Flaky, red, hardened, itchy skin on neck

Hi, I attached a picture of my affected areas which are either sides of my neck. One of the sides is considerably worse than the other as depicted by the picture. The skin in this area is red. It's hard unless I wash the areas. It's usually itchy and often I see dead skin which can be peeled off. It started about 5 weeks ago on the upper area of the worse side of my neck (where the face and neck meet). And after that, it seemed to spread downwards and even onto the other side of my neck. It the beginning, the affected area was very small. Thinking it was some form of fungal infection, I tried putting Clotrimazole cream on it for the past 3 weeks but that does not seem to be working. Whenever I put the cream, the skin hardens even more the next day and itches more as well.  

I'm a phd student so I usually never get the time to see my family doctor (who lives in another city). And the one walk-in-clinic (I live in Canada) in my residing city is usually never open when I'm free. I hope someone can help me as this is causing me some great discomfort.  

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,
It can be due to eczema or psoriasis skin. Eczema presents as itchy, red dry patches. Psoriasis is a non-contagious disorder which affects the skin and joints. It commonly causes red scaly patches to appear on the skin.

It is very difficult to precisely confirm a diagnosis without examination and investigations and the answer is based on the medical information provided. For exact diagnosis, you are requested to consult your dermatologist. I sincerely hope that helps. Take care and please do keep me posted on how you are doing.