeding lips will have intense pain and cause discomfort. Dryness, redness, pain, peeling and splitting mark the main symptoms of chapped lips. In additions to pain and discomfort, it becomes a cause of embarrassment too.
Causes of Chapped Lips
Lips can chap because of many reasons, chief among them are change in seasons and allergic reaction which may be because of some chemicals of medicines. The other causes could be dehydration, smoking or exposure to the sun. Cool and dry weather is generally the reason for chapping of the lips.
Sometimes, those who have the habit of licking the lips constantly have chapped lips. Excessive licking robs the lips of their natural moisture, resulting in dryness and cracking.
Home Remedies for Chapped Lips
Humidifier for Chapped Lips
When skin cells are depleted of moisture, humidifier can be of great help. Keep a humidifier in the room where you sleep, it will replenish the lost moisture. A humidifier is meant to release water vapor in the room and a humid room will help the health of the lips. Be careful and particular to clean the humidifier, otherwise it will spread the mold and the fungi that it can harbor.
Honey
Honey is a great moisturizer and healer. Honey is antibacterial, so it can prevent infections that can affect the chapped lips. Being a moisturizer, honey hydrates your lips, thereby treating any symptoms of chapping.
Apply honey on your lips a few times a day, and must apply at night. Though you may like to use a cotton swab for applying honey, its best to use the tip of your index finger for this purpose.
Almond Oil and Bees Wax
The experts recommend making your own balm at home using honey, almond oil and bees wax. All these items are available at your local stores. Take 2 tablespoons of sweet almond oil and one tablespoon of beeswax. Keep them on a low flame so that beeswax can melt. Once beeswax melts, add one teaspoon of honey and let it cool. Your special lip balm is ready. Use it 3-4 times a day and don’t forget to apply on your lips as well.
Hydrate Your Chapped Lips
Drinking plenty of fluids is a simple and effective home remedy to avoid chapping of the lips. You may keep sipping water throughout the day when you are in harsh and dry weather.
This will keep hydrating your skin cells and help treat your chapped lips. But caffeinated beverages do not hydrate the body, so do the alcoholic drinks. Drinking 2 to 3 liters of water a day is the best remedy.
Use Butter, Milk Cream or Clarified Butter
These are proven remedies to deal with the chapping of the lips. If you apply any of these every day, relief will be there on its way for your chapped lips. There is an interesting but sure shot way of using these milk based remedies for chapped lips. Apply a bit of any one of these on you naval to heal your chapped lips. Though it doesn’t seem convincing, it does work wonders.
Petroleum Jelly
Petroleum jelly is one such item which is available on the shelves of every household. Apply a little bit of it on your lips and see how well it can help heal your chapped lips. It helps to moisturize your lips by retaining the natural moisture of your lips.
Vaseline is the most well known brand worldwide. It has been a popular home remedy for chapped and cracked lips across generations.
Lifestyle for Chapped Lips
Licking ones lips frequently is a wrong habit and one should get rid of this. It is one of the causes that trigger chapping of the lips. women lick their lips more often than the men. The reason is that licking produces saliva which tends to evaporate fast, robbing your lips of moisture. Some women apply fruity and scented balms on their lips which tempts them to lick their lips. They need to stop using those balms and start using a neutral one.
Drink water frequently to remain hydrated. If cold weather is the culprit, limit your exposure to it. Protect your lips before you go out or stay indoors in dry weather. Apply any lubricant that suits you, this will be the most useful modification in your lifestyle. The use of fragrances, scents, and other skin care products that are likely to cause allergies should be curtailed.
One very important but simple tip to take care of your lips is to breathe through your nose instead of your mouth. Wind and breeze, specially the cold breeze passing over your lips every few seconds will definitely dry up your lips. Even air conditioners dry the lips, be extra cautious about moisturizing the lips if you are going to be sitting or spending your time in the air conditioner.
Diet for Chapped Lips
One can not really prescribe any diet that will instantly help dry and cracked lips. Chapped lips become very sensitive to hot, spicy and sour foods. Pungent food like mustard can irritate the lips. So, stay away from all these types of foods. Caffeine and alcoholic drinks dry up the skin, it is better to avoid these drinks, if dry lips cause a problem to you.
Increasing the use of vitamin-rich-diet will help you with the softness of lips. To be precise anything that helps the skin helps lips as well.
