Twenty One Days of Healthy Skin - Don't Pick (Day 11)
Stressful times. Change causes stress. You might get a few pimples. Your body is just showing you that you are stressed. Whatever you do, do not pick. Picking causes scaring. You are allowed to extract it carefully but then just leave it alone to heal. Your body has got this.
Have you ever found yourself in deep thought, stuck in traffic or thinking about an article you need to write and when you come back to reality you have picked a little bump you had on your face to the point of bleeding? Is it just me or is my tendency to pick even stronger when I am stressed and I am getting stress breakouts? We all do it but that does not make it right.
When you have dry skin, after a peel or have any little bump or pimple on your skin the worst thing you can do is to pick it.
Continually reinjuring, though picking, re-activates the healing cascade in your skin. The inflammatory response is activated. Your body then breaks down and removes damaged structures and cells from the area. In this way structures have just been made to heal the skin will be removed and your skin will need to rebuild all of those. If you continue to pick at the area, the skin will just “dump” collagen there, forming a scar.
The continued inflammation also triggers the melanocytes to make more pigment. This is especially true in darker skin types. The melanocytes are doing their job of protecting the underlying structures of your skin. You now have not only scared but also a dark brown or very red or even purple looking scar.
What can you do to stop picking your pimples?
You could use a product that will heal the area as fast as possible.
At Lamelle we have a tiny tube called the Clarity Corrective Active Control. The combination of ingredients in this spot treatment works to calm inflammation, remove congestion and help your skin to heal it as quickly as possible.
What can you do the stop picking skin after and resurfacing treatment (chemical peel)?
Keep your skin as moisturised as possible. We will always suggest Barrier Repair cream for dry skin post peel. This cream keeps water trapped in your skin and keeps foreign molecules and microbes out. Apply this whenever your skin feels tight or dry.
It is a fallacy that dry skin heals quicker – research has proven the opposite.
Breathe and keep calm.
Ps. don't pick!