Why be embarrassed?

I have psoriasis - it means that I get "plaques" of red, flaky skin all over my body. Sometimes it's itchy, usually it's just unsightly. I don't get it bad on my face, but there's usually a patch or two there. Ho hum.

Washing your face twice a day using a fairly coarse face flannel will keep the facial ones from being too flaky by removing the loose skin - you'll still have visible red patches, but they won't be flaky. I find coarser soap works better than moisturising ones by taking the flakes off better; moisturising soaps seem to preserve the flakes so that bits don't fall off but the patches look worse

I use coal-tar soap - coal-tar helps improve skin conditions (why, I'm not sure), although I prefer this soap anyway. As for the dandruff, Alphosyl shampoo (also a coal-tar product) does a fairly good job if used at least every other day (it's the only shampoo that's done anything for my dandruff).

Psoriasis improves with exposure to sunlight, so wearing shorts in summer and getting a decent tan may improve it - on the same principle, I've heard that going on a sunbed can help, but I've not tried it. There's no real cure, all you can do is stop it being too unsightly. Steroid creams can cover it up, but aren't good for you long-term. Other creams are just moisturisers and don't really solve anything.

Skin conditions are odd, mainly since no-one knows what the hell they are or how they work. Sometimes it's just down to how a person is - in my case it seems to be linked to me being a bit "twitchy" and having too much nervous energy. Sometimes it's down to stress - psoriasis is known to be linked to stress. Sometimes it's environment - my wife gets dry skin from washing in hard water. Sometimes it's allergies - a friend had really bad eczema which turned out to be an allergy to wheat and milk products (he tried a diet without those for a while and his skin did improve, but he's now decided to live with the eczema and enjoy himself! :-) Sometimes alternative therapies work (chance/placebo/anything real? don't know, but it's not worked for me).

Graham.