Cottonmouth
I've tried the leave it alone method about 3-4 times. Each time the crust got so thick that I accidentally hit it with my hand & then it came off prematurely leaving raw skin behind, so the whole process had to start over. From what I've seen leaving the lips alone will take over a year to heal and that's just too long. The longest I left it alone was like 4 months and let me tell you it was hell.
Right now I'm trying to moisturize my lips the whole time. So far my upper lip seems almost healed.