WINTER WELLNESS STRATEGIES
Your skin needs help to survive
Calgary entered the month of November with sunshine and a high of 23C. But within a week we were bracing against 87 km/ h winds and -13C temperatures. You could almost feel your skin cringing.
With its rapidly fluctuating weather, Calgarians have to be extra diligent to maintain healthy skin. But rather than focusing on the latest products advertised in stores or pushed on Tiktok, people should pay attention to their overall health.
“It's hard to think about having healthy skin without being a healthy person. It's hard to separate skin from everything else we do to be healthy,” said Dr. Rohan Bissoondath, founder of Preventous Cosmetic Medicine.
The key ingredients to a rosy glow aren't aloe, hyaluronic acid, shea butter, tea tree oil but rather proper sleep, nutrition and exercise.
A person should strive for seven to eight hours of sleep a night, have a balanced diet with omega 3s and healthy fats, and a regular workout whether it's a brisk walk or a trip to the gym. After you've got a handle on that, then move on to skin care.
“Everywhere you turn someone has something to sell or promote. But more important is ensuring you have the right ingredients, the right retinols, the right amount, the Vitamin C, that is right for you.”
Bissoondath encourages people to look at ingredients and seek expert advice if there's a recurring problem or issue that needs to be addressed. He noted that medical-grade skin-care products are available to anyone and are generally not more expensive than high-end cosmetics sold in stores.
“It really is about your lifestyle and when it comes to products, picking the right products for that individual and not making the mistake of treating a certain condition, but the goal or the long game has to be having healthy, resilient skin that isn't reactive to the changes we deal with in our environment.
“People say “I need a cream for my acne or I need a cream for my dry skin. That's the mistake.” If you go in a store, they'll give you a cream for dry skin and that's why you'll never get the results you deserve or you should get if you take a holistic view of your skin and not look at it in isolation.”
As for a skin care routine, Bissoondath notes every person's skin is different and will react differently to products but generally the first step for dry skin is to find a good hydrating cleanser. “We want to hydrate from the inside out and then the outside in.” Follow that with a balancing toner, exfoliating polisher and exfoliating scrub to encourage the turnover of cells.
Most people reach for a moisturizer but there's a difference between hydrating and moisturizing and there's a role for both.
“Moisturizers are creating a barrier and locking in moisture ... But I worry that they might make the skin lazy. We want to encourage the health of the cells, we want as much natural hydration as possible. Sometimes people use these heavy moisturizers and it's really almost blocking the skin and inhibiting the turnover of those cells we want to slough off. It's almost working against what we want to do.”
On the other hand, hydrators — like hyaluronic acid, fruit acids, aloe, and glycerine — pull water in from the environment and truly hydrate the skin.
Another crucial product that often gets overlooked in winter is sunscreen. But Bissoondath said it's is as important in January as it is in July.
“People think `I'm not outside as much or it's not as sunny. But we know as Calgarians we get a lot of sun. The sun is reflecting off the snow so it's more intense. The winter rays are just as important to think about and block effectively.”
Everywhere you turn someone has something to sell or promote.
But more important is ensuring you have the right ingredients.