Drink water, avoid smoking to maintain soft lips

With the winter season approaching, we need to take extra care of our lips. Drinking a good amount of water, shuffling your professional lip balm with remedies like butter or ghee, and keeping your tongue in check are critical elements of lip care, says as expert.

Abhishek Raj, facial aesthetic expert, has rolled out a few tips to battle the problems:

* Drink water: You know that your skin needs hydration and that happens best with the intake of enough water. The same goes for lips. Though people drink enough water in summers, this intake decreases in winters because we do not sweat in the cold season and feel thirsty. Drinking ample amount of water is necessary to replenish the lost moisture from the skin and the lips.

* Hold your tongue: Most of us have a habit of licking our lips now and then with our tongue. This tendency increases whenever the lips feel dry and stretched. You need moisture to keep them soft and hydrated and saliva comes handy for this. But, this proves counter-productive and dries away the lips more.

*Avoid vitamin B deficiency: Insufficient consumption of vitamin B not only affects your digestive system's functioning but it also affects the health of the lips. The lips and the corners of the mouth get cracked and deficiency of vitamin B can also cause ulcers in the mouth. Ensure enough intake of vitamin B to keep lips healthy during winters.

* Lip augmentation or hydration procedure: For people who have thin lips and desire a pronounced appearance, dermal fillers like Juvederm are very effective. When administered into the lips, the hyaluronic acid based fillers give volume to the lips, and give them more definition. The hydrophilic gel also promotes water retention and provides hydration to dry and chapped lips. The effect lasts up to six to nine months.

*Avoid smoking: If its health implications are not enough of a reason for you to quit, give it up for your lips. It causes the lips to become dry and dark. Chain smokers and chain coffee drinkers usually tend to have dark lips. If not for general health reasons, cut down your dependence on caffeine and smoking for improving lip appearance.

*Scrub: To keep the lips fresh and healthy, it can help to use a scrub on them occasionally. This will clear away the dead cells and make the lips more receptive to moisturising agents. You can use a mixture of sugar powder and olive oil or honey to gently scrub away dead cells.

--IANS

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