Do you have hyper sensitive skin? Or maybe your skin feels raw or your skin aches when you touch it? Your skin can give you a lot of insight into your overall health and wellness. You’ve probably noticed your skin feeling extra dry or sensitive when you’re sick or rundown. Sometimes our skin can even be painful to touch but nothing is there. This can be a reaction to environmental, topical or dietary irritants.
In this blog post, we’ll explore the many reasons why a patch of skin hurts to touch, including:
- Common skin conditions that cause sensitivity
- Understanding your triggers
- How to manage skin that hurts to touch
If your skin feels tender to touch or if you're wondering 'why does my skin feel bruised, read on to learn more about why your skin feels sore to touch and how to manage it naturally.
Common Sensitive Skin Conditions
Why does my skin feel sensitive when I touch it? While overly sensitive skin can sometimes be a result of more serious neuropathic pain (such as allodynia), it is also a very common symptom of inflammatory skin conditions.
Eczema and psoriasis are two common inflammatory skin conditions that can cause the skin to be sensitive or painful to touch. These will usually leave the skin dry, itchy, red and tender. With these, it can be difficult to keep your skin safe from irritants.
Eczema is a group of conditions that cause the skin to be dry, itchy, and red. Contact dermatitis, a type of eczema, is the skin’s reaction from contact with something on the skin that causes an allergic reaction.
Psoriasis is caused by an overactive immune system that reproduces skin cells too quickly. This causes red patches with silvery scales to form. They can grow anywhere, but most appear on the scalp, elbows, knees, and lower back.
Understanding Your Skin’s Triggers
With both these skin conditions, skin sensitivity triggers can vary from person to person. Inflammation can result when your body reacts to various things in your environment that may be typically harmless. Many of the skin sensitive triggers are similar in both cases.
Common eczema triggers are:
Things that can trigger an outbreak of Psoriasis include:
- Stress
- Chemicals found in beauty or household products
- An infection
- A skin injury like cuts, scrapes or surgery.
- Changes in body temperature due to weather
- Certain medications
We highly recommend figuring out what your triggers are to heal aching skin. The best way to understand what your triggers and to identify patterns of chronic pain like this are is to keep a journal of what products you use, the fabrics that you wear, and the foods you consume each day. This can help you narrow down and identify what is causing your skin pain and inflammation.
It's always recommended to contact your doctor if your find your skin suddenly sensitive to touch.
Tips for Managing Painful Skin
If your sensitive skin hurts to touch or rub, there are some ways to help ease the hypersensitive skin pain:
- Swap your skincare products with harsh soaps and fragrances to natural, clean skincare. We highly recommend the Organic Manuka Skin Soothing Cream because it’s made with just 6 wholesome ingredients, including powerful Manuka Honey. To cleanse your skin, try a natural soap bar like this Coconut and Sunflower Oil Soap Bar, that’s both very gentle and moisturizing. Skincare changes like these will really help if your skin burns when touched.
- If you think you may have a food sensitivity, do an eczema elimination diet to help you narrow down what’s causing a flare up.
- If your skin hurts when clothes touch, try loose flowing clothing that doesn't cling to the skin.
- If you react to fabrics, try switching to eczema-friendly clothing. Remedywear is a great choice because the gentle garments were specifically designed for those with sensitive skin. The unique fabric is made from TENCEL fabric with zinc-embedded fibers which helps soothe irritated skin and also can really help when skin touching skin is a trigger. Its composition means that it helps heal a flare-up and reduces inflammation while you wear it. Here are some great options that you can wear either during the day underneath regular clothing or alone at night:
- And finally, learn how to manage your stress. While everyone does this differently, there are many popular ways to wind down and clear your mind. Just 15 minutes of meditating a day can significantly lower your stress level. You can also try things like deep breathing, taking a yoga class, going for walks, or talking to a loved one or mental health care professional.
Give your Sensitive Skin Relief
If your skin is super sensitive to the touch, use these helpful tips to start getting some relief.
