Moisturiser Withdrawal pre TSW part 2

So… since end of November I still haven't applied one drop of moisturiser anywhere (except my face and apart from a few days of using sunblock) and I'll admit that my skin has always been good in the summer months, but since I have stopped moisturising my skin has been sooo weirdly good!

Its the strangest thing!

My skin still doesn't produce its on oil very well and most of the time I have a very soft layer of dry flakey skin which is barely noticeable unless you look up super close at it… which I do all the time haha. It's especially dry after showering so I tend to shower every other day now which helps me feel a bit more comfortable.

I've been thinking about this whole 'moisturiser withdrawal' thing quite a bit lately and the main reason that I can come up with why it works so well based on my own skins reaction to it is that I have been diagnosed with so many allergies (dust mites, grass pollen, horses, cats, dogs, eggs, nuts… all nuts, nickel plus heaps more… oh did I say dust and grass?? so basically the whole world then) and I just feel that now that I have stopped moisturising, the outer barrier of my skin is so much tougher that it doesn't let these allergens get through the skin barrier quite so easily so it can't create that irritation.

I know there are probably heaps more scientific facts around this topic, but based on my non-scientific background thats the best way that I can explain how it works for me.

In regards to my itchiness, I still itch heaps.. maybe even a bit more than usual! But because I haven't had the redness and swelling in my skin quite so much over the last couple of months, I have actually cut down my steroid usage even more. 6 x in December. 5 x in January.

I can feel the deep itch sometimes though, the itch of my body trying to heal from the inside and I can tell that once I stop the roids altogether that there is going to be some serious itching and scratching going on. But I feel that now my skin feels tougher I am almost ready to handle this.

The other thing that I need to do is get tested for the MTHFR gene mutation which one super amazing blogger (Stopping Topical Steroids) discovered a few months ago which may be the cause of how I got addicted to this s*#t in the first place.

But for now I'm counting down the days. Sorting out my life here in Perth for my move back to New Zealand for my 6 month break to beat this demon…

Oh and when I say break I mean starting up my own online clothing and freelance design business!! Whoop Whoop!! Something that I have always wanted to do but never really had the opportunity. So I have decided that even though this may potentially be the most difficult thing that have endured my whole life, I want to start putting a positive spin on it from now on… there may be times when I am incapable of moving for days or weeks even… but for the rest of my healing time I am going to be working at getting this business off the ground and I guess I'll see where I go from there.