Skin on legs

[mollie.thorp@talktalk.net]

The skin on my legs is so dry it looks a bit like dry cracked mud.
I think this must be blamed on the fact that for about 12 years I used to spend the winters with a fan heater blasting away at my legs all day in a shop.in an endeavor to keep warm.
Have tried lots of different moisturisers but nothing seems to have any effect whatsoever, it's as though it doesn't sink in !!
I can only imagine I have in some way damaged my skin. Is there anything I can do ?

Kind regards,

Mollie Thorp

[Dr Miriam Wittmann]

Dear Molly Thorp,

exposure to hot air does dry out the skin but it does not have a long lasting effect.
So - it is very unlikely to have "damaged" your skin long term. Dry skin probably runs in your family?
For very dry skin you could try a cream we normally recommend for conditions where some part of the skin barrier (filaggrin) does not fully build up and thus more water than usual can leave the skin. That would be Calmurid Cream (containing 10% urea and lactic acid);other creams/ointment containing about 10% urea (which works to prevent the water loss) could also be tried e.g. Hydromol, Eucerin, E45 itch relief (the latter only contains 5% urea).
In addition it would be advantageous if you could use a "wash" preparation for dry skin (e.g. oilatum, doublebase, hydromol etc) and avoid any use of soap/detergents on the legs.

Kind regards,

Miriam