Places with freezing temperatures require people to stay extra cautious, especially when it is their skin. Usually, cold winds in the winter season tend to affect the skin of our face, hands, feet, etc., and it requires extra care.
Just the way extreme heat over your body could burn your skin from places causing you to feel irritated and painful, the same way cold winds in icy areas have the same effect on our skin, except the burns on the body to extreme heat is known as sunburn. The burn on the body due to cold winds and freezing temperatures are known as Windburn.
Generally, when we come back from a freezing place, which means the area is covered with snow, there are chances of your skin to experience windburn. The skin turns red, puffy as well as painful. You might think that this is evident but what you are unaware of is the damage it could cause on your skin.
In the case of Windburn, the very top layer of your skin becomes red as appearing after a skin gets burnt; it looks flaky and scorched. According to Health, the skin’s topcoat suffers due to cold and harsh winds, which are also low in humidity, making the blood vessels inside diluted.
As the dry and cold air takes away all the natural oil and moisture from your skin, the second sensitive layer of the skin is exposed to the cold weather, making it difficult for the skin to retain moisture as the upper layer becomes drier and drier. As the skin’s protective layer moves away, the sensitive area keeps feeling more irritated and burnt every minute, which then appears red.
The thing is, windburn could be a sunburn during the winter season, where cold weather strips away the protective layer of moisture and natural oil from your skin. The stripping of the oils leaves the sensitive part exposed to the sunlight containing UV rays, which harms the skin, making it burn and feel of inflammation over the affected area.
The Symptoms of Windburn
Most of the time, it is difficult to identify whether someone is experiencing windburn or sunburn. Though both appear the same and have the same symptoms, there are times your skin might be suffering from both these conditions.
There are also chances that if you are suffering from any previous skin diseases such as eczema, for which you are on a prescribed treatment, hen your skin is prone to get affected from windburn. Any medicines you are on that involves acids strips the upper layer of your skin from moisture.
You need to apply moisturizer as soon as you are done with these treatments and use sunscreen lotions, even in winters. Whatever amount of sunlight is peaking out from behind the clouds contain UV rays, which will only irritate your already affected skin.
If you have been to a place recently where the temperature is freezing, it has affected your skin. Moreover, if your skin feels irritated, inflammation or redness, you are experiencing windburn. Here are some of the symptoms you should know about the condition.
- In extreme conditions, there appear blisters on the affected area, which pains.
- Peeling of the dry skin
- Inflammatory feeling over the surface
- Pigmentation and Redness
- Extremely Dry to touch
Treating Windburn
Treating your windburn is similar to how you treat your dry skin, but here it might take you more than a day to bring your skin back to normal. The only way to treat your windburn is to apply a gentle skin cleanser that isn’t very harsh on your skin.
You can go for any prescribed pain killer to soothe the pain and inflammation over the affected area. Do not forget to enrich yourself with antioxidants and keep yourself hydrated enough, as it is one reason our skin falls dry.
For soothing your burn over the skin, go for cucumbers, which feels cool and relaxing to ease the pain. You must apply sunscreen twice a day to protect your skin from the UV rays and harsh cold winds. Keeps moisturizer and sunscreens in handy for immediate use after taking showering.
Do not go for a hot shower, as it would make your windburn even worse. Go for warm water to help your body relax. The only way you can try to prevent windburn is by taking good care of your skin and trying to go outside as little as possible to be less exposed to the outside cold winds.
