What Does the Season of Pitta Mean for our Skin?
Caring for your skin during the season of Pitta in the hot Summer months, when the Pitta Dosha is in full force and potentially causing some havoc with your complexion is more important than ever. The changing of the seasons should itself precipitate a change in our skincare routines, with the environment being one of the biggest and most influential factors regarding sudden changes in our skin and overall complexion.
Here at Urban Veda, we believe it is best to adapt to the ups and downs of the Doshas as the seasons interlink and change. As mentioned, Summer brings the season of Pitta and this means the Pitta dosha is out more powerfully than the rest. With this in mind, we can provide some actionable and effective methods to help us care for our skin during Summer, with special attention given to sensitive skin.
Start With The Right Shower
We all love a hot shower, it is basically human nature! It is also something that we are habituated to do – turning the shower up to as hot as we can bear – but, this could be having a detrimental effect on the health and appearance of our skin, especially on the face. This is because water that is steaming hot can actually remove essential oils from the skin, leaving our face unnecessarily dry. During this hot season of Pitta, who wants a hot shower anyway?!
Suncream Is A Must
Suncream is a really vital part of any Summer skin care routine – we really cannot stress this enough. The sun can cause untold damage to our skin. Even when its rays are moderate let alone when they are bright and shining at between 20 and 30 degrees. Skin that is not protected can quickly dry out, becoming sunburnt, sore, red and cracked. We would always recommend that you use SPF 50 as this will block 98% of harmful UVB rays. If you happen to be sat in the sun for 2 hours or more, then it would also be best to reapply the sunscreen liberally, as it will wear off.
Balancing your Pitta
Carrying on from our cautions regarding Summer sunlight, consider the relationship between the sun and the Pitta Dosha. Especially during the season of Pitta. The Pitta Dosha is comprised of the Fire and Water elements, with the former being the dominating element. Essentially, at a neutral state, all Pittas are balanced. This means that the skin itself has a natural ability to balance the fire that dominates them. It does this by cooling itself in heat and heating itself in the cold. When heat, sun and UV rays become excessive, your internal fire increases. This causes sensitive skin to react and become aggravated. Nullifying the skins ability to cool itself. With the skin lacking in moisture, balance is lost and the Pitta Dosha becomes too dominant.
Regarding the Pitta Dosha. It is important that you avoid food groups and substances that will make this Dosha more active. This includes:
- Avoiding spicy foods, particularly red chillies
- Avoiding vinegar, peppery and salty tastes, mustards and food that is overly sour
- Avoid where possible genetically modified foods
We would recommend swapping out the above for a selection of the following:
- Sweeter sugars and naturally softer foods, such as squashes, watermelons and cantaloupe
- Foods with an astringent or a more bitter taste to them such as legumes and leafy greens
A final point from us, try to find skincare products that enable your skin to still feel hydrated and healthy during the peak of the season of Pitta such as our Soothing range, and as our brand motto says #letyourskinbreathe... literally.
