Fight or Flight: Taking Control of Your Skin

FIGHT OR FLIGHT: HOW TO TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR SKIN
by Cairo Love

So you’ve tried everything in the book to take care of your skin and nothing works?

Well, don’t give up yet! There are certain types of products that work best for different skin-types.

Here some challenges people often have with their skin and some solutions:

1. If your skin is acne-prone: Use botanical face washes with microexfoliatong beads to help cleanse your skin and improve the texture problem: Also consider trying a revitalizing zinc and sulfur mask that disinfects the area while taking away excess oils and eliminates dead cells. Use for 30 min on the face and then wash with cool water. If you don't feel comfortable doing it yourself, you can also contact a local estitician and inquire about their various facials for acne prone skin.

2. If your skin is dry: Be careful not to over-dry your face by washing it with a product designed for oily skin. Look for products that have moisturizing properties. Stay away from facial products with alchohol in them as this drys out the skin. During the colder months make sure you moisturize your face thoroughly before you go outside. If you find lotion doesnt give you enought moisture, try a cream. It's also helpful to put cream on before you go to bed, giving it time to penetrate into your skin. Another product that will help with dry skin is WATER!!Drinking at least 8 glasses of water a day will also improve your skin's moisture!

3. If you sunburn easily: Even women of color can burn! It's important that if you are prone to sunburns, you find a great sunscreen. SPF of over 30 is best if you head outdoors. Also try to stay out of the sun (if you can) during peak hours, (11:00 am to 5:00 pm). Also cover up, make sure your body is covered and wear a hat to protect your face. Try buying your facial productions like, make-up, lip balm and lotiona with sunsceen already built in for some extra protection!

4. Wrinkle-prone skin: If your skin is wrinkling at a faster pace than other people in your age group, you might want to invest in a few preventative products. There are many products that claim to prevent wrinkles and they aren't all created equal! It might be somewhat of a trial and error process for you to find the right product for you, but a good sunscreen wih an SPF of 30 or higher is a great start! From there look for Alpha, beta and poly hydroxy acids, which come from fruit, milk and sugar cane. They work by removing old, dead skin cells and helping to produce newer, younger-looking skn cells. Also work from the inside out, drink lots of water to keep your skin hydrated and make sure you consume, through either food or supplements, vitamin A, C, E and K, which have been shown to promote radiant skin.

Cairo Love moment: Try a few products geared towards your skin-type for a week and record any difference in your skin. Leave comments and let me know the changes, if any!