Clothing for Psoriasis

Psoriasis is one of the most stubborn skin condition which affects almost every aspect of your life. It can make you highly self-conscious about your physical appearance. Such a behavior can shatter your self confidence to a dangerously low level. Even a sense of self hatred can also develop. I do remember that facing the mirror was a challenge for me when I was having severe psoriasis patches on face.

Click here to read more: Facing the mirror was a challenge for me

Although psoriasis is a non contagious in nature and there is no reason for any discrimination because of this disease. But due to minimal awareness among the general public, people with psoriasis would frequently face unpleasant reactions from people around. Hence, choosing proper clothing for psoriasis can play a good enough role in making you comfortable and confident while dealing with the outside general public.

Choosing clothing for Psoriasis

While shopping for clothes, how many times it happens that we choose the clothes which can help us in hiding our psoriasis instead of buying something that we exactly likes to wear?

Almost every single time!!

Clothing as such doesn’t have any direct impact on psoriasis condition. There is no such evidence that avoiding any certain kind of clothing or choosing any particular type of clothing will impact the intensity of psoriasis. But, when we are discussing every aspect of holistic healing, we can’t skip the discussion on clothing which is an important aspect of your lifestyle.

Apart from clothing, other aspects of lifestyle that can affect your psoriasis are: your food habits, level of physical activeness, smoking and alcohol consumption, stress and anxiety level in your life, how regular is our daily routine and a lot of other factors also. All these things can affect your psoriasis; directly or indirectly.

Choosing appropriate clothing can be a challenge when you have psoriasis. For instance, if you wear synthetics or tight clothing, it will rub the affected skin areas (covered with psoriasis flakes) more frequently which may cause discomfort and stimulate the person to rub those flakes and hence cause bleeding which can make psoriasis worse.

Choosing the right clothing will make you feel more comfortable and confident. Right clothing can reduce the itchings significantly. In this way, right clothing can accelerate the holistic healing process.

Read more: Psoriasis Diet

Read more: Psoriasis and Smoking

Some helpful tips for choosing the right clothing:

1. Stay natural, choose cotton. We all know that cotton is the most comfortable textile material available today. Owing to the better moisture management properties of cotton, it prevents overheating of the skin and avoids the sticking of garments to the skin, especially the inner wears. Also, being a natural fiber, use of chemicals is minimal in case of cotton right from cotton farming to coloring  and finishing.

Moisture management implies the ability of the garment to transport moisture (sweat) from skin to the outer layer of the garment and in return, the atmospheric air touches the skin. In simple words, garments with better moisture management allow your skin to breath.

Choosing cotton clothing for psoriasis is not a difficult job because cotton is the most popular textile fiber in the world and easily available throughout the world.

2. For inner-wears, avoid synthetics. We should avoid wearing nylon, polyester, synthetics next to the skin; these fibers don’t absorb sweat due to poor absorbing properties. Excessive sweating underlying those inner wears for longer duration can allow microorganisms to thrive on your skin affected by psoriasis flakes. Apart from that, excessive sweating can induce itching and irritation. If you are suffering from inverse psoriasis, replacing synthetics (less sweat absorbent) clothing with cotton or any other fiber with better moisture management like rayon becomes so important. 

3. Use easy fitting loose clothing. Tight clothing worsens the symptoms of psoriasis for obvious reasons.

Tight clothing>>> sticking to body skin>>> rubbing of skin >>> skin irritation and bleeding

Hence, avoid tight clothing as much as possible. In case of under garments, where tight clothing is the default option, go for cotton or rayon clothing.

4. Be cautious while hiding psoriasis with clothing. All of us at various occasions in our lives try to cover up psoriasis with clothing. For example, in public gatherings, you would try to minimize public staring at your skin by covering your body with clothes. Wearing long sleeve tops, full length trousers and scarfs are commonly used by people with psoriasis to reduce the number of public stares on their psoriasis patches. But, we need to be extra cautious to prevent heat retention while covering your body extensively with clothing. For example, if we are wearing a full sleeve shirt in hot chilling summer, don’t wear synthetics like polyester, silk because these materials have less breath-ability and hence, chances of cloth sticking to skin is high which may induce you to rub the cracked flakes and worsen your psoriasis. Excessive sweating can further aggravate the problem.

Let me make it clear that sweating itself is not bad. Rather sweating is good because your skin eliminates toxins from your body in the form of sweat. Hence, sweating is not the culprit. But, sweat combined with synthetic clothing is the real troublemaker. Synthetic clothing sticks to the skin and make it uncomfortable for you.

Click here to read more: Sweating and Psoriasis

5. Wearing light colored clothes instead of dark colored clothes to make psoriasis patches less noticeable. I was having a severe scalp psoriasis and I was not comfortable in wearing dark colored shirts and t shirts because broken psoriasis flakes used to scatter on my shirt collar and nearby areas.

Read more: Scalp Psoriasis treatment

Conclusion

Clothing is an important aspect of your self image and personality. Choosing right clothing would help you feel confident and comfortable. Sweat absorbent and easy fitting clothing made up from natural fibers like cotton and rayon is an intelligent choice. It would help you to avoid unwanted itching and rubbing and make your skin smile. Happy healing!!