Eczema: This skin condition is an allergic reaction, easily treated with inexpensive skin moisturizers. It’s common during the winter, when dry air causes tiny breaks in the skin, which lets in chemicals that irritate your skin, especially your hands. Keep hydrated.

Immediately after your shower, apply fragrance-free moisturizer. This way, the moisture’s locked in, and the rash/irritating dryness is prevented. If your eczema is stubborn, you may use a moisturizer with lactic acid or a steroid or prescription cream. If this fails, have an allergist get to the bottom of your problem. The culprit can be the metal nickel or preservatives or fragrances in skincare products.

Psoriasis: This autoimmune ailment affects the skin cell life cycle. It results in dry, flaking skin. In people with psoriasis, the skin cells slough off in only a few weeks, as opposed to a couple months. The immune cells attack healthy skin cells by accident, as if they’re trying to heal a wound. The result is that cells build up and form thick scales. They’re dry, patchy, itchy and sometimes painful.

People can get some relief from the discomfort, although there’s no cure. Topical agents and exposing yourself to small amounts of UV light (light therapy) work to slow skin replication. A doctor may prescribe more powerful drugs, often used to prevent joint destruction and arthritis, as they also seem to slow remodeling and make the skin and nails better.

Mindfulness, meditation and resistance exercises can help calm the autoimmune process too (when it’s not so severe as to cause joint damage).

Allergies: About 10 percent of the population has sensitive skin. If that includes you, avoid skincare products and cosmetics with fragrances, antioxidants, stabilizers, preservatives and coloring agents. Less can be more! While a skin cream might only have one or two active ingredients, it can have a dozen (or more) inactive ingredients that may irritate you.