Crispy Skin Syndrome

Some time ago, I came to realize that I had a chronic back pain that responded very well to treatment with heat. Consequently, I spent a good amount of winter and some part of the rest of the year using heat pads across my lower back.

How it looked in early April 2023.

Unfortunately, prolonged exposure (via direct contact) to a heat source, such as a laptop balanced on bare legs or a heating pad basically anywhere can cause something known as crispy skin syndrome. This is not a low temperature burn, which would act like a burn in the way of being painful and blistering. This does not act like a burn. It just looks hideous. 

After one week of using retinol cream back in April.

I only realized about a year ago that my lower back looks something like I had a creepy vein-like haunted tree tramp stamp, and I was not comfortable with this. 

After a significant amount of digging about online, I finally figured out what this thing was called and what the recommended options were. 

Retinol. Retinoids like retinol are one of the best ways to try to clear something like this up.

Thanks, Amazon, for being easier to deal with than Japanese clinic staff of the lack of qualified dermatologists in my area.

If you have the option of going to a qualified dermatologist, they will probably give you a prescription for a retinoid cream stronger than commercially available retinol, and this will likely heal the skin damage faster than my method.

Since I don't have a qualified dermatologist near me, I went on Amazon and got the best little vat of retinol cream I could afford. 

I also found out that retinol cream is not for use by pregnant people, so if you're expecting, don't use it.

I tried to apply it to the area regularly and, while I forgot a few days, I've still seen a huge improvement in the darkness of my creepy tree tramp stamp.

What little remains of my creepy vein tree tramp stamp as of late November 2023 after significant though inconsistent usage of commercially available retinol cream.

The other recommendation if you have this problem is to avoid heat. While I can't really stop using my heating pad for the sake of a cosmetic issue, I do keep it down to a lower intensity and use it less constantly than I once did.

So if you notice marks like this on a place you keep heated, get to a dermatologist or at least get yourself some retinol cream.