I Live For This Skin.
…so this face walks in and I see red.
No, like, literally, red skin. I’m ready to get my hands on this face! (I read her skin history before she got here)!
She has genetically fair skin with an exorbitant amount of ‘flushing’ since ‘puberty’, her word, -soo 13ish.
I go through the gamut of questions, the deep dive.
Since the age of 13, she’s had a lot of redness in her skin. The redness alone, not acne, led her to see a derm a few times when she was younger and then more recently because of an unexpected, acute flare up.
‘I’ve never been diagnosed with Rosacea or anything’, she says. She goes on to say that the few who have treated her, seem to be ‘unsure’ whether this is rosacea or not.
‘Weird’, I’m thinking.
Weird because rosacea isn’t super difficult to identify, it usually gets a pretty accurate read.
‘There were a ‘few’ that were unsure??’, I’m thinking to myself. Hmm.
Head on, she looks like she has some redness, nothing too critical.
I then put her under a bright light, and I see: ..sunburn??
‘Have you been in the sun recently? Is this kind-of-a fresh sunburn?’ (because that’s totally what it looks like., like she legit, came in with a mild-moderate sunburn).
The mag lamp[burton] comes down, bright light turns on:
‘This can’t be anything but rosacea’, is what I’m thinking. It’s not typical, but it’s inflammatory.
It’s been red almost her entire life. Her mother has redness in her skin and the inflammation has increased with age.
Mag lamp Shows:
tiny, little, superficial, pustules, sectioned off and isolated to the mid forehead and mid cheeks. And it’s like you don’t see pores, except on the nose and chin. - a little near the ears too. It’s like the most sensitive, baby skin. The pustules and ‘non-existent’ pores are two of the strongest indicators that this is [a type] rosacea.
But I would’ve never seen that had I not pulled that lamp down.
All things considered. If this woman hasn’t been given a clear diagnosis, at the very least, she deserves some direction and suggestions as to how to combat the redness.
I mean, fucken-a man, a little empathy, a quick dialogue and a few extra minutes of your time doc. Throw her a bone for Christ sake. Because, frankly, this is not something that goes away. However, it can be successfully managed.
To sum it up, this was an unexpected surprise today (first meeting). This skin has so much potential. This skin just wants to be loved and cared for and fed (for real though, this skin type needs an inner dialogue, proper care and generous application of mineral and plant based topicals (Don't run with that, synthetic and chemical based ingredients have their place too).
I love treating skin that's been neglected by or has fallen through the cracks of the skin world. It’s what keeps me here. -A passion and drive to push the consumer, as well as practitioners to expand their thinking and perspective, to regard and value approaching skin in a relatable, real and proactive way.