10 Stay at Home Skin Tips!

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10 Stay at Home Skin Tips!

Self-care is something that many preach but most of us often don’t have time for. With busy lives working, taking care of children and family, it is hard to make time. If these stay at home times have taught me anything, it is to value what we do have – our health, our family, and ourselves. This is as good a time as any to start prioritizing yourself. Whether that means committing to a daily work out or walk, trying meditation or yoga, or taking care of oneself in other ways. Taking care of your skin makes us feel good and look good and is an important part of self-care. Dermatology encompasses the study of hair, skin, and nails. So I will give your some tips and tricks to try for each of these during stay at home.

  1. Stress Makes Hair Fall Out! Technically called telogen effluvium, it is a shedding of hairs approximately 3 months after a stressful life event (i.e. covid-19 for all of us!) that usually lasts 3-6 months. It will get better on its own over time. Some measures can be taken to help regrowth and strengthen the hair as well. I love Nutrafol, and I take it daily! It contains biotin, vitamins that affect the hair growth cycle and sawtooth palmetto which helps stimulate hair regrowth as well. It is a daily vitamin supplement to promote hair growth. Another thing I like for hair strengthening is an oil called miracle fruit oil! It was actually studied by one of my friends Dr. Del Campo and has been shown clinically to strengthen hair, reverse damage and decrease breakage. (All hair loss can be evaluated virtually in a teledermatology visit as well)
  2. Don’t heat style hair unless necessary and use hair masks! I have been using this time to take a break from my usual blow-drying and heat styling routines to give my hair a break. Think about this time as a holiday for your hair! I love stocking up on hair masks from Sephora – ones to leave on longer in the shower and ones to use overnight. Use a leave-in conditioning spray to detangle after showering. I can’t remember the last time that I let my hair air dry!
  3. Take off those nexgen and gel nails and give the nails a breather! Nails need a break sometimes too! Repeated nail polish application can discolor the nails. The acetone to remove the gel nail polishes make nails more brittle over time and the constant filing makes them thinner. I recommend taking a break from polish for a while and working on strengthening the nails. Take a biotin containing supplement (like Nutrafol above) to help re-strengthen nails as well!
  4. Take a break from eyelash extensions! The more trauma our eyelashes get, even from repeated daily mascara application but definitely from extension application and removal, the more eyelashes we lose! Take this time to let your eyelashes grow back without extensions and use Latisse (prescription product available in our office) to help regrow lashes!
  5. Hydrate the skin! Now that almost everyone is wearing a mask for some percent of their day, we see more dehydrated, dry skin. Moisturizers exist that are suitable for all skin types. We have moisturizers for acne prone skin (Stop the Shine moisturizer) to very dry skin (Rehydrate moisturizer) on our webstore. And don’t forget a hyaluronic acid serum to seal in the hydration (check out our Truth Serum hyaluronic acid, peptides and B5 serum)
  6. Start using a mineral sunscreen daily! We know that both daily sun exposure and intermittent sunburns contribute to our skin cancer risk, that 1 in 5 Americans will develop skin cancer in their lifetime, and that wearing a daily sunscreen will reduce your incidence of skin cancer by half! So why don’t most of us apply it on a daily basis? Well, we should for all of these reasons. Start incorporating a zinc containing moisturizer or sunscreen with an spf of at least 30 into your regimen every morning. Check out Elta MD product line on our webstore, my absolute favorite!
  7. Start an anti-aging regimen! Now is as good a time as any. Product quality matters! Over the counter products and other product lines you might buy from friends are not that same quality as medical grade products with retinols and antioxidants! Check out our Anti-Aging Beauty Box on our webstore with all of my favorites and facial sunscreen in one place!
  8. Don’t forget the body! It can be fun to make an at home exfoliant for the body with brown sugar, coffee grounds and coconut oil. Take a few minutes once a week to exfoliate the skin. After the shower, apply a rich creamy moisturizer for hydration all over like Vanicream (one of my favorites and the best for sensitive skin!)
  9. Treat your feet! I know that I am not very adept at giving myself a pedicure so I am sure I am not the only one out there! Grab your handy homemade scrub for your feet in the shower too and follow with an emery board scrub. After the shower apply a glycolic acid and urea cream (check out our Bare Feet product in our webstore) all over the bottom of the feet and leave on overnight once a week. You will wake up to baby smooth feet with repeated use. 
  10. Schedule a teledermatology appointment! If you are struggling with acne, rosacea, rashes or notice a new or changing skin lesion, we are here to help! Click book a virtual appointment on our website to make a virtual appointment from the comfort of your home! We can help!