Ad|Competition Entry. (Not paid for and I’ve not benefited with any samples for this post, so not an ad in any way but you can never be too careful and I like to be transparent. I’m literally entering the Epaderm Blogger Ambassador competition with this post.). I haven’t really talked much about my skin condition on here. I suffer from seborrheic dermatitis. I’ve tried not to ‘bang on’ about it. But the reality is, it affects me every darn day. I don’t know what started it, and I do know it will never truly go away either. When I saw Epaderm was looking for a blogger ambassador for 2020 it truly inspired me to actually write about it more. And talk about it more.
Seborrheic Dermatitis
Seborrheic dermatitis is a scaling of the skin making it itchy and flake off. It affects the sides of the nose, eyebrow, hairline, scalp and ears (behind, around and inside) in the main. And I’ve had it in all those places. My ‘worst’ places are my scalp and nose and currently ears. My eyebrows have taken a break from it which is nice! I have to peel my nose during the day or else risk it the dead skin hanging off my face and my scalp is next-level bad. It’s coated with a scaly layer that wants to move and when it does it just renews itself straight back there again. There are pockets of thicker scale that form on my scalp and that I spend my time scratching them to ease the discomfort. When it’s really bad everything itches and is sore and bright red. It’s not the nicest to look at and I can leave a trail wherever I go. It’s next level dandruff. Stress can make it worse, temperature changes can make it worse, tiredness- yep you guessed it, in fact, breathing can probably make it worse it’s that bad sometimes!
Ways to Help
So yes it’s not nice, however, I don’t go around thinking how bad it is. I literally brush off the issue now when I think about it. But I know it can be hard. If you suffer from a skin condition, especially one you can’t hide on your face it’s tough. As part of Epaderm’s #OneTwoFreeYourSkin campaign I’ve put together my top tips for how I cope with it and increase my confidence:
- Educate- Learn more about your condition for yourself so you can understand more
- Prepare- always keep the things you need for flare-ups at hand! Don’t be caught out and try and ease it ASAP
- Advice- Seek professional skincare advice if you feel you need more than just the above
- Discuss- Find others with the same condition so you can talk about it and share what helps you. There’s nothing better than knowing you are not alone
- Explain- talking to people who need/want to know about it and how it affects you can help them to understand it and help you when you need it
- Review- Look at what lotions you are using every few months and change them if you feel they aren’t working for you
- Manage it- Remember your skin condition doesn’t define you nor does it boss you about! Try and keep that feeling of control by doing what’s best for you
This is my 20th year of living with it, I’ll raise a toast later lol. But there’s positivity honest! I’ve learned to just live with it. I learned to not let it define me. I’ve learnt to be open and honest about it. And I’ve learnt it’s a sort of me so I might as well just deal with it. Things like going for facials or makeovers I now explain what it is and what I know triggers it, rather than letting the person find out themselves. My hairdresser knows what’s good and bad and we always now have a chat about how my scalps been in the last few weeks. taking those steps above has helped me raise my confidence to talk about it.
I really hope this post helps someone please let me know if it does! If anything writing this has made me realise I need to talk more about it to help others. So you’ll see more content relating to this across my channels as well as on here.
As mentioned at the start this post is part of an Epaderm competition. Epaderm is available online, in-store and on prescription.