Home Remedies for Curing Dry Skin

Since moving here three years ago I have been plagued with severly dry, scaly skin. I have tried scrubbing with coffee, sugar, salt as well as commercial scrubs but, nothing works. I have not been able to find a lotion that can keep my skin moist for more than a few minutes. I'm in my 40's and have always had soft skin. About one month ago, whilst eating some fresh pineapple I got the idea to apply some of the juice to my skin (seeing that it contains fruit acids which act like exfoliant) before applying my normal moisturiser. I first tried it on my legs and arms - the driest parts. Within a few days I noticed the layer of dry scaly skin was gone! I have been using it since and dry skin is no longer a problem. On the face I dilute the fresh juice with a little water and leave it on for about 10 minutes. I then wipe my face with damp cotton pads before applying a moisturizer. If your skin is sensitive, it might tingle a bit on the face. But so far, I've had no adverse reaction. Give it a try. It's inexpensive and effective.

Years ago I heard that putting milk of magnesia topically on dry skin would remove dead cells and leave healthy skin, from a model that used it to keep her skin beautiful. I did that a lot on dry skin and loved it. Lately I bathe in it, 1 /2 cup in hot bath and also soak my head in the tub. I have had dry skin, so this is nice. I have fall/ winter/ spring dandruff but not summer.

Lately I ran across coconut oil and trying to use it in different ways. Heated some in an old agave bottle with a tiny tip on it. Heated my rice pack in microwave and wrapped the rice pack around agave bottle to melt the oil and then put on the scalp. Let soak all day then took a bath with head in water, followed with a shampoo. No oily hair just soft and no dandruff.

Also daily brush with the oil and put on face, hands and feet. Use half pea size in ear if there is any ringing starting up.

Okay so I have to update my dry skin method.. I said in another post that butter helped my dry skin.. But now I think I want to say that rubbing tea on the skin helps great too! (as well as adding sea salt to your face wash and baking soda/for acne prone) I will try aloe vera next if my face is not recovering from the scars or stays dry.. This is day 1.. Some results better than butter and I used convenience store bought tea.. I will try this method with homemade tea next.. Youtube videos always talk about putting tea bags on the face to help speed up healing of dry skin, etc.. More is to come..

Hi. I've read here on EC that applying extra-virgin organic coconut oil topically can moisturize, but also that it can dry the skin. Does it depend on how much you use? Or skin type? And what about taking it internally -- could that also cause dry skin? I am interested in its health benefits but my skin is already very dry (I am in my sixties.) Thank you for any help, EC is the greatest!

I have always looked young for my years (at least what everybody tells me) , but for some reason every one seemed to comment that it never looked like I had enough sleep, no matter what. But since taking VCO (internally and rubbing it around my eyes now and then) haha, they have lightened up! VCO is great and after I got over the dregs (er die-off symptoms) I notices a lot other neat stuff too from the VCO. WOOT! I am LITERALLY AGING BACKWARDS OUTWARDLY...

The skin on my hands is very dry and I have a tendency to have lots of cuticles. I have tried everything, lotions, creams, ointments you name it - nothing works. To solve both these issues, I squeeze a few drops of fresh lemon juice in my hands and gently rub it once or twice a day, especially in winter. This is quite inexpensive and my hands are definitely happier.

Winter 2010/11 was my fourth using honey to keep the back of my hands smooth. To test whether I still needed it, I waited till after the weather got cold to see if my skin got dry and rough and it did. I again used cheap grocery store honey for several nights and quit. My skin was fine for the rest of the winter without treatment. I did get two small cuts that I couldn't attribute to any event, daubed them with honey and had no further problems--till today, the first of May, when the weather was slightly chilly in the morning. I again noticed a minor tear but didn't treat it until late afternoon when I saw some blood and applied honey.

It's odd that colder weather a couple of months ago didn't affect my skin yet it couldn't take milder dry wind today.

After reading a post about honey, I've decided to give it a try. I use raw honey to wash my face every day. Have been doing this for almost a year now and will continue to use it forever. I love the way it makes my skin feel, cleansed, and soft, not tight. I also use Borax (about 2-3 times a week) as a scrub. It works great. My skin feels smooth and soft. Thank you for sharing.

I tried liquid lanolin a few weeks ago for my dry hands and feet and it works very well. Since the liquid lanolin is too thick, I mix the liquid lanolin with EVCO and sometimes almond oil, just whatever I can grab first. I rub the mixture on my hands and feet at night. I rub the leftover on my checks and eye areas. The next day, my hands and feel and face feel very soft and moist. I Love it.

Coffee grounds for exfoliations has worked very well for me. Immediately after washing my face with the grounds, I noticed a difference in my skin. It was softer and looked brighter. My family members even complimented me on a more glowing complexion. I plan to continue to use them. I have not tried the cellulite treatment yet, but intend to soon. My brother, who is a nutritionist, says that I should use organic coffee grounds because they are free of chemicals.

WORKED TEMPORARILY

Dear Dianna from Austin, TX,

Thank you so much for your great pieces of advice about using coconut oil for dry hands! I have been trying your methods and experimenting with the concepts.

I have tried the ACV (which I love for other things) and am still determining the effectiveness.

You were so right that heat helps the coconut oil penetrate. I have cold hands and live in a cold climate! Based on your advice about warm water, I have been trying microwavable hot packs. After I apply the oil, I place my hands inside the warm packs with towels over them and then the oil seems to absorb quickly. For a short time afterwards my hands feel less dry.

Have you had any experience with losing the "lotion" effects of the coconut oil after your hands touch water during routine daily tasks (cleaning, etc.)? My fingers instantly become dry after I so much as use a damp paper towel. The coconut oil doesn't seem to maintain for me, even when I minimize water exposure. I would just love to have the moisturizing effects of the coconut oil last throughout the day.

Thanks again for your kind help and thank you in advance for any other ideas you might have!

Good Health to everyone!
-Chanson

Hi, Chanson. I too tried coconut oil for dry skin and found it didn't last very long. Two things might help you - pure shea butter and a lotion with alpha hydroxy acids. I have been using shea butter in the winter for 2 years now and it is phenomenal. Great for cracked heels too. When I visited my mother over the holidays, she had some alpha hydroxy skin lotion that she bought a natural food store. I tested it out and found it immediately cured dry skin and lasted all day, even after multiple washings. I wrote the name down but now can't find it amongst all my scraps of paper. I found a generic alpha hydroxy at the drug store and it does get rid of dry skin, but doesn't absorb well. If I can find the name of the good stuff, will post again. It made my skin amazingly silky and soft!

A cure for dry skin is to exfoliate. There is no need to buy a product from the store. Use the grounds left over from your daily cup of coffee. Keep the coffee grounds in a container with a lid and store the container in your bathroom. Apply the coffee grounds in the shower. It's messy, but the grounds will not clog your drain. Use the grounds all over your body, including your face. Coffee grounds are full of antixodiants. It's a great cure for cellulite as well.

Thank you for the information. My Mom has dry and flaky skin. No matter the oils and moisture I use following her bath and exfoliation the next day the skin has returned to a very dry and flaking status. hurts my heart to see it (legs, hips, arms). I'm researching if it may be a result of any of her medication. In the meantime we will search to try the Papaya treatment. what BRAND do you use/suggest?

I am looking for papaya ointment online and finding nothing at all - can you spell out a brand or give clues as to where you found yours? desperate with scaling, flaking skin :)

How to you make rice water?

If you do this, do it at night and wash in the morning. Please do not go out in the sun with lemon juice on your skin, it will burn and stain you!

The milk of magnesia worked! For months I had tried everything to moisturize my flaking legs.... After trying milk of magnesia for just two minutes, I rubbed in some olive oil while still in the hot shower and my skin is finally back to normal! Thanks!!

Winter 2011-12 was my fifth year using honey to stop the back of my hands from getting so dry they bleed, as they did form many years before I used honey.

Surprisingly, this winter it didn't work quite as well as before, even though the Southern California weather didn't seem colder, hotter, wetter or drier than usual. Instead of applying the honey for several days and then having smooth skin all winter, I had to apply it about every couple of months. It never got as bad as before I tried honey, though.

At first I thought it was because I was using old supermarket honey, but the new organic honey I switched to had to be reapplied before winter ended, too. Even so, it was far better than the hand creams and the prescription cream I tried before discovering honey.

This year I paid more attention to my chapped lips, which needed reapplication much more often than my hands.

Hey, I have suffered from terrible dry skin for years and want to try this. Could you PLEASE explain how you made this balm. Did you add wax shavings to oil then heat all three? or did you heat the wax and then add it to oils? Do you have to make single batch or can you make it and then store it?

Empsom salt soaks gets rid of dry feet:). I just take a usual bath & put in about 2cups of empsom salt I do this 3-4 days a week!!!

I went to an "eye-dolligist" for extreme dry skin problem. (sever athlete's foot + Jock Itch) was told to start adding 2 cups of Organic Sea Salt to bath water (use only luke warm water, not steaming hot) must sit in bath for 1 hour. Did this twice a week for 4 weeks and both problems are gone. It has been 3 months now and no return. For my dry skin I am also taking 2 tablespoons of organic flax seed oil morning and night. My skin now is soft and smooth as silk.

hope this helps

chanson - glad it is helping even just a little. btw - if the coconut oil is not enough moisture you can add another oil like olive or cocoa butter or even sesame oil. i just prefer to not have to buy more oils and so use the coconut. actually, the only way VCO will help my very dry hands is if i apply it and then soak in warm water AND/or apply a small amount of it after i have soaked in a bath and i am still wet. what you want to do is to seal in the water. the oil doesn't help so much for moisturizing as the water does - it just seals in the water. also when i drink 3 liters of water a day my dry skin really just goes away... so i know with me it is really water that i need.

also, some people find VCO to be slightly drying to their skin. it is a semi-drying oil - that is why it doesn't feel greasy. so if you find this to be the case you can add another oil to your VCO or just switch to a more moisturizing oil. this is why VCO seems to disappear on your skin and not stay greasy. and i have found that the longer i use it that the less i have to use it. hope this helps.
djh/austin, TX

if the coconut oil is not enough for your dry hands - try using castor oil. castor oil will soak in overnight and will protect your skin from drying out.

also i have found that coconut oil takes some time to work but it will eventually heal dry skin - unlike some other oils that appear to just work when they are on the skin and when you wash them off your skin is dry again.

you may also take some coconut oil or olive oil and add a little melted beeswax (melt the VCO too) and stir or mix it very well. the beeswax will add a little barrier to the skin to keep the cold and wet from removing more moisture.

DRINK MORE WATER!!!

Did you ever find the name of the product you could not find that worked? My 20-month old has very dry skin - legs, scalp. The Extra Virgin Coconut Oil on his head does little help and work. I read about castor oil working. I will try that. My toddler needs help!! My 3-yr. old is okay so I don't know why the 20-month old is so different and has severely dry skin. Both kids eat the same, etc.

I love the idea of using virgin coconut oil on my skin, but gave up after a few weeks. Here is my situation: I am in need of a hand lotion that is not filled with the synthetic chemicals of typical commercial hand lotion. My hands are dry, winter and summer; and I suspect that some of this has to do with my continual use of the commercial hand lotions for many years. It isn't that my skin is chapped, it is that my hands FEEL stiff and dry. They look fine but they don't feel comfortable. Also, my ability to grip things with my fingertips is now decreasing; things just slip underneath my touch. I have tried (on two occasions) going a couple of months without applying any lotion to see if my natural skin oils would resurface, to no avail. I do drink at least a couple of litres of water per day.

I am interested in trying again with the virgin coconut oil. Here is the problem. Even if I massage it in to my hands for several minutes and wait for a half an hour, it still has not absorbed into my skin. It is very greasy and I can't proceed with tasks I need to take care of. The oil is coming off my hands onto other things. Moreover, I need to either wash my hands several times a day or expose them to water in the course of my day, and after so doing I need to reapply lotion. So it's not working to have grease on my hands so frequently.

I don't use a huge amount of VCO. I thought perhaps I could use a towel to wipe off the surface grease, but in trying that, it seems that the skin on my hands is just back to where it was, feeling not moist. It has occurred to me that I could try applying it before bed and putting cotton gloves on, but I feel I will still need some kind of lotion during the day after I have washed my hands.

I am wondering what other substance could possibly be added to the coconut oil to make it easier to penetrate the skin? I have read that commercial hand lotions use alcohol to help their oils be absorbed. I am at a point where I would resort to that. Sadly, I have also heard that the alcohol is drying to the skin, and therefore makes you need to reapply the lotion. Perhaps this has something to do with what I call "hand lotion addiction". None of the commercial lotions I have ever used have genuinely improved my skin, in fact, I fear that they have made my skin lose it's natural oils. I am very sad that my dermatologists have recommended these products, products with long lists of synthetic chemicals, that seem to have done nothing for me other than possibly cause a sort of dependency upon them.

If anyone has any guidance on how best to use coconut oil for the skin, particularly the hands; or a suggestion for a preparation that uses VCO effectively in combination with something else, I would be VERY appreciative! Thank you very much and Good Health to all!

hi - i just wanted to say if you are having trouble with the virgin coconut oil sinking into your hands - first try wetting your hands first and putting a tiny bit of the vco on and rubbing them together. also if you massage the vco on your hands and then soak them in hot/warm water this helps it penetrate too. another thing you can do is wet your hands and rub a larger amount of the VCO on them and put on cotton gloves and sleep with it on. all and all- with vco i have found that less is more and that more (unless used by the last method) actually tends to make my skin feel drier. the massage and then soaking in warm water really really helps.hope you figure out a way to use it.

also you may try spraying apple cider vinegar diluted in 2/3 water on your hands before applying the vco. all of these methods have helped me. but the main thing i have found the most useful for very dry hands and cuticles is urine therapy - i use the first morning urine and just rub it onto my hands and then put a thin layer of vco over the top of it. then i go back to sleep and when i wake up my hands are very soft.

Hi Chanson

I too have had dry hands my whole life and nothing seems to last until I tried pure shea nut butter. It works wonders, it does soak into your hands but does take a while. If you want something that will soak in quickly pure Jojoba oil in fantastic. It will soak into your skin within a minute or two and leaves your hands feeling so much softer. Hope this helps and good luck.

Try coconut oil with juice of lemon

I love this website. The thought of losing so many loved ones recently makes me very sad. Had I known about earth clinic, perhaps they would still be here. I have been using several different remedies. I tried the hydrogen peroxide method first. I use it in my water mostly, but sometimes i use the spray pump. I smoke heavily and my breathing has changed so much for the better. I have much more energy and overall feel good. I am diabetic and have very dry peeling feet. I soak my feet in enough water to cover the top of my feet and add about 1/2 c. Peroxide to the water and soak about 30 minutes or longer if i have the time. After 2 times, i could see my feet start to heal. Also, i found 3% peroxide without stabalizers at the family dollar. I can taste the difference. Thank you so much.