Rough elbows and knees. The best ways to get them smoothed out

In most cases, roughness affects elbow and knee skin area. Regular creams don’t help much and skin tends to crack and flake off in the very body parts. Is there an effective way to soften elbow and knee skin effectively?

Undoubtedly, body skin care requires adopting accurate methods and using beauty products that deal with a particular problem. However, it’s definitely easier to combat dry skin on our calves or back than soften elbow and knee skin. Why is that?

Elbow and knee skin

Both elbows and knees are two body areas of our bodies that are the most prone to scrapes. Skin covering these body parts is fast to get dehydrated and keratinized excessively, which is frequently accompanied with itchiness. It also happens that elbows or knees are so dry that skin cracks and painful wounds appear. Definitely, this problem occurs more frequently in winter, but its causes can be numerous.

Dry elbow and knee skin – causes

The most common causes of elbow and knee skin drying out are:

• genetic, inherited skin dryness;
• lack of protection against cold weather;
• application of skin irritating products;
• various types of allergies;
• lack of proper body hydration;
• dermatological problems, e.g. atopic dermatitis, eczema.

If elimination of the causes – better body hydration, application of natural cosmetics and cold weather protection – don’t solve the problem, it’s better to ask a doctor for a check-up. A physician will recognize and diagnose whether your elbow and knee skin should be considered as a cause for worry.

Dark knee symptom. What’s that?

It happens that dry, rough and dull elbow and knee skin is a symptom of a disease. So-called dark knee skin is a term used to define skin that gets darker in the very body areas, which isn’t caused by the lack of hygiene. Simply, this type of grubbiness can’t be cleaned. It appears that one of the causes of either dark knees or dark elbows is thyroid gland hypoactivity.

How to get rid of dry elbow and knee skin?

When this skin problem is caused by a disease, then neither home remedies nor miraculous cosmetics should help. What’s necessary though is receiving the right treatment because once the disease is cured then the condition of elbow and knee skin will significantly improve.

However, if dry skin is caused only by our ill-matched body care procedures, insufficient body hydration and our mistakes, we can combat this problem in a few ways:

• home remedies e.g. moisturising masks;
• special cosmetics that are supposed to soften skin;
• professional dry skin treatments;
• changing body care and dietary habits.

Home remedies to deal with dry elbow and knee skin

Firstly, the fight against dry elbow and knee skin should begin with changing dietary habits. Healthy, balanced and nutrient-rich diet is the core of healthy skin. Also, drinking water is crucial because dry knee and elbow skin is frequently linked with body dehydration.

Obviously, in most cases it isn’t helpful enough. This dry elbow and knee skin must be softened somehow and the best means to do so are offered by scrubs and masks. How to prepare your DIY elbow and knee mask?

DIY dry skin mask – boil a spoon of flaxseed and let it cool down. Blend a half banana and add to the cooled down flaxseed. Then, add a spoon of fat cream, a spoon of honey and a half lemon juice. Apply the DIY mask to your elbows and knees. Let it sit for 20 minutes and then rinse.

Beauty products for dry elbow and knee skin

What cosmetics you use to treat the skin with also matters. Dry skin dislikes aggressive cleansing agents (SLS or SLES) that can make it even more dehydrated.

The best cosmetics to apply to dry knee and elbow skin should contain a huge concentration of vegetable oils and be hypoallergenic. It’s also important to apply them daily. It must be realized that skin condition won’t improve if it’s treated with the right cosmetics but only from time to time.

Treatments to deal with dry elbow and knee skin

If the worst comes to the worst, when the home remedies for softening elbow and knee skin don’t serve their purpose, you can turn to professional treatments. What procedures are worth your time?

1. Paraffin wax treatment – a short treatment that is carried out to improve the state of hands and feet by softening them and smoothing skin out; most beauty parlours have it in their offer.
2. SPA moisturising treatment – many parlours offering physical rejuvenation treatments also offer various procedures that target particular body parts; it’s worth giving a go to baths, masks and dressings.
3. Phototherapy – UV light can be used to cure excessively dehydrated skin too; it will help balance body hydration and fight back dry skin areas.