As far back as i can remember when i was 8-9 years old, i often licked my lips and peeled off chapped lips during the winter time when it was dry and cold. I obviously had no idea how to properly take care of my lips since nobody told me. As i have said in past posts, my lips during the warmer months had a hard surface. However, it was NOT Exfoliative Cheilitis. That hard surface never bothered me much as i could eat, shower and talk normally with it. It looked similar to what my sister has every now and then because even now at the age of 28 she still picks at her lips. However, when i was 10 years old and it was winter time, i did something stupid and peeled off more than i should have. So, in order to "even" out the bottom lip's texture i peeled off like 95% of my bottom lip. After that, my lip would never be normal again as i would get that stupid cycle. BUT, it was pretty easy to manage from 10-20yrs old because it came off pretty easy when i showered. Although it did lower my self-esteem because i knew it was always there. In the summer of when i was 20yrs old i stupidly decided to put on a lip balm with tocopheryl acetate (common vitamin E found in cosmetics) which MAY have tried to heal my lips. But, at the same time it made it even HARDER to remove that damn surface to make it "even" because the texture was growing at different rates. Since it was harder to remove, i subsequently did MORE damage and my lip bled quite a bit. So, theoretically if i had left it on, my lips MIGHT have healed or improved to some degree.

Sorry for that long story again, i just wanted to let you guys know how my EC started. Next time when i see my sister I'll ask her about her lip picking and her diet or whatever.