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Causes and Natural Remedies to Heal Flaky Lips

Extremely dry flaky lips

Table Of Contents

Flaky lips simply indicate dryness. When something is flaky, it breaks easily into flakes. You can just imagine how it feels when your lips are dry to an extent of becoming flaky. For example, exposing them to dry weather for long makes them flaky.

In short, flaky lips are dry and chapped. They also look scaly. The flakiness makes you look terrible. Due to affected self-esteem, facing people becomes impossible. In severe cases, flakiness may come with some pain.

Extremely dry flaky lips

Extremely dry and flaky

If left untreated, they may develop cracks. These cracks are very painful on stretching. This means that even laughing and eating become an issue. Two points, however, remain paramount for those who are having this problem; understanding the causes and available remedies.

Why are my lips flaky?

Why would your lips become flaky, dry and chapped? The most common cause often blamed for this problem revolves around many environmental and lifestyle factors.

Below are some of the possible causes:

  • Exposure to the wind- Your lips are always naturally moisturized. This natural moisturization is however washed away by a strong wind. For example, riding a motorcycle leaves would live them dry. This dryness makes them flaky and chapped.
  • Lip licking- This is one of the leading causes. When you lick your lips, your saliva removes natural moisture from them. As a result, they become flaky, chapped and cracked. They can easily peel off. The oil layer they naturally have to get washed away by saliva.
  • Prolonged use of lip balms- Your lips can moisturize themselves. When you apply some types of balm, you interfere with their normal pH. This may make them be scaly.
  • Use of nicotine and caffeine- As we all know; caffeine and nicotine can dehydrate your skin including the lip In this case, excessive consumption of drinks that contain caffeine and nicotine may cause this problem.
  • Allergic Reactions- If they are flaky, chapped and cracked, then it might be an allergic reaction. For example, they are at times allergic to some toothpaste, cigarettes, and drinks. Have you ever experienced dry lips brushing your teeth? This is an allergic reaction to sodium in toothpaste.
  • Lack of Vitamin C- People who eat few or no fruits at all are at a higher risk of having this problem. Vitamin C is found in fruits and some vegetables.
  • Vitamin E deficiency- A healthy skin hugely depends on vitamin E. This vitamin protects our skin, including the lips, from UV rays. A diet rich in vitamin E plays an essential role in keeping our skin healthy and moisturized.
  • General body dehydration- This condition can be an indication that your body is dehydrated. Taking much water can help in keeping your cells, including the skin, hydrated.

Remedies for flaky lips

How can you stop your lips from getting flaky, dry, cracked and chapped? You don’t have to get yourself worked out in case you have this condition. You are not alone, and the condition is not terminal. Netdoctor.co.uk, notes that this is a manageable condition.

Research has shown that this condition can be managed at home by use of natural remedies. What you need to heal your lips is within your reach. If not found at home, some of the remedies can be cheaply acquired in the nearest drug store.

Below are 10 natural remedies that you can trust in healing the flakiness and dryness you experience:

keep your diet on check

From the word go, just know that your lips are part of your skin. Therefore, any food that improves your skin helps in preventing them from becoming flaky.

Your diet should be rich in vitamin E and vitamin C. Vitamin C is mainly found in fruits and vegetables. Also increase intake of vitamin E. Some of the foods rich in vitamin E include tomato, spinach, mango, kiwi, avocado, sunflower seeds and broccoli among other fruits and vegetables.

Keep hydrated

Water is the most important aspect of our overall health. If your body is dehydrated, it will be first noted on your skin, including the lips. In this regard, dryness or flakiness may indicate that you are dehydrated.

Apart from keeping your body hydrated, water is a lubricant. It helps in keeping them lubricated and moisturized, thus preventing dryness and cracking. There are many other ways in which water is important to our wellbeing. We cannot afford not to be hydrated.

Use petroleum jelly

Instead of using lip balms, why can’t you use saline petroleum jelly? Most of these balms available in the market may contain some chemicals that may be harsh. This is a good reason why our lips become flaky, cracked and chapped after prolonged use of balms.

To help how to get rid of chapped lips, Vaseline.us highlights that petroleum jelly is one of the best remedies for this condition. In fact, Vaseline jelly is one of the best. Just apply petroleum jelly every time they feel dry.

Leave the flakes alone

We all know that chapped lips are a real bother. Dry lips are tight and flaky. They may even crack and get sore. Therefore, many people are always tempted to remove the dry flakes. This is not a remedy. In fact, you will cause further irritation and worsen the situation.

When these flakes are touched, they may even bleed. Just apply petroleum jelly and leave them alone. Moreover, your hands may be dirty. You might introduce germs and bacteria to your already inflamed lips.

Use sunscreen

You can also try sunscreen. Prolonged exposure to sun may also be unhealthy to your lips. Sunscreen is meant to offer sun protection from direct sunlight.

Some of the best sunscreen lotions that you can adopt include:

  • Kaya skin clinic daily use sunscreen
  • Lotus herbals safe sun UV screen matte gel
  • Aroma magic aloe Vera sunscreen gel with SPF 20
  • The Clarins UV plus HP sunscreen
  • Clinique super city block oil-free daily face protector

Daily use of these sunscreen lotions can provide relief to dryness, chapping or flaking.

Gentle exfoliation

Accumulation of flakes on your lips makes them look terrible. Although touching them using your hands is not advisable, exfoliation, however, is recommended. Removing the flakes gently may allow new skin cells to grow.

Exfoliation, nevertheless, should be done gently, and with the use of a brush. After exfoliation, gently wash them and apply petroleum jelly.

Apply some glycerin

If they are getting chapped due to dehydration, it may take some time before restoring your body’s moisture level. Glycerin comes in to raise your lips’ moisture level. Moreover, glycerin prevents the available moisture from evaporating.

Glycerin should be applied at night before going to bed. By doing this, it will have ample time to repair damaged tissues and heal this condition.

Use humidifier

Dry air is one of the leading causes of dryness and later lip flakiness. Dry air can either be indoor or outdoor. You can’t do anything for outdoor dry air. However, you can raise the humidity of your house. This can be done by use of a humidifier.

A humidifier is a device that raises moisture in a room or entire house. Places that are usually dry use humidifiers to raise room’s humidity. You can adopt this device in your house. When humidity is high, the severity of lip dryness reduces.

Artificial home-made moisturizer

In most cases, natural lip moisturizers work better than chemical-based ones. Ever heard of butter or milk cream moisturizers? These are milk products that work perfectly well in correcting this problem.

They are cheap and readily available. Who can’t afford some milk? In fact, you need very little milk. Applying it a few times a day will miraculously heal your flaky lips.

Keep off beauty products

If you are having flaky lips, strong lotions and lipsticks should be out of your life. The chemicals they contain will only worsen the already bad condition. Use glycerin or petroleum jelly on your face.

References

  1. WebMD.com Why Are My Lips Chapped?
  2. Netdoctor.co.uk How can I stop my lips getting dry and flaky?
  3. Wikihow.com How to Get Rid of Flaky Lips With Petroleum Jelly
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