Turn on your favorite music and take your morning coffee into the bathroom. Now is the time to relax and take care of your skin so you are ready to step out into the world.
Eczema and bathing can be difficult to discipline. How to wash when the skin is affected by eczema.
The most important element in my skincare is the daily bath. This is where the skin is cleaned so that any eczema does not become infected with a bacterial or fungal infection. Clean skin is the basis for effective treatment with prescription creams. During the process, it is important to keep the skin barrier as undisturbed as possible.
The top layer of the skin is a combination of skin cells and natural fats (lipids). Therefore, the skin barrier can be easily damaged by soap. For that reason, I have stopped using soap, unless it is for local washing of eczema spots before I disinfect them. Instead of soap, I use fine table salt or a washing cloth. Soap is a collective term for shower gel, shampoo, and whatever else you normally wash with in the bath.
Salt may be a new thing in your bathroom, but it is very effective in keeping the skin clean. It is inexpensive and contains no problematic chemicals. It will even gently tell you if the skin is damaged by burning a little bit. Pay special attention to these areas when applying your prescription creams after the bath.
There are two types of baths, depending on whether you have active eczema or not. I will describe the bathing procedure in two different ways. The first is used when the eczema is active and must be treated with prescription creams. The second is a normal bath when the skin is healed and in a healthy state. Here, however, it still needs care and attention to keep the skin barrier intact.
The water should be lukewarm during the bath and the final rinse can be cold if you dare.
Before you begin, take the time to inspect your body to assess where you have spots that need to be treated with the creams prescribed by your doctor after bathing. This makes it easier to focus on these places during the bath and when applying different creams afterward.
Take out the various creams, deodorants, and other medications and place them in “order of application” on the table in the bathroom, so they are ready when you get out of the bath.
Active eczema bath
- Fine table salt
- Mild hypoallergenic soap
- 0.2% chlorhexidine
- Towel
- Start by rinsing with lukewarm water.
- Apply mild soap to the areas where the eczema is present and massage it gently.
- Rinse off the soap.
- Take a handful of fine salt and gently rub the whole body.
- Rinse the body with lukewarm water.
- Gently dry the body parts where eczema is present or usually occurs. Apply 0.2% chlorhexidine to these areas. Wait for approximately two minutes for the next step.
- Rinse in lukewarm or cold water until you feel refreshed.
- Pat yourself dry.
- Apply the cream prescribed by your doctor to the eczema spots. Do not apply other creams to these areas for at least ten minutes, so that the active substances can be effectively absorbed by the now clean and disinfected skin.
- Apply moisturizer to the parts of the body that have not been treated with the prescription cream.
- Apply moisturizer to the eczema spots after approx. ten minutes.
Normal bath
- Fine table salt
- Towel
- Start by rinsing yourself with lukewarm water.
- Take a handful of fine salt and gently rub the whole body.
- Rinse with lukewarm water.
- Rinse with cold water until you feel refreshed.
- Dry the skin gently.
- Apply moisturizer all over your body.
For practical reasons, I use a plastic jar with a screw-on lid for the salt. If I drop the jar in the shower, it doesn’t splinter and you often have small empty plastic containers of food supplements, vitamins, etc. in your home.
When using prescription steroid creams, it is important to continue using them even when there is no visible eczema. If you suddenly stop using them, you risk the so-called rebound effect, where the eczema comes back again and a new cycle of treatment has to be started. In the long run, you will use less prescription cream than if you use a stop-and-go strategy.
Experiences with this bath have shown me that I smell significantly less sweat than when I used soap products. I don’t know the specific reason, but I suspect that a body in balance returns to a more natural state. When we lived out in nature, we didn’t wash with soap, so maybe the smell is an expression of the body’s natural balance being disturbed.
Have a nice Bath :-).