What is your skin telling you?
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Holistic skin analyse is what I, and this blog is all about. Thankfully a lot of skin care companies are also catching on to this necessity and providing Dermal Technicians with the skills to use ‘facial mapping’ as a guide to treating your skin concerns.
"Face mapping," is an ancient practice rooted in Ayurveda teaching. It is based on the premise that the entire body is reflected on the face, with each area relating to an internal body system. If there is an imbalance in that internal system, we (in theory) should see skin changes such as breakouts, milia, inflammation, discolouration and texture changes in the corresponding facial areas.
Of course this is not an exact science and not always an accurate representation, especially considering there are a few different variations floating around on the net. However if you know your skin well and notice recurring issues in a certain area of the face, than this may be a good guide for you to follow.
This facial map is one of my preferred to show patients as it is a little more simplified and I find in my experience, quite often more accurate.
Some common areas I often use to analyse my patient and prompt further questioning include recurring inflammation/ congestion on the chin. This can often be a sign of poor diet, food intolerance and gut inflammation. If this is an area of concern for you, you may want to also look out for any bloating, fatigue, indigestion or irregular bowel movements. If you tick all of these boxes, then head on over to my ‘Gut skin link’ blog for more explanation on these correlations.
TREATMENT ADVICE:
- Supplement with a Probiotic to help encourage good bacteria.
- Food intolerance testing (If you can't afford this, than you may want to try eliminating the typical culprits: gluten and dairy and see how you and your skin are feeling after 2-3 weeks).
- 3-4 litres of water per day and reduce refined sugar (this is basically the answer to all skin concerns!).
- Ensure 30 minutes of exercise a day to encourage regular bowel movement.
Inflamed cystic acne around your jawline is very often a sign of hormone imbalances and will typically find correlate with irregular periods, abnormal hair growth, use of contraceptive pill, Endometriosis or Poly-cystic ovaries. This obviously requires further investigation and testing and therefore topical products will only achieve so much reduction for you.
TREATMENT:
- Our in clinic Naturopath and Nutritionist can assist with understanding yoru hormonal triggers.
- LED red light therapy to help reduce inflammation.
- Our herbal support products online.. 'Balance' By Tia Miers may support liver detoxification and hormonal displacement
The cheeks can be a more complex area and often give an accurate glimpse into any respiratory distress. Fine broken capillaries, congestion and black heads are usually a big indicator of smokers or allergy sufferers. This is also typically an area of makeup build up from foundation and blush.
TREATMENT:
- Eliminate smoking/ second hand smoke exposure.
- Treat the gut to help reduce allergies.
- Wash makeup brushes regularly and use natural non comedogenic makeup. ( We stock and love 'Ere Perez' clean makeup)
Had a big weekend of white wine and tequila shots followed by Maccas at 4am on the trip home? (not speaking from experience) Well you may notice in the week following, a nice scatter of breakouts through the forehead. This can be a sign of your liver under stress attempting to eliminate toxins from the body.
TREATMENT:
- Try to drink 3-4 litres of water daily and eat an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables!
- Eliminate coffee, alcohol and refined sugar.
- Exercise 30 minutes a day (HIT workouts, hot yoga, sauna session)
- Have a Microdermabrasion treatment to help encourage lymphatic drainage.
All of the above will help to flush out the toxins and provide your body with sufficient vitamins and minerals to rejuvenate the skin.
If you're finding you've tried all of the above and still at a loss with your skin, just remember your skin is a tool of elimination. Your body is letting you know there is a form of toxicity that needs to come out, so try not to add more in! Take a look at what you're putting into and onto your body on a daily basis.
Coffee, alcohol, the chemicals in manufactured foods, even some ‘health' foods (protein bars, juices, fruit bars etc), plus the products we put onto our skin (deodorant, perfumes, heavy makeup and hairsprays) are generally all toxins. All of these products can make their way into our bloodstream causing a strain on our elimination system. As long as these toxicities continue, your skin will be in constant battle to heal, no matter how much money you spend on products.
For more information, visit our online clean beauty store to learn how to support your skin health from inside out and outside in.