Skin To Skin – Unveiled

 

Bad Skin! Growing up, I’ve always had acne and it never went away. I’m 47 years old and my skin is still one of the hardest things I struggle with in life. Acne scars, stretch marks, seemingly every bruise and cut leaves battle scars… I am a walking battlefield.

The skin is the largest organ of the body, with a total area of about 20 square feet. Skin is the soft outer tissue covering of vertebrates with three main functions: protection, regulation, and sensation. There’s another function for my skin in my life, irritation.

If I sweat, yes my own sweat, my skin breaks out. If it’s hot my skin breaks out. I have dry skin, oily face. Dry scalp, oily hair… no matter the products and regimens I can never get it right. Last year I went to see a dermatologist and left with 4 prescriptions totaling over $1500 – after insurance – really really good insurance. None of which has magically cured my skin issues. I’ve tried every over the counter, under the counter, pie in the sky regimen to no avail.

Last weekend, my friend Mckenzie invited me to a grand opening for a new location of one of the places she works – Natalie’s Skin Solution. I figured I’d attend to be social but was sure there was nothing there for me. I’ll just spend some time with some of my friends, maybe buy a raffle ticket or two and then leave.

When I got there, McKenzie was in one of the rooms running a sharp blade over the face of another friend. Yes, you read that right, a sharp blade… on the face! This was definitely not for me I thought! My face regimen consists of washing with St. Ives Scrub (which they all laughed at when I told them), adding some mederma or defferin and then a light brush of powder. Scraping my face with a sharp blade was NOT my idea of skin treatment. But then I thought to myself… but is what you’re doing working? You still have acne – and you pick at every single one, digging deep into your skin until flesh sometimes – leaving the nastiest of scars. You still have dry patches on some parts of  your face while oil seem to ooze out of other parts. My favorite advice to give others is: “you can’t continue to do the same things and expect different results” so taking my own advice I asked McKenzie if she would do mine next.

 

 

Dermaplaning – Dermaplaning is an effective exfoliating treatment which an aesthetician uses a surgical scapel to gently scrape off any dead skin cells (along with the fuzz on your face) on the surface of your skin. Microscopic hairs can make your complexion appear dull, flaky and can even cause breakouts due to clogged pores and hair follicles which is why this form of mechanical exfoliation is essential for maintaining an even healthy glow. This is what McKenzie told me so Dermaplaning it is.

Surprisingly it felt therapeutic, the smells of the products, McKenzie care and love for her work, I ended up leaving with the products she recommended – OBAGI – and the firm instructions not to pick “things are going to want to come up to the surface – DO NOT PICK YOUR FACE! That sounded like the hardest instructions to follow! Natalie came in and told me to take my trusty old St Ives Scrub and scrub my feet with them (they got jokes)

A week later…. using OBAGI… and lots of water and clean eating…. results!

(NOTE: I couldn’t find the right lighting to match the before photo)