Like all medical professionals, dermatologists subscribe to the Latin
proverb "primum non nocere," or "first, do no harm." But, when it comes
to your beauty routine, sometimes derms really, really want to smack
you upside the head. "It’s amazing what some people do to their skin,"
says Doris Day, M.D., dermatologist and clinical associate professor of
dermatology at New York University Langone Medical Center.
We're not talking obvious skin sabotage like chain-smoking Pall Malls or
sprawling in a tanning bed. Some habits, like enthusiastic exfoliation
and loading on anti-agers, are actually good practices gone wrong.
However, with the expert tips and fixes below, "it's surprising how much
the skin can forgive," says Day. As for those dermatologists? Just
don't make them angry. You wouldn't like them when they're angry.
Habit 1: Picking At Your Skin
Hands off! Look, a zit only lasts a few days—a week, max—but residual
redness and hyperpigmentation from picking and scratching can remain for
months or even years. "Picking isn't just an issue with acne—it can
cause scarring whenever and wherever you pick, whether it starts with
keratosis pilaris, a bug bite, or for no reason at all," says Heidi
Waldorf, M.D., dermatologist and director of laser and cosmetic
dermatology at Mount Sinai Hospital. "In fact, if you start scratching a
spot of normal skin, after a while it will thicken. And it can become
an itchy bump, also called a prurigo nodule."
Waldorf's Rx: Toss your magnifying mirror. "If you need one to
examine the spot, nobody else can see it in real life," she says. Trash
your tweezers, too. Plucking chin hairs is a classic source of
hyperpigmentation, especially in African-American women, and tweezing
bikini hairs leads to ingrown hairs. "Stick Vaseline and a Band-Aid over
anything you feel you just can't
not pick," says Waldorf, who
prescribes Kligman's Formula, a combination of two percent hydroquinone,
0.025 percent tretinoin, and one percent mometasone, to heal the
damage. (If you're not seeing a skin doctor, try an OTC retinol and one
percent hydrocortisone cream.) "Laser hair removal helps for people
picking at hairs," she says. "If that hair's not there, there's nothing
to pick. Resurfacing lasers like the Clear + Brilliant or Fraxel Dual
can help even out hyperpigmentation."
If these scare tactics and skin tips don't stop your compulsive habit,
you may have a condition known as excoriation disorder. The diagnosis
was recently recognized by the American Psychiatric Association, and
it’s characterized by "constant and recurrent skin picking" resulting in
lesions that cause "clinically significant distress or impairment." (To
learn more about the disorder, which affects an estimated two to four
percent of the population, visit
Trich.org.)
Habit 2: Licking Your Lips—A Lot
There's a myth out there that claims people can get addicted to lip
balm. We checked—it's not real. "These people just have dry skin and
miss the feeling of the balm when it's gone," says Day. You know what's
really
addictive? Lip licking. But when you moisten your lips that way, you
actually wind up making things worse. The water in your saliva
evaporates, leaving lips withered and cracked. "Saliva can contain
bacteria and irritants, so you can end up with a rash around the lips as
well," says Day, who recommends a lip balm with hydrating ingredients
such as aloe and shea butter. (She likes FixMySkin Healing Lip Balm,
which is spiked with one percent hydrocortisone for speedy healing.)
An aside: You might be tempted to brush your lips since flakes make
lip color look particularly craggy and gross. Day says forget what
you've read, and put down the toothbrush—a gentle swipe with a damp
washcloth will suffice. "In trying to get a smoother look for a
lipstick, brushing just makes them rougher and bumpier," she says. "Lips
don't have oil glands, so you don't need to exfoliate them like the
rest of your skin."
Habit 3: A One-and-Done SPF Style
Nothing—and we mean
nothing—bothers a skin doc like a patient
who's blasé about their SPF game. "Caucasian patients who come in the
color of red walnut tell me they don't understand how it happened when
they applied an SPF 100," says Waldorf. "I show them my spotless skin
after spending a week outdoors in Thailand and Brazil using only SPF
30+. What people need to understand is that you need to use enough,
often enough."
You'd think derms would be on-board with ultra-high SPF sunscreens,
but nope. Turns out, these provide only marginally better protection
than an SPF 30 lotion, which filters more than 95 percent of UV rays.
Worse, they give a false sense of security. "Just as wearing a safety
belt doesn't give you permission to drive 90 miles per hour on black ice
while texting, applying a high-SPF sunscreen doesn't give you
permission to remain outside otherwise unprotected all day," says
Waldorf.
Apply enough broad-spectrum sunscreen to fill a shot glass—and apply it a
half-hour before you go outside. (It needs time to soak in.) Then,
reapply every two to four hours. For extra credit—and extra sun
protection—layer on SPF-infused foundations, concealers, bronzers,
blushes, and lip colors. Mineral makeup, such as the Bare Escentuals,
Jane Iredale, and Pür Minerals lines, provides an extra barrier.
Habit 4: Ignoring Skin Fluctuations
"It’s important to pay attention to your skin and give it what it needs,
the way it needs it, when it needs it," says Day. That means using
lightweight, mattifying products in the summer; switching to heavier,
more emollient ones in the winter; and using acne-fighting products
before your period starts. ("If you wait until you're broken out, you're
already behind," says Day.)
And don't rely on spot treatments. "Studies show that when you see a
pimple, there are more in the surrounding area that haven't come up
yet," she says. If your forehead is a problem area, treat the whole
forehead. Ditto for the chin. Day likes benzoyl peroxide for its
bacteria-crushing antiseptic properties and salicylic acid for flushing
out pores. The Glytone Acne Treatment Kit (a cleanser, medicated toner,
and treatment gel) contains both.
Habit 5: Exfoliating Your Face Off
Dermatologists understand why people love Clarisonic brushes and the
super-clean feeling you get after using them or your favorite
exfoliator. But chasing that beauty high has led a lot of patients to
overdo it, scrubbing skin into a blotchy, irritated mess. Exfoliating
too often breaks down the skin-barrier function, meaning new skin never
has a chance to build up. Skin becomes more sensitive to irritation,
which leads to inflammation and actually speeds aging.
"I recommend exfoliating twice a week if you have oily or acne-prone
skin," says plastic surgeon and injectables expert Fredric Brandt, M.D.,
who uses in-office LED red-light therapy to reduce inflammation. "For
sensitive or normal skin, once a week is fine." In order to seal and
maintain the skin barrier, exfoliation should be followed by a gentle
moisturizer, says Waldorf.
