I've really a learned a lot over the last few days while observing my lips as I allow them to heal by the standard wound healing processes of the body.

I am not really trying to cure myself by this method at this point. I just want to understand why the lips can't heal themselves normally. I'm trying to learn whether its an immunological issue, a mechanical issue, a factitious issue, a multi-faceted issue, etc. I want to investigate the causes step by step so I am starting very simple.

So that being said, here are some observations I made:

DAYS 1 - 5

-Once the lips go dry for beyond a day, small circular clusters seem to be forming across the entire vermilon border where the red inflamed tissue abruptly meets the darker skin. The lips begin to tighten and deep fissures start to form. A shiny coat seems to cover the entire length of the lips--over both the red and dark part. This coat was uncomfortable at first, but then it seemed to help alleviate the rawness and sensitive, exposed feeling of the inflamed tissue. When eating fruits like mangoes and papayas, this layer felt like it thickened and made my lips feel even better. Maybe a sucrose syrup-like solution (like honey) might provide this same feeling.

-Upon accidental wetting of the lips you can see the whitish keratinocyte layer making its way upwards towards the inside of the mouth suggesting their growth is unidirectional rather than random. This layer seems different than the shiny coat layer. Each couple of days this layer has grown further upwards and can only be seen when the lips are slightly wet. The layer does not seem to grow with a clear-cut edge from the outside inwards  but rather with thin finger-like projections making their way to the tips. When wet, sometimes these tips can become tangled and ball up into thick white clump. Instead of peeling the clump I have decided to slowly easy it back over the lip with my finger in an upwards direction and dry out the lip to prevent further clumping. After about 20 minutes, when the lips were dry, the clump was gone.

-I have noticed that wetting the lips might not be so bad after all. What's more important seems to be what you do when the lips are wet. Touching them with the opposing lip when wet causes the thin keratinocyte layers to become attached, preventing their growth towards the inner mouth. So when the lips are wet, I have prevented them from touching the opposing lip as much as possible. Touching them in a way that causes them to move in a direction other than towards the inner mouth seems to cause clumping and is likely be counterproductive to healing. Lateral motion is among the worst.

-As the lips become drier I notice I have a tendency to want to lick them but I have done my best not to. I also encountered an anxious situation and I caught myself biting my lips (in a soft way). No visible damage done, but anxiety possibly a factor in the pathogenesis and the prevention of healing.

-The degree of inflammation has not seemed to change. Although the shiny (and possibly protective) coat seems to make the lips look a little less red. and more pinkish. However, this is probably due to glossy nature of the coat rather than a reduction in inflammation. Hence, no marked change in inflammation observed.

More observations to follow....