It's coffee time so I'm treating myself to a break & I'm caught up on all my emails so WOO HOO for me.
First of all I'm winning! I'm F***in' WINNING! Winning the battle against dry skin. Boy howdy this is the worst part of life in the desert... I have never had dry skin in my life, never ever ever!!!!! and now all of a sudden it's killin' me, man. I always used to be under the impression that I had oily skin, if anything. Now, not only have my hands been cracking like crazy, but the skin under my armpits is itching and flaking, and the skin around my waist is so dry that it hurts... literally painful skin. Especially since winter hit and there isn't a micron of humidity in the air, heaters are on, etc., my skin is like falling off my body here. I've always lived in humid climates. Except Wyoming. Totally not used to this crap.
So for a couple months now I've been trying everything. Lotions, moistureizers and all. Some even made the problem worse. I've been researching on the 'net, I've been chatting up pharmacists and my physio and whomever else might have the inside track, just trying to get some relief here. Finally I transferred all this effort into the whole holistic/natural approach, and I'll be damned if it aint working. For the last 3 weeks or so, I can actually touch my skin and it doesn't practically fall off. Here's my own self-engineered strategy to success:
1- less bathing (especially in winter. come on people in this day and age everyone's already over-soaped and over perfumed and over-scrubbed.) I'm on the wash-as-needed strategy now, after finding out that every time you shower or bathe, you scrub all the protective layer of skin oil off your body and your pores absorb all the synthetic soap and chemicals from whatever you're scrubbing yourself with. Not good for dry skin anyway. For the record, I dont stink.
2- bathing sanz soap. Found out that soap dries you out, and you get just as clean with a loofa and clean water.
3- bathing in tepid water. It aint luxurious but hot water draws the moisture out of your skin. This is the least enjoyable part of my new strategy in winter, but hey, it's one part of a plan that's working, dammit.
4- oil in the SHORT bath. Apparently long baths dry you out too. I'm putting some drips of almond oil (totally cheap when compared to baby oils and lotions) in the (non soapy) bathwater and that helps a lot.
4- air dry and oil immediately. This is a trick I learned living in not-quite-as-dry-as-BW-but-still-hella-dry-Wyoming. If your skin is still wet, the oil will act as a barrier and keep it in your tissue for a lot longer. But back in WY I was using baby oil which makes you slip around like a greased pig. Gets all over your clothes and shit too. Not cool. Thank god for Bio-oil . I discovered this crap on my own, as I purchased and tried out every single friggin bottle of oil in the natural pharmacy. It's great, and apparently people use it for stretch marks or something. All I know is that it's in my winning combo, so WTH. Plus it has no perfumes or chemicals. And cheap.
5- hand washing 50% less. OK I may be a child of the "germs will kill you dead you better wash your hands at least 10000 times a day" generation but! I have to thank my psycho parents for at least not being hand-washing nazis. I truly credit them with my kickass immune system which to this day pretty much rules, especially in flu and cold season when everyone else around me is dropping like flies. The thing is though, the older I've gotten, the more handwashing-freakish I've gotten. Not sure why, maybe just peer pressure or something... but all this superfolous soaping and hot-watering has turned my hands into flaky sandpaper and it's gross. Until the day I'm truly struck down by so-called GERMS (WTF are "germs" anyway? Unless I was too busy singing Eric Clapton songs and passing notes with SK during biology class, Im pretty sure there is no technical scientific definition of a "germ"), I dont care, I'm trying this technique and damn me if it aint working.
6- no heater in the car. (self explanatory) we're wearing coats and hats anyway so wtf.
7- ingesting coconut oil. More fatty acids are good for dry skin, they say. But I'm already struggling with my flabby belly so I found coconut oil to be a good natural source. It's twice as cheap as a bottle of lotion, and you can throw it in the morning smoothie. Again, maybe it's crazy but it's also known to keep hunger at bay too so even if it isn't responsible for my success, it's good 4u.
8- keeping true to the 2L of water a day thing. I've done this for a few years anyway so now that I'm in a seriously drying climate, I've just jacked it up a notch to nearly 3L per day. It's a serious piss-fest over here, I'm tellin you.
9- no more perfumey lotions. Apparently they don't even work to truly "moisturize" your skin, they just put a temporary creamy layer on top of it. Dry skin, apparently, happens from the inside out, so you need to get that moisture to stay on the inside, rather than try and smear it on the outside. That's why the oil is working better, because it keeps the natural moisture from dissipating, by sealing it in.
I can't think of anything else I'm doing but that seems to be the winning formula at the moment. I could also be full of shyte but all I know is that it doesn't hurt to wear a bra and with the exception of my hands (which were way far gone than any of my other skin parts), there's no more scaly flaky issues. Decent.
We're going to a play tonight. I love mid-week outings. woo hoo!
First of all I'm winning! I'm F***in' WINNING! Winning the battle against dry skin. Boy howdy this is the worst part of life in the desert... I have never had dry skin in my life, never ever ever!!!!! and now all of a sudden it's killin' me, man. I always used to be under the impression that I had oily skin, if anything. Now, not only have my hands been cracking like crazy, but the skin under my armpits is itching and flaking, and the skin around my waist is so dry that it hurts... literally painful skin. Especially since winter hit and there isn't a micron of humidity in the air, heaters are on, etc., my skin is like falling off my body here. I've always lived in humid climates. Except Wyoming. Totally not used to this crap.
So for a couple months now I've been trying everything. Lotions, moistureizers and all. Some even made the problem worse. I've been researching on the 'net, I've been chatting up pharmacists and my physio and whomever else might have the inside track, just trying to get some relief here. Finally I transferred all this effort into the whole holistic/natural approach, and I'll be damned if it aint working. For the last 3 weeks or so, I can actually touch my skin and it doesn't practically fall off. Here's my own self-engineered strategy to success:
1- less bathing (especially in winter. come on people in this day and age everyone's already over-soaped and over perfumed and over-scrubbed.) I'm on the wash-as-needed strategy now, after finding out that every time you shower or bathe, you scrub all the protective layer of skin oil off your body and your pores absorb all the synthetic soap and chemicals from whatever you're scrubbing yourself with. Not good for dry skin anyway. For the record, I dont stink.
2- bathing sanz soap. Found out that soap dries you out, and you get just as clean with a loofa and clean water.
3- bathing in tepid water. It aint luxurious but hot water draws the moisture out of your skin. This is the least enjoyable part of my new strategy in winter, but hey, it's one part of a plan that's working, dammit.
4- oil in the SHORT bath. Apparently long baths dry you out too. I'm putting some drips of almond oil (totally cheap when compared to baby oils and lotions) in the (non soapy) bathwater and that helps a lot.
4- air dry and oil immediately. This is a trick I learned living in not-quite-as-dry-as-BW-but-still-hella-dry-Wyoming. If your skin is still wet, the oil will act as a barrier and keep it in your tissue for a lot longer. But back in WY I was using baby oil which makes you slip around like a greased pig. Gets all over your clothes and shit too. Not cool. Thank god for Bio-oil . I discovered this crap on my own, as I purchased and tried out every single friggin bottle of oil in the natural pharmacy. It's great, and apparently people use it for stretch marks or something. All I know is that it's in my winning combo, so WTH. Plus it has no perfumes or chemicals. And cheap.
5- hand washing 50% less. OK I may be a child of the "germs will kill you dead you better wash your hands at least 10000 times a day" generation but! I have to thank my psycho parents for at least not being hand-washing nazis. I truly credit them with my kickass immune system which to this day pretty much rules, especially in flu and cold season when everyone else around me is dropping like flies. The thing is though, the older I've gotten, the more handwashing-freakish I've gotten. Not sure why, maybe just peer pressure or something... but all this superfolous soaping and hot-watering has turned my hands into flaky sandpaper and it's gross. Until the day I'm truly struck down by so-called GERMS (WTF are "germs" anyway? Unless I was too busy singing Eric Clapton songs and passing notes with SK during biology class, Im pretty sure there is no technical scientific definition of a "germ"), I dont care, I'm trying this technique and damn me if it aint working.
6- no heater in the car. (self explanatory) we're wearing coats and hats anyway so wtf.
7- ingesting coconut oil. More fatty acids are good for dry skin, they say. But I'm already struggling with my flabby belly so I found coconut oil to be a good natural source. It's twice as cheap as a bottle of lotion, and you can throw it in the morning smoothie. Again, maybe it's crazy but it's also known to keep hunger at bay too so even if it isn't responsible for my success, it's good 4u.
8- keeping true to the 2L of water a day thing. I've done this for a few years anyway so now that I'm in a seriously drying climate, I've just jacked it up a notch to nearly 3L per day. It's a serious piss-fest over here, I'm tellin you.
9- no more perfumey lotions. Apparently they don't even work to truly "moisturize" your skin, they just put a temporary creamy layer on top of it. Dry skin, apparently, happens from the inside out, so you need to get that moisture to stay on the inside, rather than try and smear it on the outside. That's why the oil is working better, because it keeps the natural moisture from dissipating, by sealing it in.
I can't think of anything else I'm doing but that seems to be the winning formula at the moment. I could also be full of shyte but all I know is that it doesn't hurt to wear a bra and with the exception of my hands (which were way far gone than any of my other skin parts), there's no more scaly flaky issues. Decent.
We're going to a play tonight. I love mid-week outings. woo hoo!
Do you not remember all the trouble I had in Australia with my dry skin when I visited you there??? OMG!!!
OK- imagine that, and then multiply it by about a sqillion. That's what I'm up against here. It's bloody dry as a dead dingo's donger!