Post Punk Kitchen Forum

i woke up yesterday to my face peeling. it's mostly in patches around, but damn it looks like i am a monster from a horror movie and there is no hell i can walk around like this.
it isn't uncomfortable or anything, i can't feel it at all.
i've been moisturizing it with regular no perfume body lotion and will be getting some for people with eczema prone skin tomorrow.
it can come from three things:

-it's been TERRIBLY cold. like, cold cold cold. it's the coldest winter ever, and we've reached temps way below what's normal around this time of the year
-kissing with a guy with stubbly face - he shaves but not every day at all. i'm sure this irritates the skin. but could it cause my skin to peel off? no matter what, i am taking a break from badly shaven guy.
-perfume allergy. i use perfume on my scarf, then place it around my neck, it sort of touches the areas affected. but usually i get hives from perfume allergy, no peely skin.

will using my peeling lotion make it worse? am i doomed to look like a freakish monster from a horror movie all winter? i am going to lotion it with cocoa butter tonight, and hope for the best. anything that could potentially mellow it down?

thanks!

Without a photo of you it's difficult to tell how severe this is, but it does sound really awful! If you've never had anything like this before, get yourself to doctor just to check there is nothing serious going on, e.g. allergy or other sort of reaction. If you have a history of dermatitis/eczema, you probably know what has worked for flare ups in the past, but if perfume-free moisturisers or ointments aren't cutting it, you may need yourself some steroids!

Stubble can do that to my face. Take a break from the stubble!

Also, maybe switch up your moisturizer and make sure you're moisturizing in the morning and at night. I really like the Shikai borage SPF 15 face moisturizer. It's really, uh, moisturizing and good for my sensitive, dry skin. When I was living in Canada, my skin would get upset when it would be really cold. There's not a lot you can do except moisturize and drink lots of water (oh, and I think taking vitamin E might help as well).

I've had something like that happen before. It turned out to be the perfect storm of boyfriend-with-sandpaper-stubble, a very specific shampoo allergy, and dry skin that did my face in. I had to see a doctor to get allergy tested, and in the mean time, a dermatologist gave me some steroid cream and steroid pills and lots of allergy meds to make it calm down.

Moisturize a lot, if you can (if it hurts... don't?). If it keeps up, definitely look for some steroid creams. You don't need a lot, so one little tube will last a long time in case it happens again. Try to take not-very-hot showers, too.

Do you have red patches? I have had a lot of just flaky peeling the past 2 weeks too. No redness juts Peeling and sort of rough skin on my face. I use exfoliating scrub and pads but they don't seem to work.

like everyone else said I bet it's a combo of the stubble kissing and the cold. If you're having a really cold winter there and it's dry in your house from the heat, a humidifier next to your bed should help with dry skin.

I find flax oil seems to help with dry skin (I use it on salads/food etc)