Living with Psoriasis means learning how to manage a condition that can be more than inconvenient or unsightly, it can be down right painful. Sure the flaky skin can be embarrassing. The flame red patches of itching and burning that seem to drive us to extremes, however, are what really keep us from being our best. To avoid the pain, the burning and the itching its important to discover the world of moisturizing your psoriasis prone skin. As we age, our collagen production slows, our skin’s natural elasticity decreases, our bodies ability to retain moisture is reduced and our psoriasis can sometimes become more intense than other times in our lives. It’s important to understand the role of moisturizing your psoriasis prone skin. To be effective, it may be a multiple times per day ritual that brings you the most comfort.
Different skin wants different kinds of moisture. For example, the skin on the front of my shins has a very different need than say my face. It’s important to break down this solution in multiple parts. For me, my most severe patches of plaque psoriasis are on the front of both shins and my elbows. I have small spots randomly on my back and some on my torso and one or two spots in my scalp. The patches on my shins are the worst. When not being moisturized regularly, they crack, they bleed, they itch. Extreme moisturizers can be expensive. Some may have a great outcome on one part of the body and not so much on another. There is a lot of trial and error on this journey.
Create your criteria! There is no one size fits all in the world of psoriasis. I have also learned that there are no silver bullets or wonder cures. In fact, in my journey, there have been products that I love and swear by, only to then several weeks and months later, not have the same effect. That’s a real bummer.
For this exercise, let’s talk about what makes up a criteria. There are a few elements that go into most of my product research decisions:
1. What is the problem we are trying to solve for? In this case, we are trying to find a new moisturizer that will work to moisturize dry, itchy and scratchy psoriasis skin on my shins and not necessarily for my face.
2. Fragrance Free: in general, fragrances are an irritant. When looking for a new or alternative product, I always begin with fragrance free. Smells good but feels like burning on the skin, no bueno. Its bad enough we have psoriasis, we don’t need to invite the uncomfortable skin flare ups.
3. Absorption in to the skin: This one took some learning before I knew to insist on quality absorption. The area of moisturizing psoriasis skin is on my shins and is large and in pants, generally comes in contact with the material of my pants. In shorts, I certainly don’t want a moisturizer to make my skin greasy nor do I want my moisturizer to rub off on everything I come in contact with. For example, greasy ointment snagging the inside of your pant leg, awful. A lotion on your hands that won’t absorb so you can’t possibly use your phones touch screen or your work keyboard.
So we want something that sinks in to skin, keeps the moisture in and doesn’t rub off on places and things that we don’t want our moisturizer on.
4. Affordability: considering that a good amount of moisturizing psoriasis skin is re-applying, it’s important that we search for solutions who fit comfortably in our budget. The last thing we want is to “invest” in a product that ultimately we can’t afford to use with the vigor and frequency our skin requires. Only you can determine the right balance for you. Just ensure it’s a result you can reasonably provide for yourself.
5. Availability: similarly, we don’t want to trek to unmapped lands to acquire a product that gives us great results. Resist buying new products in places you don’t live or frequent often. In my case, I work from home, and have most things delivered via Amazon. This is ideal. The flexibility of Amazon’s delivery options means I have a decent chance of obtaining the product anywhere Amazon services.
6. Good Vibes. I want to find the simplest and cleanest products I can for my skin. It’s a challenge in most product research products. I like knowing that I can support small business. I like to support “Clean Beauty” products. I do not like shipping water across the seas as a practice (including water in products like bath gels and laundry detergent). I actively avoid all petroleum products for my skin, because… duh! Absolutely no testing on animals please. Thank You.
Now that I have my criteria, Im going to use it to find a moisturizer for my body (legs and arms), Face for day and night and a moisturizer for my scalp.
Moisturizing mature psoriasis skin on the body
After my morning shower, when my skin is clean and dry I moisturize my body. My cleansing routine leverages three different products for three different parts of my body that need cleansing, a facial cleanser, a body cleanser and a sensitive area cleanser. For me, moisturizing requires a similar strategy. As mentioned above, we are going to look for a product to use on my shins and elbows. Both areas generally are my worst plaque troubled areas.
I have experimented with raw coconut oil, raw shea butter and a blend of the two. I’ve tried lotions, unscented and “approved for sensitive skin”. Then, I went crazy and experimented with Vitamin C serums…. boy did that break the budget quickly! My favorite class of body moisturizer are the “whipped body butters” or “body whipped body creams”. Body butters and body creams are generally much thicker than lotions. They can be as clean and as “chemical” laden as anything else, but, amazing products are out there, accessible and fit in to most budgets.
The key features I look for in a body cream or a body lotion are:
- Unscented, always.
- most forms of fragrance are an irritant. Just be safe and avoid it all together.
- Absorption
- You want your skin to drink in the product. You don’t want to slime everything you bump up against. Especially your clothes. No greasy messes after applying a moisturizer to psoriasis skin.
- Affordability
- Because I apply moisturizers multiple times per day, I always try to ensure that I haven’t priced myself out of happiness. My shins and elbows get at least two applications through out the day.
- Availability
- For me, Amazon has to have it! Also, a travel size is always a big bonus, however, I have learned that filling your own travel container works just fine too!
Once you have procured your moisturizer, it’s time for the experiments to begin. This process is not attempting to cure Psoriasis. We are merely trying to live with our Psoriasis. Moisturizing psoriasis skin is a big step to removing the itch, the pain and the scratchy nature of inflamed plaque patches.
On clean dry skin, apply an ample amount of the moisturizer directly to your skin, and your patch of psoriasis. Rub in to your skin until fully absorbed. A good moisturizer should drink right in to your skin. If not, and you find yourself waiting for your moisturizer to absorb, get a new one. Life is too short to sit around waiting for a moisturizer to absorb in to your skin. I find that my skin will tighten and dry within 6-8 hours and will reapply. I will add a third “dose” right before bed to keep my skin moisturized over night. You may find that depending on the time of the year, the conditions in the home or otherwise your relative humidity levels you may need a bit more or maybe a bit less. Humidity will absolutely impact how thirsty your skin is for moisture. Pay attention. Listen to your skin. Notice if your itching and scratching subsides.
Keeping the skin consistently moisturized is the key. If you let your psoriasis dry out, plaque will return, as will, the itchy scratch inflamed skin.
Moisturizing mature psoriasis skin on the face
Moisturizing skin on your shins and elbows is not at all the same as moisturizing your face. While my biggest areas of Psoriasis plaque are on my shins and elbows, I treat my face in very similar ways with very different products. The luxurious weight of a body cream simply won’t work on my face. It’s too heavy and thick to work well on my face. Now that I’m in my 50s, my facial skin can go from part oily to dry. So, while I don’t actively have psoriasis plaque on my face, it doesn’t mean it can’t form. For me, this facial moisturizing is preventive care.
The key features I look for in a facial moisturizer are:
- Unscented, always.
- most forms of fragrance are an irritant. Just be safe and avoid it all together.
- Absorption
- You want your skin to drink in the product. You don’t want to slime everything you bump up against. Especially your clothes. No greasy messes after applying a moisturizer to psoriasis skin.
- Affordability
- Because I apply moisturizers multiple times per day, I always try to ensure that I haven’t priced myself out of happiness.
- Availablility
- For me, Amazon has to have it! Also, a travel size is always a big bonus, however, I have learned that filling your own travel container works just fine too!
Once you have procured your facial moisturizer, it’s time for the experiments to begin. For those of you who are a bit more advanced and are knowledgable about serums, I encourage you to find a moisturizer that you can mix with your favorite serums. I have three facial moisturizers I really love. The thing about all three is that they align to my criteria above AND mix well with Vitamin C serum, Hyaluronic Acid, Retinol or Bakuchiol serums. I will craft a special post all about serums. For now, we will focus on moisturizing with a facial moisturizer.
I moisturize my face in the morning, fresh out of the shower, and, before bed on clean dry skin. The important note here is to moisturize both morning and night. For those of you who are bearded… moisturize that beard too! Psoriasis loves to hide in your beard and cause problems. Be sure to really work the moisturizer in to the skin under your beard. If you use a beard oil, be sure to really work the oil in to the skin… Do NOT mix a beard oil with a facial moisturizer.. this combo will be too heavy for the majority of your face… while your beard will likely love all the attention.
As mentioned, consistency is key! Keep that skin soft, moisturized and well loved. During the day it might be obvious, but, night time is the best time to moisturize. Take advantage of that time in slumber. Moisturize so that when you awake, your skin is ready to take on the day!
Moisturizing mature psoriasis skin on the scalp
Now, the trickiest part of my body to bring moisture to effectively, has been my scalp. Admittedly, I do not suffer from extreme plaque on my scalp. I do have a few patches of inflamed psoriasis skin but not nearly as extreme as I know some people deal with. With that said, I have gone to some pretty interesting extremes in trying to solve for the few spots I have. I tried raw organic coconut oil as a natural, inexpensive and effective solution. While it is in fact effective, the draw backs are not insignificant. The coconut oil takes forever to absorb in to the skin. It can stay on the skins top layer, or in the hair. Using coconut oil means you are wearing coconut oil in your hair all day. This is a commitment to not use any other hair product as I’m not sure that coconut oil mixes with hair products. I am very unclear as to what happens should you apply a blow dryer (heat) to hair coated in coconut oil. For these reasons and a few more, a different solution had to be found.
As mentioned above, this was a humdinger to solve for. In my case, the final solution is a cocktail of a moisturizing shampoo bar, a hair clay that also includes moisturizers and a twice a week washing with black African soap. Occasionally, I get a scalp oil or tonic to add to the mix.
This recipe changes through out the year. We run the heater in the winter, and, that’s when my scalp is at its driest. I have used the coconut oil in the winter if I have a “crack and bleed” situation and put a beanie on to keep in the moisture.
Create your criteria! Do let me know in the comments below if you have a special recipe for your scalp regimen.
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