I do apply lotion while my skin is still wet. I’ve used this in-shower lotion and it’s pretty good. I need to get some more. Amazon link
Hah! Great minds-that is the one I was thinking of.
Checking the ingredients, it has mineral oil and petrolatum, which make me itch. Unfortunate.
Was excited to read about the jojoba oil and then read about shea butter. My skin does not like shea butter.
Strangely enough my skin’s getting along with Sleepy shower gel from Lush and I also bought a liquid soap from a hotel supply company (Eco), with the result that I actually use less lotion than before.
I was told not to put lotion on my legs before putting on compression socks, so after I remove them in the evening, I put lotion on my lower legs.
And when I get out of the shower, I use a relatively small towel, which I use to get my body partially dry and then I use it to wrap up my hair. And then I put on a very fluffy cotton bathrobe, which almost reaches my calves. Because it has a hood, it helps keep my neck warm, even if I don’t wear the hood. The bathrobe also gets the last bits of wet off of my without me rubbing my skin too much.
In other news, Lush in Switzerland now has an online shop. They didn’t have one last spring, when all the shops closed. Off to place an order.
When I was in college, living in the co-op, we had a communal (4-station) shower room with an adjacent drying/dressing area. It had a powerful exhaust fan to blow the steam out, as toe rot was a chronic problem. (ETA: The floor was bare cement overlaid with a layer of forklift pallets.) In the winter, the whole room was a frigid icebox. That’s where I learned to dry off, at least partially, while still standing in the shower area.
My technique: Wring out the washcloth, and use that to dry myself first, while still in the shower area. That still leaves me damp, but gets all the loose water off so I’m not dripping wet. Then step out into the cold and towel off. That can be cold, but not tooooooo cold, so I can cope with that.
I’ve done it that way ever since.
The floor has linoleum tile, which can be very slippery when wet. So I have a towel laying on the floor to stand on. This is besides having a bath mat in the tub. (ETA: After the shower, I always rinse off the bathmat, both top and bottom, and drape it over the rim of the tub to dry. Otherwise it gets really grody, especially the bottom.)
When it’s really cold, I put a space heater in the bathroom to heat it up some. I set it on the floor behind the toilet so there’s no chance of knocking it over.
I have zero tolerance for being cold. I think @ThelmaLou must be my soul-mate that way.
Ditto that.
I’m sitting here in my office at home fully clothed including shoes and socks, with a polar fleece robe on and a blanket wrapped around my legs, and I’m still cold-- especially my feet. And it’s not that cold outside by the standards of (probably) most everyone here-- in the mid-30s, bright sunshine.
In the summer, I go around in sandals and a light cotton housedress and virtually nothing else (sorry if that’s TMI). When it’s hot out (in the 90s or higher) I can always cool off, but once I get chilled, I stay chilled.
@Senegoid I don’t remember where you live (if I ever knew…) but gitchyseff to Tuesday Morning (store) or even Wal-Mart and buy a fluffy rug to step on-- or really into– when you get out of the tub. Very cozy.
I used a rubber tub mat for a long time (and like you, I always hung it up immediately to drain/dry), but recently I discovered that the surface of my old, old, wonderfully deep and long tub (porcelain over cast iron from the 1920s) is so abraded that it’s grabbier than the slippery-when-wet mat. So there’s that.
Yes! This is actually not a rod, but more like a rack. It has a zig-zagging bar so there are three or four points of contact for the towel (or double that if the towel is hanging on both sides).
But it’s still just not warm enough to even heat the parts of the towel that touch it.
I’ve seen others that are more like a heated urn or basket and you put the towel (folded) all the way in there. Maybe those are better.
I have eczema and one of the many dermatologists I went to reccommended Cetaphil for eczema, which I can’t find anymore, so I use Cetaphil Pro Restoraderm, which seems to work pretty well for itchiness.
I also make my own soap (I used to do it as a business). You might look at local flea markets and such for someone who make hand made cold-process soaps, which may help, depending on whether the soapmaker puts a bunch of froo-froo stuff in their products. You want soap made with pure essential oils or no fragrance at all.
As far as heating your bathroom, I can’t help you there. Our bathroom is tiny, so we don’t have that problem.
So, what was the reason for not putting lotion on before donning your compression socks?
Oils break down the elastic fibers which sort of defeats the entire reason for wearing them. Also means you’ll have to replace them more often and as a general rule they aren’t the cheapest things to buy.
I forgot to mention the floor in my bathroom. We have radiant heating, so the floor’s always warm. It’s quite a shock to be somewhere else and have a cold bathroom floor.
Also for this reason we have relatively thin rugs.
I hate freezing, and I’ve started doing a couple of things to combat those few cold moments that ruin winter showers. First, I turn on the water and let it get hot before I enter. This takes some time at my house because the water heater is far away from the bathroom. I used to do this from inside the shower and just aim the water away from me, but small, cold droplets will always get you. After turning the water off, I’ll hastily grab my towel and wipe myself as dry as possible while still inside the shower, in the hot and humid air. Then, when I get out, I’ll get those last drops on the middle of my back with the hairdryer, and also run that over other areas that still feel kinda wet/cold. This works. It has also cut my shower time in half, as I don’t need long showers to compensate for all the minor freezing that used to go along with it.
I feel that way about my heated toilet seat. Using the toidy away from home, even in summer-- YIKES! I think the shock makes all of your internal organs reflexively withdraw way up into your torso in self-defense.
When I lived the country, I had this problem. It could take 2-3 minutes for the hot water to arrive at the tub. The water heater was nearby but the master bathroom had been added by the previous owner and who knows how they routed the water line.
Speaking of towels, I have given up on terrycloth bath towels and have half-a-dozen peshtemals.
Peshtemal towels are not your average terry cloth. (Though they are just as absorptive.) A peshtemal (sometimes peshtemal is also spelled pestemal or peshtamal) is also called a fouta or hamman towel. Peshtemals are large, flat and velvety soft. Inspired by the bath towels used in legendary Turkish spas, these tightly woven creations are extremely strong and durable, and feature a stylish handcrafted fringe that makes them chic as well as practical.
Cite
They’re HUGE so you can totally wrap yourself up in them. They’re quite absorbent, dry quickly, and get softer the more you wash them. Don’t be put off by the prices at the amazon link. They can be very reasonably priced.
What I really really want in life is a pair of warm fuzzy slippers to wear around home when it’s cold. I’d like something shaped more like actual high-top shoes to keep my whole feet warm up to the ankles, not just the nearly naked-feet slippers with the silly bunnies on them that only keep my toes sort-of warm. I never see anything like high-top fuzzy slippers in department stores. Lately, I’ve been wearing two pairs of socks.
I hear ya! My feet get cold in September and stay that way until June. A friend told me about these slippers from amazon and they are the bomb! I usually wear them with socks, but they also work without socks. I think a couple of Dopers have bought them on my recommendation. The best thing is they’re so reasonably priced! Check them out.
My gf was in Iceland a few years ago. She brought me back slippers like these. Felted wool keeps your feet so warm and cozy.
U-Reeka, @ThelmaLou! Ima gonna start saving my pennies for a pair like that! If I start now, I can have a pair in time for next winter!
(What are we all doing up at this hour anyway? U 2, @kayaker?)
I looked at those, but they are insanely expensive. I just couldn’t do it. (Now, if I got them as a present, that would be different.)
I routinely get up around 4:30 or 5. I don’t want to. But I wake up and just can’t fall back to sleep. I go to bed really early (probably because I’m getting up so early - duh!) so I wind up with 6-7 hours of sleep. I WISH I could sleep til 7, but it just doesn’t happen.
Yep! Most of my “nice” (expensive) stuff, stuff I absolutely love, are things I’d never think to buy, due to cost.
I’ve been incredibly susceptible to ice cold toes this winter, which can be painful, and don’t warm back up easily. I finally bought a couple of good pairs of slippers for myself, and I’m glad I did. My favorites I just bought a second pair of, because they seem to be discontinued, and I love them.
They are these:
Expensive, but real split grain leather and shearling. There’s a “women’s” version too, available in smaller sizes if you click on the brand name. They are sooo comfortable, including having decent soles. (I still need more arch support, but they are better than all other slippers I’ve tried.)
If you don’t need shoe-like soles, then the down sleeping-bags-for-your-feet type slippers are super warm. I have both high top and low versions, but my plantar fasciitis doesn’t play well with the lack of structure of the sole.