I'm a 22 year old male who has suffered from a pretty constant case of exfoliative cheilitis for nearly 8 years. As with most cases, mine was caused by trauma to the skin on my lips. However, unlike many of you, the trauma wasn't from biting or picking at my lips - well, not exactly.

During my freshman year of high school I went on the Acne medication Accutane to clear up my skin. For those of you not familiar with this drug, it's a pill that basically dries you up from the inside out (as opposed to topical meds that never really work). Within a few weeks of starting the Accutane regimine, I noticed my lips were becoming extremely dried out. I was cool with it though, because this was a listed side effect of Accutane. I just kept vasaline/chapstick on my lips as much as possible. Eventually, they started peeling - like snake skin. Almost every other day, I was able to grab one side of the dry, dead skin from my lips and slowly pull the entire layer off. This left my lips inflamed and burning and unnaturally red in color. However, my face was clearing up so I figured I'd just stick it out for a few more months and get through it. The peeling continued until I was done with Accutane. My derm said it would take a few weeks for my body to get back to normal and that my extremely dry skin and lips would soon go away.

Well, the rest of my skin went back to normal, but my lips did not. The peeling cycle continued for weeks, months and years. I could not believe it. I was permanantly cursed with what I thought was just a bad case of chapped lips. My derm could not figure out what was going on and neither could any other specialist I went to. I was put on a couple of different steroids, vitamine E, etc but nothing worked. This was the irony of ironies - I go on medication to clear up my face and end up with a permanent case of snakeskin lips in exchange. I lived with it as much as I could, but my life pretty much sucked because of this. High school and college, the best years of my life, were robbed from me by the social anxiety and Depression that resulted from my condition.

Then I found this forum and discovered that my condition was NOT unique to me, and that it did have a name. I spent days looking through the countless posts and was really overwhelmed with information but hopeful that I could find a cure.

And, my friends, I am happy to report that I am now cured. I bought a couple of tubes of Aquafor and committed to keep the stuff on my lips at all times, reapplying when I felt it even beginning to "soak in". I put it on prior to brushing my teeth and immediately after, same with eating/drinking, and put a generous amount on before bed. During the first week, the peeling cycle continued, but I noticed a drastic change in the skin - it was no longer dried and tough, but soft and elastic. It came off very easily. During the third week, I noticed the 2-3 day cycle had slowed to about one peel a week. During the fourth week, the skin on my bottom lip had completely stopped peeling up from the bottom (as it had always done) and I was only having to peel small pieces from near the top of my bottom lip (where my lips touch each other).

I didn't want to jump the gun in writing this, but I am pretty sure this is the end of the road for my EC. I have beaten it after all these years. No hocus pocus, no unrealistic diets or magic fruit juice. Aquafor worked for me and I would recommend it to anyone suffering from EC. I do not know if it will work for you - in fact, I know some of you may have tried it to no avail. This is just my story. I wish you all the best. Don't lose hope. I am living proof that this disorder IS curable. And that, more than an endorsement of a method/product, is the real point of this post. God bless you all.