What Do You Do If Psoriasis Ends up Staining Your Clothes?

Psoriasis isn’t just a condition that affects your physical and mental state, it can also have repercussions on what you wear. Going shopping should be an exciting time. You can take a look at the new clothes on offer - discounts and all - and see what takes your fancy.

However, when you have a chronic condition like psoriasis that process can be made far more challenging.

Finding the right fabric

Firstly, you have to consider the type of clothing you’re going to wear. Short sleeve shirts? Well, that depends on whether you feel confident showing your psoriasis on your arms if you have it there. A black dress? Well psoriasis in your scalp can cause flakes to fall on to it and that can lead to embarrassment.

Even a simple thing like trying clothes on I have avoided in case any flakes fall on to the clothes and stick. Thankfully, since my skin has been clear, I’ve managed not to worry about this.

When scratching leads to stains

However, worse is when bloodstains appear. Generally, this happens from scratching but when your psoriasis is particularly bad it can happen just from the rubbing of the clothing.

That’s why it’s important to consider all your options when buying clothes. So, if you’ve had blood on your clothes or you’re worried about it, what can you actually do? The first thing to think about is how much the clothes actually mean to you. If you don’t like them very much and the bloodstains are quite extensive, it probably makes sense to just throw them away.

Determining how to tackle bloodstained clothing

In contrast, if it’s a particularly nice blouse, shirt or trousers, and the blood is confined to a few areas, see how putting them through the wash might help.

Equally, you could try a dry cleaning company if you like the garment a lot and the blood isn’t too extensive.

Handling clothing stains from topical treatments

What about other stains? These can appear from overuse of moisturizers or ointment creams. For this, you need to think about when you’re applying the treatments. It’s probably best to do it after you’ve showered or washed. That way, you give some time for the treatments to work before you put on your clothes.

Even if you do this the stains can still appear. If that’s the case, it makes sense to try and wash the clothes immediately to prevent any lasting impact to them. Otherwise, you will have to be careful and try letting the cream settle into your skin before applying any more or trying your clothes on again.

Out with the old, in with the new

Whatever you do be aware of the impact of stains on clothing. There’s nothing worse than buying a new wardrobe only to have it all ruined moments later by a lack of thought over how bad your psoriasis is and how bad the stains might be.

I’ve had to throw out numerous garments in the past all because of the stains that left them well, frankly, unusable. I tried putting them through the wash many times but to no avail: the stains still appeared. Other times I was simply careless and forgot that I may stain the clothing. Nonetheless, I now realize that when a psoriasis flare-up happens, I need to take the time in thinking about the clothes and the impact the stains may have: for good or bad.