How to Treat Sensitive Skin

Skin Types are a Myth! I know I am undermining everything you have ever read or will read in magazines or skin care books, but ladies, there is no such thing as a skin type. Our complexions do have certain things in common. Our T zones are oilier than other portions of our face. The tissue on the throat is thinner than that on the face but thicker than under the eyes. We will all experience pigment changes when our skin is exposed to the sun. And all skin experiences collagen and elastin decline as we age. There the similarity ends. My experience in aesthetics during the last thirty years has convinced me that skin today appears to be twice as sensitive as skin nearly four decades ago. And that goes across the board, all ages, all "skin types." As far as this aesthetician is concerned, there is only one skin type and that is S-E-N-S-I-T-I-V-E.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• an open mind
• common sense
• willingness to change

1. Shop the outside of the market where there is real food! During an initial consultation I begin from that framework and then build my case as to why. The Glogau and Fitzpatrick Classification as well as a good look under the Wood's Lamp have led me to some startling conclusions. More leisure time has led to more time outdoors and increased sun exposure alone can create sensitive skin. Faster, busier lifestyles have led to quick and easy meals for the most part deprived
   of any nutritional value. And I lump fast foods in with "healthy" microwave dinners. Nutritional foods arm our bodies with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that slow free radical damage, arguably the primal cause of disease and premature death. When the skin lacks antioxidants from within, it cannot fight the cascade-like effect of free radical damage which causes DNA malfunction and early cellular death. The same lifestyle that limits our food choices also robs us of quality time spent together at the dinner and breakfast table where historically problems were shared and stress reduced through personal interaction. And if stress can kill it can certainly trigger the skin. Of all the things that can adversely affect the skin: sun, stress, quality and quantity of sleep, change of seasons, hormonal fluxes, genetic propensity; stress out does all. I have seen stress turn a genetically beautiful complexion into severe acne within a few months. I have witnessed stress prematurely age mature but otherwise youthful skin twenty years within a year.
2. Haven't you heard? If Stress can kill you, it can most certainly prematurely age your skin! The same lifestyle that limits our food choices also robs us of quality time spent together at the dinner and breakfast table where historically problems were shared and stress reduced through personal interaction. And if stress can kill it can certainly affect the skin. Of all the things that can adversely affect the skin: sun, stress, lack of sleep, change of seasons, hormonal fluxes, genetic propensity; stress outdoes them all. I have seen stress turn a genetically beautiful complexion into severe acne within a few months. I have witnessed stress prematurely age mature but otherwise youthful skin twenty years within a year.
3. A bit of prevention and loving self care goes a long, long way. How does this skin go back to the way it was? The unfortunate answer is it doesn't. Skin will carry stress structure dissolution permanently, though they in time with some trentInoin therapy (especially if the client is still young, say, before the age of 30). But older skin, in my opinion, will never recover from the damage of unremitting stress. The slack in tissue is remedied by nothing less than surgical intervention.
4. The most beautiful woman in the world...You! In addition, many women's complexions already used to alpha hydroxys, trentinoin (or one of the second or third generation cousins), hydroquinone, one of the newer, stronger antioxidants (as well as prescription strength hydrocortisone for dermatitis as a result of too aggressive usage of the aforementioned products) have become sensitized. All of these things have contributed to making most skins sensitive.
   
   So What Is The Answer for these fragile complexions? How does one go about strengthening the skin's resistance while continuing to address it's individual problems? One day at a Time. One Cleansing at a time. You become your own aesthetician. Look, pay attention, care for your skin as if it is the only one you get...

Tips & Warnings

• Don't Diet! Eat well-balanced meals and practice portion control. Better to eat 5 small meals than 1 huge meal.
• Go to bed early. The hours before midnight is your beauty sleep.
• Exercise 3 times a week for 20 minutes. Just walking briskly if you can't get to a gym is fine.
• Use sunblock, day in day out, everyday, rain, sun, sleet or snow. It's accumulated ten minutes here, ten minutes there that adds up to premature aging.
• Relax and Be Here Now. 99.9% of the things you worry about will NEVER happen and the other .1% will NEVER be as bad as you imagine they will.
• This article could change the way you think about your skin.