My skin is oily in the facial area and in my back and chest. But from my legs to feet, I always thought they’re a bit dry.
Since a few years ago, I would occasionally get small patches of skin in my legs or thighs. Those patches are bumpy (think goosebumps), slightly thickened, slightly discolored, and itchy. I think they went away on their own.
And now, I have these patches on my two shins that have been here for months… or years! I usually ignore this type of skin condition cos they used to always just go away on their own, but the affected area is getting larger in time. I still don’t know why these don’t go away like the other itchy patches did.
Dry itchy sensitive skin spots on my legs, described:
Both of my legs have itchy spots. I can count about 3 in each leg, with the most noticeable by visual and by itch located at the shins. They’re spots that look like goosebumps and feel like goosebumps — but itchy. These spots are discolored, some light brown and some reddish light brown.
Things I did before seeing a dermatologist for my dry itchy sensitive skin
I initially applied “katialis” to the affected areas. Katialis contains sulfur, zinc oxide, resorcinol, and salicylic acid. It did not make the itchy spots go away and only made the skin peel. In the last couple of weeks, after a break from katialis, I tried “mopiko” whose active ingredients are menthol, methyl salicylat and camphor. The methol soothes the itch, but the spots did not go away either and they also peeled lightly.
I tried to find an answer by Google-ing. Eczema was one of the results that popped up, but I read that eczema is caused by dry skin. My brain said, “but your skin is very oily. So it can’t be eczema.” Probably because in my entire life, I always focused on how to control the excess oil on my pimply face.
A few days ago, I decided to finally visit a dermatologist. I would share what she recommended to me in this blog post, but please be advised that you should not use halciderm cream (halcinonide cream) without your doctor’s advice. I read that halcinonide cream can be very harmful to the skin (1) if used in the wrong areas, and (2) if used for more than 5 days. I repeat – do not use halcinonide cream without your doctor’s advice!
Read more about halcinonide cream here: Halcinonide Topical
Dermatologist visit:
First of all, the dermatologist said that my problem is that I have very dry skin in the legs. She told me to bathe only once a day to avoid further drying of the skin. Use very mild soap that would keep your skin moisturized, such as Dove for sensitive skin. I told her I began using Dr. Kaufmann’s Sulfur Soap recently, but she told me to stop using it because it dries out the skin further. Whoops!
Before I left her office, she gave me a list of foods to avoid:
Skin regimen to treat dry itchy sensitive skin patches
Take note that I’m not promoting the brands of products mentioned here. They were the ones I got from the doctor, and the only variants I know of right now. 🙂
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Every morning at 7am, take one Allercet tablet (Cetirizine).
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Make a paste of Dermaveen Bath Treatment (colloidal oatmeal). Mix 1 teaspoon of the powder with 2 teaspoons water to make a paste. Apply to the affected areas and leave on for 5 to 10 minutes before taking a bath. Apply this paste twice a day, but remember, the dry itchy sensitive skin areas must not be in contact with soap more than once a day.
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Rinse the mixture with water. Take a bath if you haven’t yet for the day. The dermatologist I visited did not specify that I should not soap the dry itchy patches of skin, but if I would soap it, I would choose to soap it with Dove for sensitive skin as she recommended.
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While the dry itchy sensitive skin patches of skin are still reddish, apply the prescribed cream (I think it’s called halciderm cream, which is made of halcinonide cream) to the affected areas. When the dry itchy patches of skin are no longer reddish, use moisturizing lotion instead. Do this twice a day.
I couldn’t understand the name of the prescribed cream as written by the dermatologist, but here’s a photo of the handwriting, which I think says “halciderm cream”:
The moisturizing lotion is Dermaveen moisturising lotion and according to the bottle photo, it contains “natural colloidal oatmeal”, “Avena sativa seed powder 2% w/w”.
One and a half day since I began following this regimen, and I’ve noticed slight improvement in the itchy, discolored patches of skin in my legs. I really hope this is not just psychological effect – you know what mindset, when you think it’s happening just because you were given something that’s supposed to make it happen? 🙂
When the dry itchy sensitive skin spots of my legs that look like goosebumps heal, I will do my best to moisturize my legs regularly. I will try to grind oatmeal into powder form too, and make the usual paste out of it to apply from time to time to my legs.
(Fast forward to about 7 years and I developed chronic idiopathic urticaria, where the delayed/immediate pressure urticaria is driving me crazy.)
(Fast forward 11 years after the original post — when I thought that pressure urticaria was the worst skin issue I would get at my age, I got diagnosed with “atopic dermatitis” as almost my entire body is covered in itchy bumps and plaques as I type this. Treatment’s expected to take several months for my skin to stabilize again, and this involves various lifestyle changes to maintain a healthy skin barrier — moisturizer, steroids on inflamed areas, avoiding harsh chemicals, reducing stress, etc. Dermatologist told me it’s a lifelong skin issue that I’ll have to manage. Sigh. Shrug.)
