Beauty and Skin Health Essay Sample

The core essence of beauty and skin health is On the premise of respecting the physiological barrier of the skin, and combining individual skin quality differences to achieve a balance between functional needs and long-term homeostasis, there is no universal solution. All beauty operations that are divorced from the basic skin quality and physiological laws are essentially a loss of skin health. . This is my most intuitive conclusion after five years of clinical work in the dermatology department and contact with nearly 2,000 patients with skin problems.

Last month, I just received two 25-year-old girls of the same age. They entered the clinic one after another, and their condition was particularly bad. The first girl's face was red all over, and there were dense pimples to the touch. She said that she had followed a beauty blogger for the past six months to learn "morning, morning, evening, and applying acid every week." She originally wanted to shrink her pores and whiten her skin, but now it stings when she uses skin care products, and even the cold wind makes her itchy. Another girl came with a friend. I casually asked her about her skin care routine. She said that she usually uses amino acid facial cleanser and moisturizing cream. She always wears sunscreen when going out. She adds a moisturizing essence in winter at most. Her skin is so thin that even her pores are almost invisible. She looks at least two years younger than her peers.

When it comes to this, there must be someone who wants to criticize me. Whoever is around me uses high-concentration functional products every day, and their skin is good? This is also a controversial point that has been quarreling in the skin care circle for several years now. Both schools of thought have their own basis, and no one can convince the other.

On one side are the "ingredient parties" and "efficacy radicals" who have become popular in recent years. Their core logic is that skin problems are essentially physiological deficiencies: lack of vitamin C will cause dullness, and lack of vitamin A will cause collagen loss. Then directly supplement high-concentration active ingredients, and you can quickly see the results as long as you build tolerance. Many clinical experiments do support this view: for example, topical use of 20% concentration of L-vitamin C for 8 weeks can significantly improve the symptoms of photoaging, and 0.25% retinol for 12 weeks can improve fine lines by more than 60%. These are all supported by public data and are not just lies. I also have friends with wall skin who use retinol and niacinamide every day. Their skin is indeed firm and translucent, and I haven’t had any problems for several years.

But on the other hand, the "barrier maintenance school" that is more respected in the dermatologist circle does not agree with this logic at all. Their basis is that the skin itself is an ecosystem with the ability to self-regulate. The outermost layer of the stratum corneum and the sebum film form a barrier that can help you lock in moisture and resist external stimulation. , if you apply seven or eight layers of functional ingredients on your face every day, it will destroy the microecology on the surface of the skin, causing transepidermal water loss to soar. To put it bluntly, the skin's "protective wall" is leaking, and external irritations can penetrate easily, and the moisture inside cannot be locked in. Redness, sensitivity, and acne breakouts will all happen sooner or later. The most exaggerated patient I have ever seen required 12 steps of skin care every day and only applied 4 layers of essence. The transepidermal water loss measured in the end was 3 times that of normal skin. Even applying ordinary mineral water on the face hurt.

To be honest, many people's misunderstandings about beauty are that "the more, the better" and "the more expensive, the better." I once had a patient who worked on the Internet and had no shortage of money. The whole set of skin care products was five-digit luxury products, but he still broke out acne repeatedly. Later, we did a skin test on her and found out that she had severely oily skin. The high proportion of petrolatum and vegetable oil in the lady's facial cream she used was too stuffy for her, and instead clogged her pores. Later, she replaced it with an oil-controlling and repairing lotion worth several hundred yuan, and most of her acne disappeared in less than a month.

In fact, there is nothing right or wrong between the two schools of thought, they just cater to different groups of people. If you have wall skin and are rarely sensitive to redness, then you should use some high-concentration functional ingredients and occasionally do a mild acid-cleansing project. It’s totally fine, as long as you do follow-up repairs and sun protection. But if you have sensitive skin, or have never tried effective products, then don’t go for the highest concentration. Start with a low-concentration sample and build up tolerance slowly, which is better than anything else.

Oh, by the way, many people now regard medical beauty as a "skin savior", which is also an unavoidable topic in the field of beauty. I have seen many girls think that photorejuvenation is a "universal project", and they do it in all modes, regardless of whether they are in a sensitive period. After the treatment, they don't even bother to apply sunscreen, and they go out and directly bask in the sun. As a result, the darkening is more serious than before, and they blame the doctor's poor skills. In fact, the premise of medical aesthetics projects is that the skin barrier is healthy. If you have problems with redness and sensitivity, it is better to maintain a good barrier first and then do the project. The effect can be more than twice as good.

Speaking of which, I have been in this trap before. When niacinamide became popular a few years ago, I bought a 10% concentration essence and applied it on my face because I had combination skin. However, after three days of use, my lips started to close up and my face became itchy. I stopped quickly and switched to a 2% concentration one. I used it slowly, layering a layer of repair cream after each application. It took me almost a month to build up a tolerance, and it took me three months of continuous use to see the obvious brightening effect. I really couldn’t rush it.

In fact, to put it bluntly, beauty is never a "must-be-completed task", and there is no standard answer. You don't have to follow other people's skin care routines, and you don't have to follow suit immediately after seeing what others are using that works. Skin is an organ that stays with you for a lifetime. Be patient with it, observe its condition more, and treat it less as a "battlefield" for various functional ingredients. It will work no matter how many expensive skin care products you buy or how many projects you do. Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention that among all the beauty treatments, the one with the lowest cost and the best effect is always sun protection. I have to say this to every patient three times. It’s really not nonsense.