Allergic-Contact Dermatitis!

I wish that I had taken a picture of it–. Wait, I’m kind of glad that I didn’t. You see, I’ve been struggling with allergic-contact dermatitis the last few months and it hasn’t been pretty. It started with a little itching around my knuckles and then quickly spread to an inflamed, irritated outbreak that covered both of my hands. It didn’t take long for me to realize that I had come into contact with an allergen. However, it did take me a while to narrow down exactly what was causing the dermatitis. Drum roll, please. Ladies and gentlemen, it was the laundry detergent!

It started while I was out of town, visiting friends and relatives. So, I’m sure you can understand why it took me a while to figure out. But the dermatitis followed me home. As it turns out, I’d stopped and picked up laundry detergent late one night on the way home. I knew I’d have to do laundry because I’d been gone for two weeks only to find that the store was out of my usual brand. I grabbed an alternative without thinking about it. Of course, the dermatitis only got worse and eventually I had a crack develop between my fingers that actually started to bleed. Ugh.

Once I realized it was the laundry detergent, I had to go about the process of re-washing everything. My clothes, towels and bedding all got another run through the washing machine. It took a couple of weeks for the dermatitis to disappear, but it did! My hands are now back to normal and I am feeling some serious gratitude. Along the way, I also found a couple of products to be rather soothing for my inflamed skin.  The first thing that helped was cortisone cream. It calmed the itching and also helped to heal the crack between my fingers. However, I also used an antibiotic ointment just to make sure that I wouldn’t have any further problems with the areas that were bleeding and thus exposed to bacteria.

Aside from that, I also switched up the hand soap that I use. I’m a frequent hand washer. I’m often reprimanded about drying out my skin but I’m always sticking my hands into something or the other, so I don’t really have a choice. A friend suggested that I try Savon de Marseille. I picked up the liquid version, which contains both olive and palm oils. This soap is very gentle and really helped to keep my skin from becoming too dry. It also has a pleasant scent and is described on the web site as a natural soap. Score!

I also found that while my hands were irritated, a lot of the lotions that I normally use led to intense itching. I try to stick to natural products, so this was quite a surprise for me. Yet, an old favorite seemed to work very well: L’Occitane. I used their Ultra Rich Body Cream a few times throughout the day without any trouble. And I have to say, this body cream is excellent– irritated skin or not.

Thankfully, the dermatitis is over. If you’ve ever had the same problem, let me know what helped you in the comments!