Dry lips are not actually comfortable. Dryness may cause chapped, cracked or painful lips. Even, when your lips are severely cracked, bleeding is not unusual and major skin problems your lips may be seen for cracking or dry lips.
Do you know what the reasons for dry lips are? Sun exposure, cold weather, and warm wind are the main culprits.
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Besides these, there are also many other things liable for dry or chapped lips. Look at the below for the common causes of dry lips. The usual remedies can relieve you from chapped lips. In severe cracked or dry lips, you should go to a dermatologist.
What Causes Dry Lips: Most Common Reasons
1. Lack of Proper Lip Care
If you are not much conscious to your lips, it may also lead your lips to crack or chapping. Make a daily routine to take care of your lips. Read this article. Here I described how to take care of your lips properly that can save your lips from all damages.
Exfoliate your lips once a week, but not more than twice. It reduces the dryness because it removes the dry, dead or chapped skin/cells of the upper layer of the lips. Not removing makeups of the lips before sleeping may cause dry lips. Low quality, inexpensive and unbranded lip products are also liable sometimes to create chapped lips. So, look for effective lip care regimens. See below 3 good lip exfoliators:
- e.l.f. professional Lip Exfoliator, Clear
- Cake Batter Lip Scrubbie by Diva Stuff
- Beauty Treats Lip Scrub with Almond Creme Wild Apple Vanilla Bean Dark Cherry
2. Smoking
The persons who smoke, their lips look always dark and dried. Smoking leaves a black hue on the lips. When a person smokes, it dries up his lips a lot. So, if you want dry-free lips, just avoid smoking. You can read “Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Stop Smoking“. It is the biggest selling book sold 13 million copies around the world. By reading this book, you can easily quit smoking forever.
3. Licking/Biting/Chewing Lips
Most of the people lick their lips when they feel dryness or tightness on their lips. They think that licking lips reduce the chapping. But, it is a great shocking that licking triggers the dryness more. The saliva evaporates the moisture from the lips escapes. So, your lips become chapped drastically when you frequently licking your lips. Chewing or biting lips is same harmful. Even I saw many people; they get severely chapped lips after licking lips. Even they faced bleeding from the lip skin. So, as soon as possible give away this bad habit or keep a lip balm always with you to use on the lips when you feel dryness. See these 3 good lip balms below:
- Maybelline New York Baby Lips Moisturizing Lip Balm, Cherry Me
- Eos Organic Smooth Sphere Lip Balm
- Burt’s Bees Ultra Conditioning Lip Balm with Kokum Butter
4. Various Allergens
Your lips may develop dryness from allergies. If you use toothpaste containing Guaiazulene, it may cause allergy. If your lipstick contains phenyl salicylate (salol) or propyl gallate, you may feel allergy on your lips. The food allergens, like red food dyes or figs, may also create an allergic reaction. Chapped lips can happen. If you take an excessive amount of vitamin B12, you may feel the allergic reaction in the touch of cobalt. The best way to remove dry lips is to avoid these types of products and materials.
5. Toothpaste
Your toothpaste can cause dryness of your lips. Or other product that you use for your lips can also make your lips chapped or irritated, even you can feel dehydration on your lips for that toothpaste or products. These types of toothpaste generally contain sodium lauryl sulfate, cinnamates, and dehydrating alcohols. You should avoid this toothpaste.
6. Dehydration
Dry lips may be a sign of your total body dehydration. The lips have not oil glands that generally all skin have. So, normally lip skin becomes chapped easily and rapidly. Lack of water in your body can create dehydration. In this case, you should drink minimum 8 glasses of water a day to keep your body and skin fit. Besides, some sports or activities, such as cricket, motor boating, football, or skiing that are performed in the sun exposure can lead you to dehydration. Dabbing sunscreen rich lip balm can save your lips from drying and sunburned. See these 2 effective lip balms with SPF:
7. Citrus and Cinnamates
Citrus fruits can irritate your lips because of having acid in them. Even you may feel pain if your lips are already chapped or cracked. Gum, candy, and toothpaste, and other products are made with sometimes cinnamates that also may create irritation and dryness of your lips. Avoid those products if they cause your lips cracked.
8. Not Protecting Your Lips
Though we are very conscious of protecting or taking care of all our body parts, most of the time we are not so serious about our insane lips. But, you should know that lips are the most sensitive skin of the body. They can be damaged in a slight risk. So, you have to always protect your lips. In many ways- our lips become chapped or dry. Playing in the sun, boating in the rivers, winter season, wasting time in the beach, snows skiing etc. are the great sources for dry skin. Dry lips mean the combination of dehydration, warm wind, cold weather and the sun. All those come from the above activities. So, what you should do? The best way is to protect them.
In this case, you have to use such a product that can moisturize your lips and protect sun or wind burned. That’s enough to go randomly in any weather, places or sports. “Solar Protection Formula SPF 45 TIZO Ultra High Sun Protection Sunscreen LIPTECT Stick“- it is a nice lip protector.
9. Vitamin A and B
If you take lots of foods that contain lots of vitamin A. Or if you take lots of vitamin A supplements, your lips may be dry. An excessive amount of vitamin A causes peeling the skin of your lips that look really drastic. On the other hand, if you have the lack of vitamin B (not all vitamins B), you may face chapped or irritated lips. So, take a balanced amount of them that ensures you are taking right.
10. Taking Breath from Mouth
You can take a breath from the mouth for the following reasons:
- Nasal allergies
- Snore
- Sleep apnea
- Having a cold that stuck the nasals
When you continuously breathe from the mouth, it dries out the lip skin. Dab a touch of moisturizer on your lips before sleeping. It keeps your lips soft and hydrated all night long. Or Consult with your doctor how to fix up this disease. Using Vaseline petroleum jelly is a good option at night. Or you can leave a few drops of honey on your lips. It keeps your lips soft, smooth and nourished all day long.
11. Medications
Various medications, diseases or medical states can also cause dry lips. Some examples of these medications are Accutane for wrinkles or acne, prochlorperazine for Vertigo, propranolol for blood pressure and many more medications. The medical conditions that can dry up your lips are autoimmune diseases, thyroid disease, psoriasis, perleche, or angular cheilitis down’s syndrome etc. If you are sure, these are causing your lips dry; treat these problems as soon as possible.
12. Sun Rays
UVA/UBA sun rays are harmful to the skin. Melanin pigments grow from the sunburned effects. When you stay more in the sun rays, it burns your skin. As lips are most sensitive, they are burnt first and quickly. Using sunscreen is the best solution during sun exposure. See some good sunscreens for lips below:
10 Best Sunscreens for Lips Protection
13. Bad Commercial Products
The excessive use of commercial products may create many problems for lips. Such as- the excessive use of lipstick can cause darkness. The products made with chemical elements can cause damages. Before buying commercial products for lips, be sure if they are safe for skin.
Besides the above reasons of dry, chapped, cracked or sore lips, there are other reasons too.
- Common cold (viral respiratory infection)
- Malnutrition
- Severe dehydration (loss of body fluids and electrolytes)
- Canker sores
- Cold sores (herpes simplex virus infections)
In conclusion, just avoid what create dryness on your lips. Use home remedies, like honey, almond oil, olive oil, etc. to treat dry lips. Be careful using the lipsticks. Better if you use moisturizing based lipsticks. Try to avoid the cheap products. If any medications cause your lips chapped, avoid it or consult with your doctor how to fix up your dry lips.
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