Causes

Your skin is regularly exposed to environmental elements that can irritate and damage it. These include sun, wind, heat, dryness and excessive humidity. Repeated irritation can lead to skin peeling. In babies born past their due date, it's not unusual for them to experience some painless skin peeling.

Skin peeling can also result from a disease or condition, which may start someplace other than your skin. This type of skin peeling is often accompanied by itching. Conditions that may cause skin peeling include:

• Allergic reactions
• Infections, including some types of staph and fungal infections
• Immune system disorders
• Cancer and cancer treatment
• Genetic disease, including a rare skin disorder called acral peeling skin syndrome that causes painless peeling of the top layer of skin

Specific diseases and conditions that can cause peeling skin include:

• Athlete's foot
• Atopic dermatitis (eczema)
• Contact dermatitis
• Cutaneous T-cell lymphoma
• Dry skin
• Hyperhidrosis
• Jock itch
• Kawasaki disease
• Medication side effects
• Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma
• Pemphigus
• Psoriasis
• Ringworm (body)
• Ringworm (scalp)
• Scarlet fever
• Seborrheic dermatitis
• Staph infections
• Stevens-Johnson syndrome
• Sunburn
• Toxic shock syndrome