As Dry as the Dryest Desert

Posting number two about my trip to Arizona is about my skin issues. Arizona is known for it's warm weather, desert climes and in the spring...dry heat.

I have semi-sensitive skin. In the summer, I am oily....in the winter, I am dry. But when I'm in Arizona in the winter, I become SUPER dry. And it wasn't even my whole face - it was only one section of my face - my lower left quarter against my jaw line to my chin. Before going out to Arizona, my forehead was breaking out like a pre-pubescent school boy but that lower section of my face was kind of dry...not overly dry, but dry to where I knew I had to apply extra moisturizer on it. Then while flying out to Arizona, in mid-air, that dry patch of skin became extra-dry. By the time we got to the hotel, my husband said that I had some dry flakes peeling off (how embarrassing!) - so when we got to the room, I reached for my moisturizer and started applying.

Because I'm using Retin-A, I'm not supposed to be out in the sun - so for this trip, I went out and bought a semi-wide brim, straw hat to keep the sunlight out of my face. It wasn't as wide as you would see at the Kentucky Derby but it was wide enough that people took notice because I was like the only one at the baseball park with a non-baseball cap. My hat, along with my big, black sunglasses made me look like an uber-snob - but I didn't care - I had my skin to think of. By the time we got back to our room that night, my skin went dry again and I was scrubbing my face, in the bathtub, to get all the excess skin off. I must've scrubbed pretty hard because that dry patch started feeling raw.

Second day in the sun and I put on extra moisturizer, drank LOTS of water and I even had my Evian spray mist bottle with me to avoid dry and crumbly situations. Didn't work. I had so much skin peeling off, it looked like I had dandruff on my chest (ewww) - so we went back to the hotel room and that's the afternoon I went back to the spa to use their facilities - so I was in the steam room hoping to get some moisture into my face. I loaded up on moisturizer again, before heading out to dinner - and by the time we got home that night....my skin just sucked up any moisturizer that was there and started peeling. So back to the scrubbing.

By the third day, I went to Target and bought a bottle of Oil of Lay - I haven't used the stuff since high school but I figured oil = oily = extra moisture = no peeling. It didn't work...and every time I went back to scrub my face, I had 1/4 of my face bright red and the rest was normal looking- so I had to take time to scrub my whole face so it looked like I had some kind of skin disease of the face, instead of just one, blotchy patch.

Finally back in VA and Monday was horrible - my dry patch was still peeling! I must've applied lotion to it four times in the afternoon alone - and I was applying and peeling and scrubbing - all at my desk. It looks like the worst might be over. I just checked myself out in the mirror and we're at minimal dryness today...thank goodness cause I'm wearing a black sweater...wouldn't want people to think I have a dandruff problem.

But all my dryness problems weren't just with my face. My hands also took a beating and I was applying a lot of lotion. I don't know what it is with my skin but it just likes to soak up moisture. When I was on the shuttle bus heading to the airport on Sunday, my hands looked like the hands of an 80-year old woman! My husband's hands were no better - we were constantly applying the "good stuff" (the good stuff would be Crabtree and Evelyn's Hand Therapy lotion) and we still couldn't manage to keep them fully moisturized.

I guess when you're in the desert, you practically become the desert! That, alone, was reason enough to come home!