It’s well known that exfoliating your skin is a summertime essential. But as the days grow colder and the air grows drier (and as that golden glow is replaced by a ghostly pale) don’t slough off on sloughing off. Exfoliation, experts say, shouldn’t be a one-season step in your beauty routine.

“It’s important to exfoliate on a daily basis because as we age, the proliferation process slows down,” the owner of Glow Skin Spa, Jillian Wright, said. “Skin that is not exfoliated looks sallow, dull and lizard like. Exfoliation leaves the skin soft, supple, and healthy.”

How you exfoliate is a matter of personal preference and skin type, the director of the JUVA Skin and Laser Center and Medispa, dermatologist Bruce Katz, said. “You can use exfoliating gloves, loofahs, microdermabrasion kits at home – there are lots of different ways to do it.” Dr. Katz cautioned, however, that people with drier skin may need to exfoliate less frequently than those with oily skin. Daily exfoliation should be done only with products that are “mild and don’t irritate the skin,” he said.

Fortunately, many methods of exfoliating are inexpensive, so you can experiment and see which works best for your skin. Manual exfoliants like sponges and cloths – best suited for use on the body – come in a wide variety of synthetic and natural materials, and experts say one isn’t necessarily better than another. For naturalists, Rite Aid sells Pure Spring natural loofah sponges and ramie body mitts. Eve Beauty Source, in Chinatown, sells Kingsley’s sisal “flower” sponge, and the Body Shop offers a hemp body mitt. Most are around $5 or less.

On the synthetic side in the same price range, Duane Reede sells woven mesh bath gloves. Salux’s beauty skin cloth is available at Pearl River Mart in Chinatown. The Body Shop even has a skin sponge made from recycled plastic bottles.

If you prefer a wash or a scrub, Dr. Katz recommends choosing one with glycolic acid or salicylic acid. Neutrogena Body Clear Body Wash and Body Scrub both contain salicylic acid. Even bar soaps can be exfoliating: Sabon’s loofah soaps contain pieces of natural loofah sponge and are available in four scents. The Body Shop offers a seaweed-and-loofah exfoliating bar.

A cheaper solution might even be as near as your fridge, Ms. Wright says. She recommends using olive oil, grape seed oil, honey, milk, poppy seeds, cornmeal, coconut, papaya, pumpkin, raw sugar, salt, and coffee grinds as exfoliating agents.

For facial exfoliation, at-home microdermabrasion kits and polishing scrubs are growing in popularity. One new product that uses glycolic acid is Olay Regenerist Thermal Skin Polisher ($14.99). A more old-fashioned approach is the Buf-Puf extra gentle facial sponge, available at Eve Beauty Source.

Whatever your preferred method of exfoliating is, and however often you choose to do it, follow up with a good moisturizer – preferably with SPF, a medical consultant for Smooth Synergy, Dr. George Liakeas, said. And give your skin a break. “The biggest problem with exfoliation is that people overdo it, thinking if a little bit is good, a lot is better,” Dr. Liakeas said. “It feels good, it gets rid of dull, dry, rough, flaky skin, and it improves overall circulation and muscle tone, but it also exposes your naive skin to the elements.”