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Now that the holidays are over and we prepare to turn off our “out of office” messages, it’s time for some post-vacation TLC!
Your spirit won’t be the only thing feeling the post travel blues when you return home from your travels. You might start noticing skin and hair blemishes that may have appeared as of result of your trip. My skin was completely ruined after a trip to India and Egypt in 2008. My hair was dry, my pores were clogged, and my skin experienced the first signs of sun damage.
If you do find yourself with damaged skin or hair, don’t despair. There are several steps that you can take to bring your body back to life!
Post-Travel Beauty Tips for Your Skin and Hair
Sun Damage
If your goal on your tropical holiday was to achieve the glow of a sun goddess, you may have “forgotten” to use your sun block regularly. Unfortunately, a tan is temporary but sun damage can be long lasting. The sun has the ability to age your skin and a lack of care can cause irreversible damage including wrinkles and more serious problems like skin cancer. To improve your skin’s appearance immediately, get a strong moisturizer with anti-wrinkle qualities. (And remember to get any strange spots or moles checked out by a dermatologist.)
Travel Fashion Girl recommends: Lancome High Resolution Refill Triple Action Renewal Anti-Wrinkle Cream.
It brought my skin back to life after months of neglect.
Clogged Pores
An accumulation of sweat, dirt, poor diet, and change in general hygiene routine are all contributing factors to clogged pores during travel. It’s kind of gross but true. It’s not uncommon to come home and find new and unwelcome spots and blackheads on your face. It’s time to tighten up that face cleaning routine and get a good face scrub when you’re at home to help rejuvenate your skin.
Travel Fashion Girl recommends: St. Ives Apricot Scrub.
A best-selling product for decades, I never leave home without it. They also sell a travel size
version for shorter trips.
Dead Skin
Your feet take a beating on any trip. Whether you spend all your time in flip flops or pounding away on a challenging trek, your feet always get the worst end of the stick. If you’re heels are cracked and dry, treat yourself to a pedicure and opt for the callus remover to give you a head start on smoothing your feet. Buy a pumice and use daily so you can maintain your softened skin. (Travel tip: pack it away and use it on your trip to keep your feet pedicure ready at all time). If you have a body scrub, you can also use it to give your feet a good scrub down.
Travel Fashion Girl recommends: Pumice Bar
. I cut it in half so it’s travel size friendly. It lasts forever!
Dry Hair
Hair can easily be overlooked on your trip because you need to cut back on your hair supplies in order to trim your travel bag weight and toiletry space. Your favorite hair products will be replaced and your tresses will look less than vibrant over time. When your trip ends, it’s time to think about chopping off the split ends and get some deep conditioning products to bring your locks back to life. Use an intense treatment once a week and add a leave in conditioner to your daily routine.
Travel Fashion Girl recommends: ABBA Pure Gentle Leave In Conditioner
. Another travel essential for me, this has nourished my over processed hair for years.
Get into your post-travel skin and hair routine and stick to it. With a little effort, you’ll be bouncing back in no time! For more info about my favorite beauty products, check out my reviews onSt Ives Apricot ScrubandAbba Leave In Conditioner.
If you’ve found that you have less than ideal skin or hair after or during your travels, share your tips and advice with other travel fashion girls. And as always, if you found these tips helpful, please re-post and re-tweet. Thanks for reading!
I am an Esthetician and Makeup Artist in Milwaukee and I just have to tell you how horrible St. Ives is for your skin! I was a St Ives junkie before going to beauty school until i saw before and after photos. The pitts of the apricot and shells of walnuts are crushed (not smoothed into beads) and then added to the carrier base. When you use a scrub with uneven and jagged chunks you can being doing more harm than good by creating micro fine cuts in your skin, which scab as they heal making your skin feel drier than it was before you used the scrub. You then continue to use the scrub to make the “dryness” turn into smooth radiant skin, even though you are just adding to the damage. You are better off spending a bit more money for a scrub that uses both a mechanical form of exfoliation (smoothed joboba or other beads) and a chemical form (enzymes). I LOVE the Vasanti Brighten Up! Enzyme scrub and Ole Henrikson Walnut Scrub. Each are around $30 but last ages when used on an every other day basis. I also find with these higher end exfoliants that you use a significantly smaller amount of product becuase the ingredients work much better than the bargin store products. Don’t get me wrong, I am someone who cleanses my skin with cold pressed olive oil from the grocery store, but spending the extra money on an exfoliant that is great for your skin it completely worth it to me.
wow that’s pretty intense – ill look into it. been using it for 18 years luckily not too much damage! thanks for reading 🙂
I love St Ives Apricot Scrub! Travel can be so taxing on the beauty regime. Great recommendations. I have an anti-wrinkle cream tucked away somewhere I’ve been putting off trying. Still like to imagine I’m 16, I guess. Haha.
yes travel totally throws you off all your routines – especially skin and hair care. there’s no time and space for all the fancy stuff. If not anti-wrinkle I wish I would have gotten an early start on anti-aging ultra moisturizing products. Don’t like the crows feet appearing in my latest travel pics 😉