Hacks To Make Life With Psoriasis A Little Easier

When a person lives with psoriasis, this difficult condition plays a role in every decision. It's always front of mind, considered in almost every choice and scenario. After all, psoriasis directly impacts the skin - our largest, most visible organ.

Taking the focus off your psoriasis

So what can we, with psoriasis, do? While it's the ultimate goal of not giving a flying you-know-what about our skin, it's not always that easy. We're tired of psoriasis defining and controlling our lives.

Sometimes, to feel more in control and avoid the inevitable rude stares, it makes more sense for us to cover ourselves up comfortably. Comfortably being the operative word here. Here are some of my hacks for being more secure in your psoriasis skin, avoiding triggers, and making life a little easier.

Don't forget the scent

Are you a person who stays away from colognes and perfumes because spraying them directly on your skin makes you flare? Instead of avoiding fragrances altogether - before getting dressed, spray your clothes directly with the scent and allow them to dry!

Roll around

Do you avoid the color black because of those annoying little psoriasis flakes that can be seen on your shirt? No worries.

Purchase a mini lint roller to keep in your car, home, and work. It takes two seconds to roll the flakes away.

Glove your skin

When my psoriasis was at its worst, I used to scratch so bad in my sleep at night, so much so I would wake up to bloodstains on the sheets.

Wearing cloth gloves at night can be a bit strange at first, but doing so will prevent you from scratching and breaking skin throughout the night.

Resist the stain

I mentioned the woes of the bedsheets staining with blood after scratching. Well, there is a solution to that! They are called stain resistance sheets.

Although I'm not exactly sure how it works or how well it resists blood, it's worth trying!

Oil and water mix

I have heard that water and oil don't mix, but this doesn't apply to a bath. When I decided to do a little tub relaxing I add oils to my bath water. This smooths my skin and sticks to my body.

It will leave your plaques looking less dry. Remember to rinse excess oil out of the tub well, so you don't slip and fall the next time you get in to take a shower.

Don't heat things up too much

When showering or taking a bath, be sure to use lukewarm water. Hot water dries out the skin bad and will be counterproductive to whatever treatment you are using.

Wear light colors or prints

If you live with scalp psoriasis, you probably know how annoying it is to see flakes from your scalp on your shirt. In addition to the lint roller, another hack is to wear light colored shirts or tops with prints.

The flakes will be less noticeable and blend in better, so you don't worry about others seeing them.

Erase the stain

Have you ever scratched so hard only to find your clothing stuck to the area of your body that is bleeding? Now you have to walk around with this blood stain on your clothing for everyone to see.

Well, not anymore! As soon as you see a stain, take your pen and erase it! Keep a stain eraser pen close by for those moments.

Give 'em an optical illusion

Psoriasis covers my legs. If I want to wear a skirt with a pair of stockings sometimes you can still see the plaques.

To combat this, I've learned to wear a pair of flesh-tone stockings and then place the socks of choice (such as net, black, color, etc.) over the nude pair. This will give the illusion that you have on one pair of stockings over "clear" skin, and no one will see the plaques. Depending on how painful my plaques are, sometimes I'll double up.

Do you have any hacks you'd like to share? Comment away!