10 Tips to Help Your Skin After Radiation
4. Avoid certain ingredients.
Brace yourself. It’s a long list. Low molecular weight alcohols such as methyl alcohol, ethyl alcohol, SD alcohol 40, and butyl alcohol can dry out the skin. Lanolin, idebenone, artificial colors, and fragrances are also known skin irritants. Glycols increase the ability of a product to penetrate into your skin, which is great for beneficial ingredients, but those products also hang out inside you longer due to radiation’s effects on cell turnover rates. If you’re unsure about a product, check its ingredients for anything toxic from this list.
3. Match the treatment level to the discomfort level.
For mild pinkness, use aloe vera or 1% hydrocortisone cream a few times per day. If skin becomes more irritated and red, try 2.5% hydrocortisone cream or bethamethasone, which will require a prescription from your doctor.
2. Keep it dry.
While you don’t want to dry your skin out, you do want to keep it dry. Sweat and general moistness from skin-on-skin and skin-on-tight-clothing contact can irritate skin, so some people have taken to drying themselves with a hair dryer set to “cool.” Apply cornstarch afterward for best results.
1. Leave blisters alone.
If your skin develops blisters, keep the area as dry and clean as you can, but leave the blisters alone. They are there to keep the new skin underneath clean and protected as it grows. You can dress blisters with a non-adherent or “second skin” dressing and use over-the-counter or prescription medications to manage pain while you heal.
Do you have a tip for skin care during or after radiation? We’d love to hear it in the comments.
Get tips on dealing with the taste changes that come with radiation and chemotherapy here.
