Dry Skin Rescue

Last year my family and I made a cross country move from the extremely humid southern U.S. to the very dry west. Halfway into the move, right around the time we reached the Arizona desert, I started to experience the absolute worst itchy, dry skin I’ve ever had. I also broke out in eczema and near constant hives. I have always been on the parched side when it comes to my skin but this was unprecedented. The itching was so bad I was drawing blood with my scratching. Because of that I got a skin infection which required antibiotics. Nothing brought relief, I tried everything to moisturize and stop the itching. Medicated lotions and creams, all natural lotions and soaps but nothing lasted. I’d have to reapply seemingly every 10 minutes just to get through the day. I was going out of my skull and wished I could crawl out of my skin.

Finally, just when I was just about to resign myself to my pruritic fate, I decided to try one more thing. Thinking, instead of buying one more lotion where the first ingredient was water, why not go straight to the moisturizing source. Shea butter. 100% natural, raw shea butter. Talk about a holy grail hack.

I purchased the SheaMoisture brand, it comes in four sizes. 3oz, 6oz, 12oz and 15oz. It’s about a dollar an ounce but absolutely worth it. My 6oz container has lasted about 2 months and still isn’t empty. It’s super rich so a little goes a long way. It is pretty solid so it takes a bit of work to get out of the container but your body heat will soften it to a spreadable texture. It’s the only thing I’ve tried that keeps me moisturized all day. It’s healed my eczema and has even helped tame my psoriasis (which I had prior to the itching incident). Now I rarely get hives, and even some of the scars from scratching have lightened. I love it because it’s only one ingredient and has almost no smell. Which is great because some natural oils and butters smell icky. It’s definitely a heavy moisturizer so it’s best for very dry skin types. However, it absorbs fairly quickly and I can use it on my face as an overnight moisturizer and it doesn’t break me out. It’s obviously not a cure all and sometimes I still get hives and get itchy but it is nothing, I mean nothing, like it was before. So if you’re searching for something to ease your dry skin issues give this a try, it may just be what keeps you from losing your ever loving mind and/or scraping off all of your beautiful skin.