Oh man - I soooooo can appreciate HATING dry skin!! Especially as the very dry winter comes near! My skin gets so dry it cracks and bleeds at times. Or it's so tight it itches until it burns! Oh gosh, it's just terrible.
I know you didn't ask for them, but here are my tips!
+Water, water, water. Not only helps combat dry skin, but also makes you warmer in the winter!
+Not hot showers - though I always forget that, because it feels SO good to warm up after coming in from all the snow and ice!
+GREAT lipbalm!!! - I use burts bees, or aquaphor.
+And GREAT lotion! - Right now, I have a mix of body butter from bath and body works (which I stock up on every time I fly to the lower 48, because we don't have a BaBW up here yet), Cetaphil for my face, and a special feet lotion from bath and body works that I bought to try out, and it works great.
Dear boyfriend also gets VERY dry in the winter; and his skin is much darker (hispanic and native alaskan mix) so it's a little more noticeable.. we try to remember to moisturize, moisturize, moisturize!
We also have a humidifier we use religiously in the winter. It's a frog one, because I got to pick it out
And we got it from bed bath and beyond - love it!