So, we’re now in the middle of the autumn, so we’re now halfway through to winter (yay?). Well, as much as I personally love winter, there is still a month of autumn left, which means that we’re in that horrible place where the Sun is scorching one side of the street, meanwhile the other is as cold as an ice cream shop in Alaska.
And as with any other season, autumn also has its certain difficulties when it comes to taking care of your body, skin and hair. In a previous article, we talked about the general dangers to your body in cold weather, but now let’s take a look at the specific aspects of autumn that could potentially cause some kind of damage to your hair and skin.
Rain
In case you haven’t noticed, because you may be binge-watching your favorite shows or maybe your house has no windows, we are now deep into autumn. This means one of two things:
- We are going to have a hard time deciding what to wear when we go out, as it’s either too cold for t shirts and too hot for sweaters;
- It’s going to be raining. A lot.
But aside from getting wet and catching a cold, what problem is there with too much rain? Isn’t it better that it rains, since the air afterwards is fresh? We like to think so. However, rain can actually be dangerous to our skin. “Wait a minute, how’s that possible? It’s completely natural.” Well you’re partially correct.
If you take a look outside, and if you’re living in a big city, you’ll notice that there is not a lot of nature around the area. This means that most of the precipitation is quite possibly full of harmful chemicals from all the dirt and pollution. So when the polluted precipitation rises, it creates polluted rainwater.
And then when it rains, all those polluted chemicals come down to Earth and possibly onto your skin. Now keep in mind, these chemicals aren’t dangerous, in that, they probably won’t cause you a lot of harm unless it’s acid rain.
In the beginning of autumn, you get the first rains. Now, these are generally the dirtiest ones, since all the pollution that had been building up during the summer is now being poured down. This kind of rain can damage your hair and it’s just plain dirty. I’m sure no one likes dirty rain on their skin.
Now, while the beginning of autumn is the only time when you have this kind of rain, there is also soft rain, which is now much cleaner and can actually be good for your skin. In fact, there are people who take baths in rainwater, as they say it is not only healthy for the skin, but also the hair. While the study on rainwater is still being done and not everything about its effect on skin and hair is known, there are still some very basic rules you can follow to take care of your skin during rainstorms.
A very simple and easy one to follow is simply to take a bath. Rainwater, regardless whether it is from the first rain or from soft rain, can feel sticky and unpleasant. Simply washing your body after being caught in a rainstorm is the simplest way to solve this problem.
However, if you do have to go outside for some reason and there is no way of avoiding the rain, you could simply apply water resistant lotions and creams, which protect your skin from water entirely.
But the basic rule of thumb to taking care of your skin and hair in the autumn is simply to avoid the first rains. These generally come around August and September, depending on where you live, and again, are the storms that contain the dirtiest of water. By simply avoiding these, you can be sure that your skin and hair will remain undamaged.
Wind
Another possible danger to your skin are strong winds. Now, don’t panic, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t leave the house during autumn. You simply have to take care of yourself a little more if you have sensitive or easily irritable skin.
After the warm weather of the summer, it’s easy to lose track of cold dry patches on your skin. However, they could potentially cause some damage to it.
First of all, there are wind burns. Yes, even the wind can burn you sometimes (what a scary world we live in). If your skin gets easily irritated from either cold air or the friction of wind, then you’re going to have to be extra careful when outside. While it may not be dangerous, it may cause your skin to turn flaky and red, start itching a pealing.
To be honest, I don’t know anyone who would enjoy this experience, but if you’re someone who most definitely doesn’t want to know what it’s like to feel wind burns, make sure to use lotion and to keep you skin moist and nourished and cover as much of it as possible, to avoid damaging more areas than you have to.
Or Just Don’t Go Out
Yes, you can also just stay inside. But in all seriousness, if you are the kind of person who leave their homes often, then make sure you prepare yourself for the cold weather, the storms and the wind. After the leisurely summer, of having to not worry about stuff life wind burns and cold, dry skin, it’s easy to forget about keeping your skin moist.
Although the rain in the middle of the autumn is not very dirty compared to the first rains of the season, still try your best to avoid them, if you don’t want to have sticky skin. And again; wear as much clothing as you can, as it is the simplest and easiest way of taking care of your skin. Because obviously, with it covered, you won’t have to do much.
So start getting your winter clothes prepared, the cough medicine and the mittens and get ready, because it’s only going to get colder from here on out.
