Soft and smooth lips are sure to enhance your beauty so much that you become the center of attraction! Being one of the most sensitive parts of your body, lip care should be included in your daily skin care routine. The problem of chapped, dry and cracked lips is quite a common phenomenon. Lips lack sebaceous gland and hence, cannot produce moisture by themselves. Due to this reason, they are more prone to dehydration and chapping. Over-exposure to the harsh rays of sun, windy conditions, licking of lips, drugs, smoking, infections and allergy to cosmetic products are some of the reasons for dull looking lips. Climatic changes play a huge role in affecting lip smoothness and texture. Lack of essential vitamins and minerals may also be the cause of it. However, these problems can be treated by paying special attention to your lips. Lip care requires a series of activities that need to be performed on a regular basis to get fruitful results, such as the daily use of lip balm, lip gloss or coconut oil. In the next section, you will be introduced to the idea of the causes and symptoms of dry chapped lips.
Causes of Dry Chapped Lips
The problem of chapped dry lips is very common. Read on to know about the causes and symptoms of dry, cracked and chapped lips.
Chapped Dry Lips
- A less than essential intake of water causes dehydration and leads to chapped lips. You must remember that water and fluids are very essential for the working of our systems.
- Smoking has a bad effect on your lips. Apart from getting dry and chapped, it also turns them into a wrinkled structure of a blackish color.
- Climatic changes could be detrimental for your lips. Extremes of weather such as cold and strong winds can cause cracking and eventually lesions on the lip.
- Contact with sunlight is another cause. Burning heat and sunlight cause red, rough and dry lips. This leads to bleeding in some cases.
- Vitamin Deficiency. There are vitamins present in your body which are responsible in keeping your lips soft, supple and healthy. They include Vitamins A, B, C, E and B2 (riboflavin deficiency).
- Allergic reactions might ruin your appearance. If certain cosmetic products of medicines do not suit your skin type, it might cause chapping and dehydration of lips.
- A history of any kind of skin disorder may also be one of the causes for this dreadful nature of your lips. It could range from simple rashes to even psoriases.
- Licking and biting of lips are harbingers of cracked and bleeding lips since it removes the protective surface and exposes the epidermal layers below. Not to forget, this is also extremely painful!
- Alcohol and caffeine may also cause chapped and dry lips. This is because it has bad effects on the skin and body as such.
- An unhealthy and unbalanced diet is composed of junk and fatty food. Eating a healthy diet rich in fruits, green vegetables, vitamins and minerals can prevent cases of chapping lips.
- Diabetes is one of the major causes of cracked and dry lips. People suffering from this illness urinate frequently and have excessive thirst. It is probably due to this that your lips lose any semblance of moisture and begin to crack.
Dry Cracked Lips Symptoms
- Loss of moisture from the lips. It is caused when there is less consumption of water.
- Red and rough lips. When you go out in extreme sunlight and heat, your lips become red, dry and rough.
- Slight pain and swelling due to an allergy with any kind of medicine or lip balm that you use.
- Tenderness of lips. When you continuously lick and bite your lips, the softness of your lips disappears.
- Feeling of dryness and scaling of lips. It happens when you don't take proper care of your lips in harsh weather conditions.
- Bleeding. This is caused when your lips become extremely dry and lesions occur.
- Marks and sores on the surface of lips. It occurs when skin on your lips loses its moisture retention capacity.
Here are some of the causes and symptoms of dry and chapped lips. Take proper care of your lips to keep your lips soft and healthy. Pucker up!