Dry skin is headache for me

[ated19]

I finished my Whole30 last week, so it may still take some time, but my skin is still quite dry. I think I eat plenty of fat, but my skin on my hands is so dry in some areas that it's cracking a bit. I've been using aloe vera on it and the gel absorbs almost instantly and then the dryness comes back. All in all, I was successful on the program and my skin is better, but I was not anticipating the dryness. Anybody else have this? I've never had a problem with eczema or anything that serious, just occasional dryness that's more annoying than anything else.

[ShannonM816]

Be sure you're drinking plenty of water as well as getting your healthy fats.

Sometimes dry skin can be due to non-food stuff too. If the humidity where you are is not very high, or has dropped recently due to a change in weather, or if the humidity levels in your home or office have dropped due to how much the air conditioning or heating system is running, that can make a difference -- running a humidifier can help with that. 

Aloe is lovely for many things, but you may need to also use moisturizers with some other properties. For instance, an oil (even like coconut or olive oil) might help to seal the moisturizer in the skin in a way the aloe does not. Commercially produced moisturizers tend to have a mix of different ingredients that do different things. If you're wanting to stick to natural products, look into how handmade moisturizers, lotions, or body butters are made and why they use the various ingredients they use -- some things add moisture to the skin, some kind of seal moisture in, or they can make skin feel smooth by kind of filling in spaces between skin cells. Obviously that's not a terribly scientific explanation, it's just my understanding from what I've read.