Dry Winter Skin? Take Fewer Showers (Really!)

33 North features amazingly beautiful Italian tiled walk-in showers, so we can certainly understand if you take every opportunity to use them. But did you know that during the winter months, with the cooler temperatures in Marin, that showering too much can dry out your skin?

It’s true! According to the New York Times, showering too often during the winter can result in dry skin, and can also wash away beneficial bacteria that protects your skin. And by cutting back on your showering frequency, you just might be better off in the cooler months:

Resist the urge to recoil at this swath of society: They may be on to something. Of late, researchers have discovered that just as the gut contains good bacteria that help it run more efficiently, so does our skin brim with beneficial germs that we might not want to wash down the drain. “Good bacteria are educating your own skin cells to make your ownantibiotics,” said Dr. Richard Gallo, chief of the dermatology division at the University of California, San Diego, and “they produce their own antibiotics that kills off bad bacteria.”

Some people have long complained that showering too much makes their skin drier or more prone to flare-ups of, say, eczema, and Dr. Gallo said that scientists are just beginning to understand why. “It’s not just removing the lipids and oils on your skin that’s drying it out,” he said. It could be “removing some of the good bacteria that help maintain a healthy balance of skin.”

To read the full New York Times article, click here.