Breaking the Therapy

According to one doctor, sweat mixed with alum chloride, the active ingredient in most deodorants, can stain skin and your clothes. Using deodorants will prevent body odor all right, but the flipside is that it can also cause darkening of the skin.

Wondering which is a good antiperspirant ingredient? The newest ingredient, Aluminum Zirconium Tetrachlorohydrex Glycine, is better tolerated by the skin and is less likely to cause irritation or acne. Furthermore, applying these antiperspirants before bedtime reduces the risk of their mixing with sweat, and eventually lessens incidence of stains.

Hair Begone

Whether you’re shaving, waxing, using depilatory creams or getting laser treatment, all may cause inflammation that breeds chicken skin and dark underarms. Shaving means hair is not pulled out completely from the roots, so it is often visible especially if you’re light-skinned. This leaves a “shadow” on your armpits, making them appear dark. Waxing on the other hand removes hair from the roots, which eventually becomes less traumatic for armpits. Also, waxing exfoliates the skin, removing dead skin cells, which gives your armpit a spa-treatment feel. Most dermatologists recommend waxing for at-home hair removal.

Permanent hair removal or “lasering,” although a bit pricey, is the safest way to hair removal. It is done once a month (but you have to undergo five sessions). Another way to remove unwanted hair is by using depilatory creams or hair removal creams. The only downside to this is that creams often contain harsh chemicals that are strong enough to literally melt the hair away. The use of these creams is okay once in a while, but don’t make it a habit, as prolonged use can darken skin.

To help counteract irritation and trauma to the skin, some experts recommend rubbing an ice dub over the area to reduce redness, inflammation, discomfort and the flare-up of unwanted, unsightly hair bumps. You may also consider taking a Tylenol or Advil before you remove hair to reduce the amount of inflammation that may arise. (more…)

When your mother nagged you each time she caught you picking your skin, there was a reason. Here’s the short list of why mom was right:

Picking your skin.

This can lead to infections from staphylococcus, temporary discoloration of the area, delay of healing and worse, a scar. If it needs some TLC to heal, then check with your doctor.

Habitually scratching or rubbing the skin.

This can cause the skin to take on a leathery texture that actually may be more symptomatic than the original problem.

Ignoring an itching or bleeding mole.

This is a significant symptom associated with skin cancer. While not all symptomatic moles are melanoma, better to find out early than too late.

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*Continued from What You Should Think About Birthmarks.

Vascular lesions are the result of an increase in the number of blood vessels in the skin. The most common types of vascular birthmarks are salmon patches, hemangiomas and port wine stains.

Salmon Patches (nevus simplex) are the most frequently diagnosed vascular birthmark. They are flat, mild red or pink and are sometimes called “angel’s kisses” when they appear on the forehead, eyelids, nose or upper lip and “stork bites” when they are found on the back of the neck. Angel’s kisses most often go away by age 1-2, but stork bites may last into adulthood. They are typically harmless and require no treatment.

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Birthmarks are areas of flat or raised discolored skin that are often seen on the body at birth or may develop shortly after birth. While folktales claim various reasons for these blemishes, the exact causes of birthmarks are unknown. However, most birthmarks are not inherited and are not caused by anything that happens to the mother during pregnancy. They vary in color and may be brown, tan, or black to blue, pink or red. Some birthmarks are only stains on the surface of the kin, while others extend into the tissues under the skin or grow above the surface. Normally, some birthmarks grow with the child and change little in color throughout a lifetime, while others fade or darken in time.

Birthmarks are most often harmless, unlike which are also permanent but sometimes harmful; however, some troubles birthmarks may require treatment. Most birthmarks can be identified as either pigmented/brown lesions or vascular lesions.

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An intense laser light emits a non-coherent broad-spectrum light. With each pulse, the procedure emits a spectrum extending from 500nm to 1200n. The light energy is customized for a given procedure.

Unwanted Hair.

The wavelength and energy level of laser light treatment are chosen to selectively damage targeted hair follicles with minimum damage to the surrounding tissue. The energy is absorbed by the hair follicles and causes thermal injury to the hair follicle. When the temperature reaches a certain level in a hair follicle during its active phase, the targeted hair structures are disabled, thus inhibiting hair re-growth. This process will eventually result to permanent hair reduction.

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