During the Covid 19 pandemic, it is quite difficult to protect your skin while wearing a mask as Indian wears face masks for the first time in their lives for a long period of time.
This has caused a number of skin problems, from flaring eczema to worsening acne.
Here we are giving you some tips to protect your skin while wearing a mask.
People in the field of health care wearing masks much longer than they’re used to, all of a sudden they’re developing areas of skin that break down, get rough and raw, and they’re having a lot of problems. There is a lack of information about what to do to treat your skin in a way that helps your skin to heal but does not interfere with the functioning of your mask. Here are her 10 tips to help protect your skin.
1. Wash your skin well enough and apply a light moisturizer in the form of a lotion or, if your skin is very dry, use a cream. Try avoiding ointments, as they might be too oily for your skin. Also, the ointment may have an adverse effect on the bead of the mask if you wear certain tight-fit masks.
2. Apply a light sunscreen lotion or cream, ideally a mineral sunscreen containing titanium dioxide or zinc oxide. Be aware that the integrity of rubber or elastic materials on the mask may be impaired by certain chemical sunscreen ingredients.
3. Make sure your mask covers your nose and mouth smoothly, but it’s not so tight that your skin is bruised.
4. Avoid wearing makeup or a foundation under your mask. This could cause your skin to break out.
5. If your glasses or goggles are fogging while wearing a mask, use the “paper tape” or “micropore” tape to tape the mask across the bridge of your nose and onto the cheeks to prevent your breath from fogging your eye protectors. This type of tape is the least likely to pull or damage your skin when the mask is removed.
6. After the day you remove your mask, wash your skin again and apply a light moisturizing lotion. If you have eczema or dry, sensitive skin, you may want to use a heavier moisturizer in the form of a cream.
7. After removing your mask, make sure you wash your hands with soap and water.
8. If you have areas on your skin that are raw or chopped, apply the ointment to these areas after you have finished wearing your mask for the day and then apply the ointment again at bedtime. A few well-tolerated ointments are Aquaphor Healing Ointment, Vaseline Petroleum Jelly and Vaniply Ointment.
9. For those wearing cloth masks – make sure you wash them daily to minimize the growth of bacteria, which then cause acne. Be careful and wash these masks in a regular detergent with no bleach as the bleach may break down some of the materials.
10. If your ears hurt from the elastic bands, try switching to a cloth mask (in non-medical settings) that has an ear loop rather than an elastic ear loop.
Until we have a vaccine of Coronavirus or until this virus has shown that it has mutated out of existence, we’re going to be dealing with it at some level.
