There are some simple things that can help.

The first possibility may sound over simplified, but going to bed early can help your skin and reduce the possibility of skin cancer. When the sun is low on the horizon, like it is before 9:00 am, the skin destructive rays are filtered by the thicker atmosphere (by sun time and not daylight savings time, it’s really 8:00 am). It’s also not as hot and the humidity is usually higher. Heat and low humidity contribute to effects that dry your skin. By going to bed by 10:00 pm, it’s more likely that you’ll get up in time to get your outside tasks taken care of before it gets hot and the sun gets high in the sky.

There are two 6 o’clocks every day. If you’ve experienced the one that comes before noon, you know it’s cool, in lots of ways. The temperature is often in the mid-high 50’s even where we live in the desert, the sun isn’t over the horizon, very few people are up, there’s no loud music, hardly ever any sirens or loud cars and you can hear the sounds of nature. Added bonus: obesity and stress have a direct link to staying up late and to sleep deprivation.

If you get up early after going to bed at a reasonable hour, but your skin still resembles that of an alligator who’s been out of the water too long, go to the kitchen and look for the bottle of safflower cooking oil. Hopefully, you read the label when you bought it and picked cold or expeller pressed. If it doesn’t say, you can bet the oil was extracted using heavy duty chemicals, which aren’t good for the skin or overall health, inside or out.

Safflower oil comes from a plant that looks and stabs like any other large thistles. When I was in high school, I worked for farmers in the Northern Sacramento Valley of California. They raised safflower and you had to be careful where you stepped and sat, and you had to make sure you had a clean pair of clothes everyday, especially socks. Slicked back hair was the thing to do at that time. No need to use hair creams, just mash some seeds and rub the oil into your hair. It didn’t smell and it soaked in.

Safflower oil, like olive oil, is very high in linoleic acid, . Your skin makes linoleic acid to help keep it soft, keep the moisture level up by slowing the drying effects of wind and low humidity and seal in moisture after a shower or bath. Skin oils also act as barriers to exterior pollutants.

Unfortunately, as we age, and the sun can age us prematurely, our body’s ability to manufacture linoleic acid decreases, contributing to the aging process. Is safflower oil safe? Many hospitals use the cold pressed type on newborn babies. Some dermatologists recommend it as a full body lotion, but caution not to get it in the eyes. If you’re in a hurry, be aware that safflower oil takes a little time to be absorbed into the skin.

I’ve been pouring cement for the last month or so. I get my upper body workout lifting sixty pound buckets over the top of four foot high forms, but it can be disaster for the skin on my hands and lower arms. Cement is highly alkaline. If you’re working with cement, wash your hands with vinegar when you’re through. The acid in vinegar helps balance the skin’s pH factor.

Iceplant grows well here and has many of the same healing properties as aloe vera, so I figured it might be good for my skin. One morning after showering, I went out into the yard, picked a few of the pickle shaped leaves, crushed them between my palms, removed the pieces of peel and rubbed it into my hands. It worked so well I tried it on my face after shaving and it helped relieve some of my razor burn. Combined with one drop of olive oil, it left my face and hands smooth as silk. The watery juice takes about the same time to soak in as plain water.

If you don’t care for the non-smell of safflower oil or the light, pungent odor of iceplant, mix them with a drop or two of an essential oil. If you use perfumes, you’re probably defeating the purpose. Very few commercial perfumes contain essential oils. It’s cheaper to make them from laboratory based chemicals, and the chemicals in the perfumes can dry your skin.