Hey everyone (and in reply to Kiran’s question). I’m really hesitant to post messages suggesting that some new approach has been working….but….I’ve been experimenting with white distilled vinegar (5% acidity) and something very interesting has happened.

Basically, I’ll dunk a q-tip into the vinegar container and then roll it around on my lip. Depending on the state of peeling it’ll burn either a little or a lot for a few minutes and the affected areas might temporarily turn to a whitish color. After about 20 minutes I’ll put on a dab of Burt’s Bees lotion so that the area doesn’t dry out and it might also be neutralizing the remaining acid (which isn’t really strong to begin with…it’s only vinegar, think salad dressing, after all).

Now for the interesting part: very slowly, it looks like very small, formerly peeling areas, moving from the outermost part of my lip towards the inner areas, might have healed. At least, they now look like the areas on the very outer areas of my lip that never peeled (maybe a little bit more red for now). When I say they look similar, I mean that the skin has many of the tiny little creases that the very outermost areas have always had.

It’s also important to note that I’ve been doing this for about a week now, and nothing was immediate. In fact, the peeling cycle is still continuing (but it might be getting smaller). Please don’t get discouraged if this doesn’t work…this is very new and very tentative, but the fact that it’s done something is interesting and it would be nice to have a few people repeat to see what happens.

Also, I was thinking the other day that maybe the crusting is related to mechanical movement and the way the lip functions. To explain, it seemed that after a few days of not peeling, the skin would almost form a bubble (like the crust was detached from the skin underneath with air in the middle). But, while it was possible to press down when the lips were relaxed, when smiling, the skin stretched out and the gap no longer existed. That sort of movement is almost unique to the lips and maybe the separation is causing the top layer to become isolated and unable to receive needed nutrients from the layers underneath, thereby causing the layer the die and eventually slough off.

Anyways, last night I used a band aid to try to keep the top areas in contact with the lower areas. I don’t think this was responsible for the improvement, but it might have been (or maybe it was a combination). I’m gonna keep trying both though.

DM

PS. I’d recommend taking the band aid off if you’re planning on receiving a package from the UPS guy ;)