Skin Essentials

“To delay the signs of aging, a proper routine needs to be followed,” says Dr. Jamuna Pai. This prestigious Indira Gandhi Priyadarshini Awardee (2011) says, “There are no shortcuts and I firmly believe in a holistic approach to looking and feeling beautiful.”
Healthy skin is an essential part of health and natural beauty. Good skin is a reflection of inner health. Without good health, no amount of beauty treatments will help one’s skin as much as it will when one is healthy internally. A good lifestyle, well-balanced diet and exercise go a long way to give one good health and glowing skin. Fresh blood supplies nutrients and oxygen to the tissue and flushes out the toxins thereby leaving the skin glowing. Dr. Pai continues, “Therefore, exercise should be an important part of your daily regime. Be more regular in the use of your regime set aside for your specific skin type. Use a sunscreen every 3 hours and the thicker the coat, the better. Make small changes in your lifestyle that goes a long way to fight aging. Then of course, the cosmetic industry comes up with various treatments every day and thus increases the possibility of everybody being able to reverse the signs of aging. At the same time they can also maintain it that way.”

At the same time, the most common cosmetic problem for which people approach her are acne, acne scars, open pores and excessive facial hair. According to her, these are the most common problems in the younger age group i.e. 12-25 years of age. She says, “People falling into the 30 plus age group more commonly face the problem of melasma (dark pigmented patches on the skin). Black patches on the skin are hyper-pigmented patches known as melasma. Usually these patches appear post pregnancy and usually this condition is hereditary. Hormonal changes, excessive sun exposure could aggravate the pigmentation. Treatment involves application of skin-lightening creams containing Vitamin C, kojic acid, arbutin at night and using sunscreen every 2-3 hours during the day. Multiple sessions of glycolic peels or lasers like Intense Pulse Light could lighten up the patches to some extent.”
On the other hand, Vitiligo or Leucoderma (white patches on the skin) is an auto immune disorder, which is generally hereditary in nature. Application of creams like tacrolimus ointment, placentrex lotion and phototherapy helps bring the colour back into the white patches. The white patches could also be camouflaged by using waterproof make-up or by undergoing permanent cosmetic make-up in which coloured pigments are tattooed into the white patch.
Permanent make-up is a cosmetic technique where using the principle of tattooing, coloured pigments are used to impregnate colour resembling topical application of colour cosmetics. To give a subtle appearance, the pigment is tattooed very superficially. Hence as time passes by, the pigment gets lighter and there is a need for touch up. Immediately after the procedure the skin could be red and swollen. Complications are rare but can include infection or allergic reactions from the tattoo dye. Antibiotic creams are prescribed to reduce the risk of infection.

This article was previously published in Eve’s Times magazine and has been reproduced here with the permission of the editor, Swat Amar.