The Top 5 Worst Places to Get Eczema: Ranked

The worst places to get eczema, ranked by someone who has had eczema in all of these places. See graphic photo evidence, below.

1: The Worst Place to Get Eczema: The Neck

I’m not sure why, but having itchy eczema on your neck is absolute hell. Perhaps it’s because the skin here is thin. Or, maybe it’s because clothes, hair, pillows, etc. are always rubbing against your neck. Perhaps it’s because your neck is built to turn and twist and pull to conduct your daily life. I’m literally cringing just writing this.

I’m not a doctor (READ: DISCLAIMER, I AM NOT A DOCTOR. DO NOT TAKE THIS WEBSITE FOR MEDICAL DEVICE). But, if you can tolerate topical steroids and you notice a patch starting on your neck, and your doctor recommends them, I’d jump wholeheartedly at the steroids. Really, truly. A raging flare up of eczema on the neck is not something to mess with.

worst place to get eczema: the neck — A raging flare up of eczema on my neck. At least this one isn’t covered in pus (yet)!

2: The Second Worst Place to Get Eczema: The Eyelids

Eyelid eczema is truly terrible. If you’ve ever had itchy eyes from allergies, eye eczema is like that on steroids. No pun intended, because you can’t really use topical steroids on your eyelids. You can use Eucrisa, another prescription drug I’ve tried for eczema, but it burns like you’ve rubbed a habanero all over your red, raw skin for a full five minutes or more and only offers temporary relief – i.e. no cure. AGAIN: I’M NOT A DOCTOR. TALK TO YOUR DOCTOR IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN EUCRISA).

The redness and itchiness from eyelid eczema permeates into your eyeballs, making them itchy and red. You also look terrible, frankly, with eye eczema. Sometimes, your eyes are so swollen you can’t see (see below – I’ve creepily blocked out my eyes to try to remain anonymous). I think eyelid eczema might be so particularly terrible, like neck eczema, because the skin is so thin. This one might actually tie for first on the list of worst places to get eczema.

Pardon the creepy image. I’m trying to stay anonymous here!

Other worst places to get Eczema:

3: Elbows & Broadly the Arms

I think the elbows get the number three spot because of how often you (surprisingly) use your elbows. When you have bad eczema in your elbow creases, especially very dry eczema, doing almost anything is both itchy and painful. It’s difficult to straighten your arms because the skin cracks and bleeds if you do. You have to walk with your arms crossed or at an awkward only-slightly-obtuse angle. And the wind from walking seems to literally seep into your body via your open, oozing elbows. This is not comfortable.

Elbow eczema in the winter is particularly terrible because in the winter in most places, you wear long sleeves. Sleeves are basically just a mechanism for aggravating eczema. When you bend your elbow, the fabric bunches up (even the silkiest fabric), causing sensations around the elbow. And sensations lead to itching (and scratching).

One workaround for this is to wear button up shirts and unbutton the button at the wrist so you can access your elbow to scratch it. Or, you can just rest your hand on your elbow as a buffer between the shirt and the elbow, but this looks weird. I don’t remember the last time I wore button up shirts with the wrist button actually buttoned. My sleeves are constantly flopping around. I haven’t worn sweaters for this itchy reason in about two years. This is sad. I love sweaters.

It’s truly unfathomable to me to wear a sweater right now.

Jackets in general, but especially wet raincoats, are particularly tough to wear for this reason too. I’ve started just tying jackets around my neck like a fancy person (or a superhero wearing a cape?) and freezing a bit all winter.

eczema on elbow crease — Eczema on my elbow. I think you can see some old scratch marks in this one…nice (ouch)!

4: Lower Back

While the lower back isn’t necessarily the itchiest place to have eczema, it’s certainly one of the worst places to get eczema because it’s so cumbersome. For example, when you have bad lower back eczema, it’s hard to put on shoes because you basically can’t bend.

The lower back also tends to have a bit thicker skin than the neck, eyelids, and even elbows, so scratching in this area is just so darn rewarding. This, of course, can lead to over-scratching and scabs. I’ve woken up in the middle of the night several times to bloody sheets from scratching or ripping open scabs on my lower back (among other places). I’ve also spent probably hours, in sum, mindlessly scratching my lower back eczema because it just feels good (but that’s not even included in my top 10 strangest habits I’ve developed since my eczema started post).

Reasons I’m keeping this anonymous: this terrifying picture of my lower back eczema. (It’s really more like full-back here. Luckily it wasn’t too red in this one, just alllllll over.)

5: Behind the Calves

Oof. This is another “you need to bend this part of your body to function” issue. When you have really raw, eczema-y spots (who am I kidding, not “spots”, but rather roughly 4 inch by 6 inch gouges) behind your knees, it’s pretty hard to walk. It’s especially difficult to walk up and down stairs. I’ve almost fallen down stairs a few times because I was trying to keep my legs straight so I didn’t further shred the skin behind my legs. I’ve also unfortunately have had to say no to walking sometimes because my behind-the-knee crease eczema was just too bad.