Beauty Tips For Body Care
So a little background: I'm a 30 something man who had seemingly perfect skin (used to receive loads of compliments which was strange as most of them were from my male friends!). Unfortunately a couple of years back, my skin started erupting and I did not know how to handle it at all. I had no idea on the actual science of skincare either since unfortunately majority of the links and results on Google lead to pseudo science (think Allure, Vogue, Refinery29, AskMen, MensHealthMag). It so happened that I chanced upon SCA when I was doing research on Retin-A. I knew Retin-A worked for acne and was a miracle cream for aging and having tried everything, I wanted to see if it would live up to its reputation for me as well. That's when my eyes opened up to this wonderful forum and you wonderful people and I'm very grateful to all of you for helping me in my journey so far! As a thank-you, or rather, as a way of making myself useful around here (I hope so!) I've compiled my top 10 eye-opening observations with skincare and here they are:1. There is NO difference in skincare based on your genderSo initially, there's a lot of misconception we have that since men have thicker skin, they tend to regularly shave and are full of testosterone, that their skincare needs to be invariably different from that targeted to females. This is wrong. Yes, men have thicker skin, tend to be oilier generally and have shaving-related problems, but a well formulated routine is a well formulated routine. Before I used to buy only face-washes and creams targeted for men but now I know better. What will work will work based on its ingredient, not based on who is applying it!2. Natural is NOT always better. Infact it rarely isOkay so one of the reasons why I suspect I started breaking out is because when I had seemingly perfect skin, I started rubbing straight up lemon juice on to my face every night. It would sting like crazy and I would console myself into believing the citric was working its magic in bringing a glow to my skin but little did I know. Our skin is not built to tolerate a lot of the harsh acids found in seemingly natural products. This could be lemon juice, ACV (if not diluted), baking soda (I hate to admit it but I tried this too as a last-resort to clear out my sin) and so on. Of course there are some natural products including facial oils (not essential ones!), honey, turmeric etc which tend to work for some people (remember to patch test!) but by default don't assume natural = good, chemicals = bad. I also had this misconception that chemicals can wreak havoc on skin but that's my pre-SCA days. Now I know better.3. Always USE sunscreenI never used to use sunscreen. Period. I tried when I was in junior school but it used to always feel so oily (of course back then, sunscreens were usually not as well formulated as they are now) and left a white cast that I decided it wasn't for me. However once I got onto Retin-A, I knew I had to use sunscreen and that's when I went out and bought a well formulated broad spectrum one with antioxidant. My skin looks so young and the best part of using sunscreen was my acne never darkened to the extent (PIH) that it used to when I did not use sunscreen. If you acne which leaves behind scars, and actually even if you do not, every time you're out in the sun, try to be under the protection of a good sunscreen!4. Do not RUSH into trying out new productsI knew one thing for sure- I was going to build my tolerance to the products I was going to introduce. I am usually a patient man and even though I was impatient to get my skin back on track, I had browsed enough SCA and started taking to it like my skin Bible, that I knew if I did not start out slow, I risked more damage than good. So with Retin-A. I started at 0.025% concentration every other night. Only once I knew my skin was tolerating it, I upped it to daily. Likewise. I waited 2-3 whole months after Retin-A to introduce BHA into my routine. Now I have stock of vitamin-C serum (just arrived!), AHA, niacinamide all waiting to be tried and elevating my skincare to a new level but I have decided to phase it into my routine rather than trying to do all at once. So maybe once I'm done with BHA, i'll start AHA. And once I've completed 6 months on retin-A, I might phase it to a once-a-week fixture and introduce niacinamide serum. My point is, you have to be patient. I know we all want clear skin but trust me, your skin is delicate. It's not meant to handle a lot of treatments at once. Everything takes time. So if you can be patient, it'll be one of the best things you'll do for yourself!5. Skincare isn't just about what you use. It might be about your lifestyle.Stress. Diet. Exercise. All of these have a profound effect on your skin. I know, I know. A lot of people tend to write off diet but there are studies linking dairy to acne (for some people) and anecdotally Reddit SCA is full of people claiming to change their skin around by turning vegan. Don't discredit anything. Keep tweaking. For me, I've cut down on milk completely and I feel it has calmed my skin down. I''m not sure yet - so I will introduce it back at some point and if my skin reacts, then I will know for sure! Likewise, you need to do the same. Although fundamentally the same, what manifests on our skin is a combination of multi-factorial changes and each one of us is different. You might find dairy suits you but eggs do not. For some drinking enough water might help with keeping skin hydrated. It is your skin and you NEED to own up to it! Don't base your journey on someone else's choice. Take control and find out for yourself. If you lead a stressful life, try taking up meditation or mindfulness. See if countering some of that stress might help you.6. Moisturize. Moisturize. Moisturize.I cannot stress enough how important this is. I don't believe there is anyone who does not need some form of moisturizer on their skin. Even if you have oily skin. Using BHA, retin-A and having already destroyed my skin barrier, it was very important for me to use a skin-repairing moisturizer. And if you're using a contingent of products, do the same. Remember to layer. Remember to put the oily layer over the watery one. It's simple. This is what I do at night. Wash face with cleanser. Wait 20 minutes. Apply retin-A. Wait 20 minutes. Apply serum. Apply CeraVe PM Lotion. Apply Cetaphil Lotion. Apply Vaseline on top. This ensures I have my actives at the bottom, then I have my humectants (hyaluronic acids in cerAve), then I have my occlusives (mineral oil in Cetaphil and Vaseline) so no moisture loss. Of course this is my product mix. Find your HG mix.7. Enjoy the journey.There will be days your skin will be terrible. Days your skin will look better than ever. And then days where you thought everything was going perfect but it starts going downhill again. But the most important thing in between all of this is, to enjoy the journey. Remember no matter how each individual days or even weeks are, overall you are on a journey to improving your skin. And that's the direction you are headed to. There will be setbacks. There will be periods of your skin adjusting to the changes. But through it all, on a microscopic level, your skin is repairing itself with your new-found knowledge cell by cell. And future you will thank you for all the effort you have been putting in. It will never go to waste.
Girls Blog 2015
Submitted by growinggarden
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