Do you find your skin looking dry, lackluster and looking older than it should? There’s a chance that the summer sun is dehydrating your skin (even if you are drinking plenty of water)! Fear not, there are a few well-kept secret, hydration tips for summer that will make your insides and outsides very happy!
Living in Los Angeles has a lot of perks throughout the year, but there are some challenges around the summertime. Rising temperatures over the years have caused record-breaking heatwaves throughout Southern California. In fact, it’s so dangerous that there are usually multiple heat warnings within the city!
But no matter where you live, the summer sun really takes its toll on our health and bodies. Now is the time to amp up your beauty routine so that you can not only have beautiful skin, but have a well-functioning body too!
What Happens When You’re Dehydrated?
As a building block for your body, water can do some pretty amazing things for your health. Naturally, that means there are some intense, adverse reactions if you don’t drink enough water. If you don’t get enough hydration, your body can experience the following:
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Constant fatigue
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Dry skin
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Muscle cramps
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Constipation
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Kidney Stones
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Bad breath
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Overeating
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Organ failure
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Dropped blood pressure
And if your body is working hard to keep your body functioning without enough water, your skin can show early signs of aging! So let’s not put our body through so much trauma and drink 8 glasses of water, shall we?
Still, with the summer heat, it’s easy to lose fluids through extreme sweating (even if you’re unaware of it)! Keep reading to learn how you can combat hydration tips for summer.
What to do When You’re Dehydrated
If you need a serious boost in hydration this summer, here’s what you can do:
1. Try Some Hydrating Masks
There are plenty of masks out there to try and buy, but it’s important to look for the ones that will nourish your skin and keep it hydrated throughout the day. And while I can list out certain products here, I’m a natural, DIY kind of girl. Certain items in your kitchen or garden will work much more effectively than any expensive, store-bought mask!
Try using the gel from a single aloe vera plant leaf or 1 tbsp of honey mixed with 2 tbs of oatmeal to hydrate your skin.
Aloe vera is packed with minerals, enzymes, antioxidants, and vitamins A, C, and E, which all help to reinforce the skin’s barrier. Meanwhile, honey is a natural humectant, allowing it to draw moisture out from the air and into the skin, ensuring it’s retained it in the layers where it’s needed most.
2. Use Adaptogens to Boost Hydration
If you don’t know by now, I’m a sucker for adaptogens. They help strengthen your immune system, lower stress, help with fertility and so much more. So I guess it’s no surprise that there’s even an adaptogen that aids in hydration.
Two amazing adaptogenic herbs include moringa and marshmallow root. Moringa is a super skin nutrient, containing protein and vitamins A, C and E, beta-carotene, and phenolics. Marshmallow root also contains mucilaginous which helps your skin hydrate as well.
You can look for powders or extracts at your local health foods store and mix them in your daily coffee, smoothie or tea drink for incredible results!
3. Eat Hydrating Fruits and Vegetables
It’s cliché for a reason, but you know what they say, “you are what you eat.” Since diet controls so much of our appearance (both healthy and unhealthy diets), it’s important to nourish yourself from the inside out.
Not only are veggies and fruits full of vitamins and nutrients, but some of them are 90% water! These foods will keep you hydrated and satiate your hunger all at the same time. These include:
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Cucumber
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Celery
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Iceberg lettuce
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Radishes
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Tomatoes
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Green peppers
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Cauliflower
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Spinach
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Broccoli
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Baby carrots
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Strawberries
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Watermelon
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Star fruit
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Grapefruit
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Cantaloupe
4. Drink Water, But Also Drink Electrolytes
This wouldn’t be a proper hydration post without me telling you to amp up your water intake. But if you find yourself dehydrated a little quicker than normal, you might be losing a lot of water through sweat or urination.
Electrolytes are chemicals that conduct electricity when mixed with water and are necessary for every human to function. They keep you hydrated much longer than water and can be found in all types of food and beverages.
Sure, you can find electrolytes in your Gatorade, but that’s also filled with lots of sugar. Coconut water is a natural drink–found from young coconuts–full of electrolytes and also helps with heart health and blood pressure. I highly recommend having 6-8 ounces of coconut water in addition to 8 glasses of water, daily.
5. When You Do Drink Water, Chug It In the Morning
So you’ve read that you’re supposed to drink eight, 8 ounce glasses of water during the day. Most of us have learned to drink a glass every hour or so, but life comes up. We forget or we don’t have water on hand, leaving us dehydrated for the day.
According to Dr. Shilpa Sayana, a medical director in Studio City, California and expert in integrative holistic medicine, she recommends drinking about half of your daily intake within the first 20 minutes of the day.
She believes that not only do we miss out on hydration due to our busy schedules throughout the day, but that drinking this much water in the morning really kickstarts our metabolism. She recommends starting your day with a morning ritual and literally chugging 32 ounces of water within 20 minutes (preferably after brushing your teeth and before eating breakfast).
This will allow you to start the day hydrated and not overeat to compensate your thirst often mistaken for hunger.
6. Keep Your Lips Protected
When it comes to SPF and moisturizing treatments, your lips are oftentimes ignored. Yet this is the area where your skin is the most thin and needs extreme protection!
Carmex is one of my favorite brands of lip balm and has come a long way in hydration and protection. Their new Carmex Comfort Care contains oatmeal colloidal which is essential in hydration and nourishing. As mentioned previously in step one, oats are known for aiding skin in cleansing, moisturizing, soothing and protecting. I also LOVE the watermelon blast flavor (very summer-y).
While this one is my personal favorite for hydrating your skin, I often go back and forth between this and their cherry flavored Carmex Daily Care with SPF 15. That way, I’m not only protected from harsh UV rays, but continue to nourish my lips with vitamins and moisturizing agents.
7. Make Sure Your Beauty Products Are Clean
And no, I don’t just mean that they’re not covered in the foundation that accidentally exploded in your makeup bag. It turns out, your beauty products can be filled with gnarly ingredients that make your skin super dehydrated.
Parabens, synthetic colors, fragrance and phthalates are just a few items that might be listed on the ingredients of your favorite makeup or beauty product that are actually doing more harm than good. You might be surprised to learn that a lot of your favorite beauty products have most if not all of these ingredients and are stripping your skin of essential oils and nutrients.
When in doubt, look for products that say “paraben-free” or “organic.” If it says “all-natural,” that is a vague term open to interpretation that could mean there are still dehydrating ingredients within.
What Are Your Hydration Tips for Summer? Let Us Know in the Comments!
This is very true that we need to take care of our beauty products that they should free from harmful chemicals and ingredients like parabens. We need to know more about the ingredients before using it.