In this post I am going to talk about the signs of psoriasis and what you can look for to know if you have psoriasis. Also I will share my personal story of how I developed psoriasis to help you understand how one could develop psoriasis and not even know they have it. Finally I will give you some pointers on products you can use to help sooth the redness and eventually balance or heal the red patches.
Definition: Psoriasis is a chronic skin condition characterized by thick, scaly, and often itchy patches on the skin.
Common symptoms include:
- Dry, thick, and raised patches
- Red, scaly patches
- Itching or soreness
- Flaky patches
- Patches of dry skin
My Personal Story
So here we are again years later in my life and now I have relocated 2 different times since I had my massive acne breakout. My skin had gone back into balance and I was doing good. I had lived in Buenos Aires for two years and the climate there was a little more dry than on the island of Maui. So I had adjusted my products accordingly. I point this out to help you realize that the climate you live in affects your skin. You want to be aware that sometimes you will need to change the type of skincare products you are using based on where you are. Especially your cleanser and your face cream. Again some factors in your daily climate that affect your skin:
- If your in a dry desert like climate very drying for the skin
- If your in a cold climate and staying indoors with a heater on. ( Especially a gas heater is very drying for the skin)
- If your in a hot climate and staying indoors with an air conditioning system, again very drying
- If your in a tropical climate, a lot of humidity can add bacteria on your skin
I relocated to Miami Beach and I was now back living in a very hot and tropical climate. Everything was good as I prefer that type of climate but all of a sudden I was noticing red patches on my skin? It was not making sense. How could I have moved to a very heavy humid environment, more humidity than on Maui and my skin was getting dry patches? This was not making sense? So I started to use a gentle cleanser and was using the heaviest cream possible on my face. If I could I would of slathered my face with shea butter. Nothing was working though and nothing made sense? So this went on for about 4 to 5 months. The mystery of the red patches right below my eyes and on my cheek bones. Another pattern of me changing products and brands constantly to see if anything would work better than the first heavy cream I had tried.
What was more perplexing and annoying is that I am an esthetician and this is my field and I cannot even get my own skin balanced or figure out what is going on with my skin. So as the months went by and I was working part time at a restaurant one day it all came together. I had probably been complaining to my manager that my skin was so dry in Miami and I couldn’t figure out why. He made the comment that changed everything. He said something like, “If your using the water on Miami Beach than anybody’s skin would be super dry as the water is so full of chlorine.” I was like BINGO maybe that is it? So I had to come up with a plan to test this new discovery.
First I needed to stop washing my face with the tap water. Now how was I to do that when I was wearing makeup? I decided that my face needed a strong washing at night but in the morning how dirty was my face? I had done a good cleaning the night before and now it was pretty much clean I just needed a light cleaning. So I bought rosewater in a spray bottle and in the mornings I would use a cotton round and spray the cotton round with my rosewater and wipe across my face. If the cotton was dirty I would use a new cotton round and wipe a second time. Then I would continue with my morning routine of adding moisturizer and then makeup. This became my new skincare routine. After a few weeks, (remember it takes 28 days for anything to change on the skin) I started to see the red patches disappear. So the conclusion to all my problems was the chlorine in the water was stripping my face. Honestly this could happen to anyone, anywhere and so it is a story I wanted to share to point out that changing climates and environments can really affect your skin.
Its All About The Water
Also I point this out because it is good to be aware of what is in your water and what type of water you are using to wash your face. I have never gone back to using water to wash my face in the mornings. That was well over 10 years ago. I have moved since then to different cities but using basically the (Toner Method) to wash my face in the morning is what has worked for me. You really want to be aware of the water you use on your skin.
Another thing to consider is travel. I noticed after I had figured out what was going on with my skin if I traveled to a dry climate my little red patches would start to appear. I would use my healing cream on them and they would instantly heal up. Just flying on an airplane can cause your skin to be really dry. Not to mention you want those 8 glasses or 64 ounces of water in a travel day that is hard to get consumed. By the time you land and if your using tap water to wash your face? You could start to develop little dry red patches.
Signs and Symptoms
Some people do not even realize they may have psoriasis. What you are looking for is fine little red patches on your face. It almost always starts out under the eye right around the cheek bone and usually on the Left side of the face I have noticed. If you walk around and think oh my skin is always red it may be that you are using to strong of a cleanser and then creating the patches and they are light but they exist. Or again the water in your area can be full of chlorine and hard chemicals that are hard on your delicate facial skin. Like I said balancing the skin is a vicious cycle and you really have to be on top of things and aware of what can affect your skin. There are different levels of psoriasis. From just light small patches on the face that come seasonally to red almost raw skin. Some people do not even realize that there are cures and creams for these red patches. Some products I swear by that help through all this red and dry patches are listed below. (none of these are sponsored)
Treatments
- My go to ointment (every home should have this great for cuts too) https://www.healingedge.net/store/product238.html#tab-1-div
- Arcona the best toner to cleanse your skin with in the morning https://www.arcona.com/product/cranberry-toner.html
- Bloom Effects BEST BEST moisturizer for dry skin https://bloomeffects.com/collections/all/products/royal-tulip-nectar
Now having worked in the field and given many facials I can say that this brand that I worked with absolutely blew my mind when we did these specialty facials on either a sunburned skin or someone with severe redness. If you ever want a special spa treatment I can recommend this brand, it is only found online or in spas. The brand is called Repechage and here is a link for the spa locater. You will see the facial on the menu basically described as a Red Out facial or something along those lines. Click this link here for a spa locator https://www.repechage.com/pages/locate-a-spa
They also retail the skin care line for redness here:
https://www.repechage.com/collections/skin-sensitivity-redness
A great product line to use for redness and also if you want to treat yourself and have an expert in the field work with your red skin use the spa locater to find a location close to you or where you may be traveling to enjoy a relaxing service.
This has been my experience with psoriasis and I wanted to share with you just in case you may have a similar situation going on with your skin. Just to emphasize that yes your climate does affect the dryness of your skin. Yes red little patches can be the beginning of psoriasis. Yes your cleanser that you start the day with can affect your skin (it can be to stripping). Yes there are ointments and creams that you can be using to help heal your patches and dryness. The most important factor here is that it is important to consider the water that you are using to wash your face with. I will touch on water filters and what is best for our hair and skin on another post.