Hello, my name is Josh, and I am new here. I am definitely not new to the Keratosis pilaris phenomenon though. This has not been happening forever, I first started noticing red bumps accompanied with blotchy skin on the outer part of my upper arm/shoulder, as well as the outer part of my forearm. I have it very mild I believe in my legs, but I have some bad blotchyness, and bumpyness on the upper part of my legs right below the buttock. This all started happening somewhere in my early teens. I had no upper body skin problems as a child, I did have a rash in my groin when I was around 8 or 9 though.

I am 16 now, nothing seems to help. I have tried wearing all natural hemp shirts, which helps a little bit. Cotton seems to irritate my skin even more, but not wearing cotton doesn't make the bumps go away. I am extremely self conscious about this, and am unable to go swimming or do any other related activity where my shirt will be off. Along with the skin condition I dealt with being overweight through all my teens making the problem even worse. Overall I am extremely depressed. I feel there is hope for everything wrong in my life except this! my skin is a disaster. I have been working out, and eating healthy for months now which has boosted me up a little bit higher. I am currently down to about 190 pounds at 6 feet. Which is a lot better than 220+. My hair has been falling out at scary rates since I have been getting extremely stressed about all my problems. I pull out a ton of hair ever time I shower, and my pillow case gets hair on it every time I sleep.

I visited my very trusty family doctor who prescribed me a lotion that I need to put on twice a day. It is impossible to find time to apply it, and it takes a long time to rub in. I noticed while the lotion was on I would feel very hot, and it I would itch sometimes. The lotion does not help at all, and that is a real disappointment. My doctor didn't even give it a name, or even try to. I barely found this forum today, and have not even heard of keratosis pilaris until now. But looking at all these pictures, and hearing how it affects the outer arm, and not the inner arm makes this very likely to be what I have. The results of my full physical showed no problems.

I have been sleeping without shirts on, and when I wake up it seems that my arm rash is a lot less severe than it would be if I would just sleep in a t-shirt. Anyone else notice this? Anyway, if anybody has some suggestions, or some similarities to my condition I would love to know. I still don't know why I am losing hair, it is my entire body, not just my head. If it is related to keratosis pilaris I would like to know. I am currently using nizoral shampoo 3 times a week, which hasn't helped at all either.


EDIT: sorry to come off on the wrong foot, It was a bad day.. but I am looking up ways to improve it. If anybody has techniques they actually used, and saw really good results from let me know, thanks.

Hey Josh! I'm 16 as well, and adolescence sucks. And KP + teenagers sucks even more. Alright, well what I do is exfoliate like crazy. I do it twice a day, and it really seems to help! My KP was practically gone for a while, and then i stopped...and it came back. People w/ KP have really sensitive skin, and also overproduction of keratin, which clogs the pores. Basically it's like we're not shedding correctly...or something. Anyway, daily exfoliation followed by intensive moisturizing works pretty well for me!
Good luck,

R

Hey Josh
Im 16 too, female, and I seemed to have developped a pretty bad case of KP in a very short period of time.
If you're looking for different kinds of treatments, I suggest you browse around the General section of the forums.
There are a bunch of treatment options, so don't lose hope! Some very respected members of the forum have 'cured' themselves of KP in different ways.. so you just have to find whats right for you.

Here are some of the treatment options (but not all):
Gentle daily exfoliation and moisturizing
Dermabrasion (Intense physical exfoliation)
AHA lotions (chemical exfoliation to bring keratin out of pores, unblocks follicles)
Sea Buckthorn Treatment (Products from the superfruit Sea Buckthorn - lotions, drinks, capsules, etc. SBT treatment is known to kill the demodex mite.. rumored cause of KP.
Candida diet (Overgrowth of yeast in body leads to symptoms such as skin conditions, a user by the name of "baronster" around here can point you in the right direction here)
Oil Pulling (Seemingly triggers immune response to internally cleanse body of toxins via entrapment through oil.)

There are other methods too as well as specific products you can try.
Just search around!

It has been slowly improving. I have been applying massive amounts of lotion when I get out of the shower, and I exfoliate every other time I shower, or every 3rd time. When I exfoliate with aveeno it tends to make my skin feel all itchy, and dry. Anybody else notice this? I am scared of the loofah now

Anybody want to point out the most successfully used method that doesn't damage the skin, or damages your skin the least? I have problems with my skin healing as fast as other peoples which is why I haven't tried some of the more extreme methods.

hey im 15 male and ive had kp since about 5 years old.but a few months ago i got rid of it.look up oil pulling on google.trust me it works

You can find that treatment featured here in the forums.
Here's the link, so you don't have to Google it

http://www.keratosispilaris.org/gene...l-pulling.html

Hey dude, I am 18 male. I know what you are going through with the whole self conscious thing. Imagine your KP and stick it in super bright red/purple onto your face, yeah it sucks. Anyway some suggestions i would say is analyze your diet. For example i cut sugar out of my diet because it made me flush/blush a lot more throughout the day and made me kind of edgy. I have also noticed that when i eat to much sugar that the kp on my upper arms/chest starts to act up. So try to change your diet up some and see what happens. Other then that check out all the millions of creams, just use search engine