What Causes Chapped Lips?

For some people, winter means a daily battle against cracking, scaling or peeling lips. But what actually causes chapped lips? How can you prevent it?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, I'm
Christian Sager, and this is brain stuff. I'm going to
go out on a limb here and say you've probably
had chapped lips at some point. Well, here's what's happening.
Your lips are pretty delicate things, and the one at
the top that's your labium supriyus oris, and the one

(00:24):
on the bottom is your labi um infurious oris. Collectively,
they form an enormously sensitive, incredibly flexible part of your body,
and it's tough to picture life without them. However, they
also have some vulnerabilities. For instance, the skin of your
lips is different from the rest of your face. Let's
take a closer look. The outer layer is called the epidermist,

(00:45):
and it has a protective covering called the straight um corneum.
Underneath your epidermis is another layer of skin, the dermist.
Like the rest of your skin, your lips have all
three of these layers. The difference is that the straight
um corneum on your lips is way thinner than it
is anywhere else on your body. In fact, it's part
of the reason people's lips have that alluring red or

(01:06):
pink pigment. It comes from underlying blood vessels, red colored
blood filled capillaries close to the thin skin on your lips. Next,
your lips also don't have the oil and sweat glands
that protect other parts of your body. They're only source
of moisture is your saliva, and that's why they can
easily become dry and chapped, and that's usually the culprit

(01:28):
here hydration. We often experience chapped lips and cold weather,
not because our lips are allergic to winter or anything,
but instead because the outside air tends to be dryer,
and this also dries out the lips, and this drying
out is the leading cause of chapped lips, also known
as common kighlitis. Luckily, there are some pretty simple ways

(01:49):
to prevent this. First, and no matter what the cause
of your chapped lips might be, stop licking them. I know,
I know, it can be a difficult habit to break,
but licking your lips can contribute significantly to dry cracked skin.
The saliva evaporates quickly, taking with it any moisture that
was already on your lips and leaving them even drier,

(02:09):
especially in winter air. And speaking of amazing segues. Let's
tackle weather related chapping. If you have very dry air
in your house, consider investing in a humidifier. If you're outside,
then protect your lips with a product that contains beeswax
or petrolatum, which will help maintain your lips hydration. If
you plan to be out in the sun for a while,

(02:30):
help prevent dryness by using a sunscreen on your lips
as well. A lip bomb with SPF in it could
help address both of these issues at once. And as always,
drinking plenty of fluids is a great move for your
entire body, not just your lips. And that's it, well,
well almost. We didn't talk about the multiple other causes
of chapped lips or lip bomb addiction, or whether some

(02:52):
of the ingredients and those things actually caused chapped lips,
which is an interesting little conspiracy theory. Check out the
brainstaff channel on YouTube, and for more on this and
thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.