Dry climates zap moisture from your skin. When your skin lacks moisture, it's more likely to lead to wrinkles and fine lines. Typically, the driest climates occur in the coldest temperatures. That's because there's low humidity during chilly months.
Low humidity may make for better hair days, but it can wreak havoc on your skin. In arid climates and/or high altitudes, like the desert or mountains, the air can literally suck moisture from your skin, leaving it dry, itchy and feeling tight.
Yes, dry weather can be bad for the skin. In fact, it is one of the most common reasons people experience skin problems. When the humidity drops, the skin's ability to retain moisture is reduced, leading to dryness, itching, scaling, and cracking. In severe cases, dry skin can become inflamed and infected.
Anti-Aging Effects
The effects of aging, such as fine lines and wrinkles, are more noticeable if your skin lacks moisture and feels dry. So, if you're concerned about the premature signs of aging, humidity can provide your skin with the moisture it needs to appear more supple and youthful.
“The optimum environmental temperature for skin (and for the human body) is around 64.4°F – 71.6°F. This allows for optimum heat exchange between the body (at 98.6°F) and the outside. “Dry skin is an issue related more to humidity (and dew point) rather than temperature itself.
It can keep you looking younger.
Cold weather enhances the complexion and rejuvenates skin, Wong says. In a way, it slows down the aging process—think of cryotherapy spa treatments or splashing cold water on your face in the morning—and keeps skin tight, vibrant and radiant.
When your skin lacks moisture, it's more likely to lead to wrinkles and fine lines. Typically, the driest climates occur in the coldest temperatures. That's because there's low humidity during chilly months. The lack of the humidity in the air (and that dreadful winter wind!)
When the skin becomes dry or dehydrated, it can accentuate the appearance of lines and wrinkles, making you look older. Even some common anti-aging products can cause skin to become overly dry, so if you're not counteracting this effect with the right moisturizing ingredients, you could be doing your skin a disservice.
To put a basic point on it, both are correct. Humidity in the home can be a good thing as long as it is not in excess. Excess humidity can cause health effects and other issues, but so can having air that is too dry.
“Hyaluronic acid should not be used in a dry climate cause it draws moisture from the air into the skin. If you use it and there us no moisture in the air around you, it draws moisture from your skin causing even more dryness.”
“We do have a dry climate, and obviously in the summertime you notice it more than in the winter, so we look at things like dry skin, dry eyes and dry nose.” It generally takes about two weeks to become used to the change in climate.
So when the air lacks humidity, your skin will start to dry out. This can cause itching, flaking, and tightness around the joints. It can also cause painful cracking of the skin, and chapped lips. Overly dry air can also cause flare-ups of existing skin problems, including eczema and acne.
Maybe you're looking to move to Utah or Nevada, or perhaps you're already in a drier climate. Either way, it's no secret that a dry atmosphere can cause a great deal of damage to your hair, from split ends and frizz to dullness and an itchy scalp.
Benefits of a Dry Environment
Warmer weather in dry environments also prevents many of the health problems of cold winters. Hyperthermia becomes a bigger danger as people age and are less sensitive to cold. This contributes to more deaths during cold climate winters.
As the relative humidity of air increases, the volume concentration of oxygen in air (nominally 20.9% in dry air) is reduced by the increasing water vapour pressure. Figure 1 shows how oxygen concentration in air is diluted by humidity at different temperatures.
That's because the sweat evaporates quickly in dry heat, allowing the body to feel cooler, faster, which created an odd sensation that we weren't sweating a lot, despite the high temperatures. It also explains why my entire mouth, throat and face felt like a dried corn husk.
In addition, humid air is better for your sinuses than dry air: aside from bloody noses, by “raising indoor relative humidity levels to 43 percent or above”, you can avoid 86 percent of aforementioned virus particles [skymetweather.com.] The verdict is in: humid air is better than dry for your health!
Exposure to light is a top cause of premature aging: Sun exposure causes many skin problems. Ultraviolet (UV) light and exposure to sunlight age your skin more quickly than it would age naturally. The result is called photoaging, and it's responsible for 90% of visible changes to your skin.
For most people, the answer to “At what age does your face change the most?” is sometime in their 50s or 60s. This is around the time that the effects of gravity and fat loss become extremely noticeable.
Blame loss of collagen and elastin, which makes skin more brittle; a slower turnover of dead skin cells, causing dullness; less oil production and faster moisture loss; plus any acne scarring—and it's no wonder aging skin is no longer smooth and bright.
“Typically humidity is better for the skin as it provides additional moisture to the skin whereas dry weather often depletes our skin of moisture,” explains Alissia Zenhausern, N.M.D., a naturopathic physician at NMD Wellness of Scottsdale.
Skin Benefits of Humidity
Subjects in a drier climate had significant decrease in skin elasticity and an increase in fine lines and wrinkles. This certain study showed that increased humidity had a positive effect on skin properties, particularly when it came to formation of fine lines and wrinkles.
After sifting through numerous studies that looked at the effects of relative humidity on the skin, the researchers determined that a dry climate can increase skin aging in a few key ways. One of the studies included in the review showed that low relative humidity resulted in skin dryness and roughness.