it's really important to use a proper moisturizer. i have patients who come in with very dry skin and i ask them what they are using and they are using lotions. the thing about lotions is that they are water based and if your skin is very dry and you are in a dry environment. as that water evaporates off your skin it will also pull water out with it. so even though you are making this great effort to moisturize by using the wrong product you could actually be making the problem worse. so i like ingredients like shea butter that can really hydrate the skin and lock water in. some people use ointments and ointments are great at holding water in but ointments by nature don't have any water in them at all. so they won't add any water. so this is what you should do take a bath or a shower not more than 10-15 minutes. and the water should not be too hot because that will also pull the natural oils out of your skin as well so lukewarm water 10-15 minutes at the most will hydrate your skin very well so you will have water in the skin. when you step out of the bath or shower just pat your skin dry so it's still damp and then leave in the bathroom a jar of a moisturizing cream or an ointment at that point would be good as well but those can feel too greasy for some people but there are some great creams out there. when you put it on to the damp skin it will hold water into the skin and actually help pull water into the skin. there are ingredients like lactic acid and hyaluronic acid that are called humectants and humectants help pull water into the skin from the environment as well. you also lose more water from your skin at night so it's important to moisturize before you go to bed.
nothing works on my dry skin i itch so much i am leaving marks. what can i do?