Evgeniya Dragunskaya is a cosmetologist with 25 years of working experience. She is also the author of the book, An Honest Talk With the Cosmetologist. It can be said that she works as a restorer of the human face, removing traces of time. She also has her own Instagram and blog where she answers the trickiest questions and shares the secrets of youth and beauty.
We think that ViralSection readers might be interested in getting advice from an experienced cosmetologist about how to have a healthy attitude toward skin health.
Most skin problems are due to nutrition.
Oftentimes, skin problems are connected with a poor diet often including a deficiency of some elements and an abundance of others.
- Skin dryness can be caused by a deficiency of zinc, selenium, vitamins E and D, or by a condition known as hypothyroidism, which is the lack of thyroid hormones.
- Premature aging can be caused by a low level of cholesterol, a high level of ferritin, as well as the deficiency of triglycerides. Triglycerides are fats that are the main source of energy for the body.
- Demodicosis (or oral dermatitis) is a consequence of the frequent use of sugar and gluten. Acne rosacea is the small intestine and pancreas’ reaction to dairy products, alcohol, and gluten. Seborrhea is a combination of a lack of water with excess carbohydrates. All these diseases are characterized by facial redness.
- Small rashes on the forehead are the result of an overconsumption of sugar.
- Acne and rashes on the cheeks and chin are a sign of impaired bile secretion, usually due to excessive consumption of dairy products.
Why do we get an urge for certain products?
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Evgeniya often hears from her patients, “I can’t live without chocolate, cheese, or meat.” The reason for this claim may be hiding behind a deficiency of important elements. For example:
- An urge for chocolate means a lack of magnesium.
- An urge for salty or spicy products means a deficiency of serotonin or low blood pressure.
- Taste perversions, or when people get a desire to eat limes or other “non-products,” signals a possible deficiency of iron and zinc.
- If a patient says they can’t live without sausage or cheese, it can mean they suffer from an emotional anchor, which means they need to seek help from a psychologist.
In order to prescribe the correct treatment, a cosmetologist needs to know the condition of your body, which is why it’s important to do all the necessary tests and correct the diet.
What should you do with swelling under the eyes?
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Swelling under the eyes is actually fat that loves water and is poorly supplied with blood. If you get this, it’s necessary to do the following.
- Use vagotonic eye cream (horse chestnut extract, red vine leaves, clover, hazel, and caffeine) no later than 3 hours prior to sleep. It’s better to use this cream in the morning and apply it with a thick layer and remove any excess cream with a tissue 10 minutes later.
- Don’t eat protein and salty products in the evening. It’s actually better to not eat anything 4 hours prior to sleep.
- If it’s uncomfortable for you to live with the swelling, you can remove the fat. Consult a plastic surgeon for this.
Eye treatments using cucumbers and potatoes don’t help. In fact, they dry the skin under the eyes completely. Salon procedures can have a slight effect but don’t last long.
What things are worth removing
It’s necessary to remove some formations on the face and body because they weaken the immune system and can provoke various diseases. The following things may be related to such formations:
- Condylomas are virus formations on the mucosa of a person.
- Warts are a virus and appear as rough growths on the palms and soles of the feet.
- Xanthomas are the development of cholesterol in the skin that look like yellow rough patches or nodules. Most often they can be seen on the eyelids.
- Keratomas are so-called “senile spots.” If you keep traumatizing them, keratomas can become malignant.
- Red spots are most often papillomaviruses, which haven’t grown completely or pigmented yet.
- Papillomas are a virus formation on the human body.
Papillomas should not be confused with moles. A mole is a flat pigmented spot that doesn’t rise above the skin which is better not to injure. The rest are papillomas. They can appear due to stress, pregnancy, or viral infections. You shouldn’t try to tear a papilloma off by yourself — the “root” of the issue will stay inside and the formation will grow again.
The reasons for premature aging
One of the “youth hormones” is called the ferritin protein. Ferritin is a molecule that stores iron for the body.
The normal level of ferritin is 60–80 mcg/liters. When it drops lower than 50 mcg/liters, many issues start to take place in the body such as headaches, a feeling of weakness and tiredness, the loss of hair, brittle nails, or a bad skin condition.
The main reasons for decreasing ferritin levels are gastritis, any pathology of the gastrointestinal tract, and ulcers. Dairy products also prevent iron from absorbing. During menstrual periods, women should take iron supplements because they lose ferritin together with heavy blood loss.
Keep in mind that high ferritin levels can also cause active aging, while an uncontrolled intake of iron supplements leads to various diseases.
The reasons for cellulite
Cosmetologists believe that cellulite occurs due to fluid retention in adipose tissue. Cellulite is never immediately visible. The stage of visible cellulite is always preceded by many years of a swollen condition of the body.
Here are the main reasons for cellulite:
- Thoracic shallow breathing. Most people breathe with their diaphragm, that’s why they don’t have cellulite even with varicose veins and excess weight. If you breathe correctly with your abdomen, then the diaphragm suction force will pump out more lymph than your masseur can do within one week of massage sessions.
- Fast carbohydrates and dairy products. Eating a cheese sandwich before going to sleep guarantees the retention of 0.5 gallons to 0.8 gallons of water in your body.
- Dehydration. When the drinking regimen is broken, the body loses fluid and forms intercellular edema, which activates the process of turning cellulite into visible cellulite.
- Sedentary lifestyle. Walking for 45 minutes at least 3 times a week will help to speed up the lymphatic system and improve microcirculation. The main thing to remember is to walk no less than 30 minutes at a time.
Effective methods for fighting cellulite
Drainage procedures work well to fight cellulite:
- Dermotonia (a vacuum massage with a roller)
- Ozone procedures
- Cavitation which destroys the cells that form fat tissue with the help of low-frequency ultrasonic waves
- Wrapping
- Press-therapy, a type of massage using compressed air
- Myostimulation, an electrical stimulation of muscles
- Massage
Keep in mind that the effect of such procedures is temporary. Diuretic drugs won’t help get rid of cellulite, they will only exacerbate the situation.
Is it worth spending money on micro-needling in a beauty salon?
Micro-needling is a cosmetic procedure that uses a roller with many thin needles to roll across the face. It is used to get rid of wrinkles. However, if it’s that simple, why don’t we all have young, smooth faces?
Wrinkles are cicatricial changes in the skin. If you injure a wrinkled area with a needle, chemical peel, or laser treatment, inflammation will appear. It stimulates the production of new collagen, which is necessary for the smoothness of the face. Needle therapy also allows for the necessary medicine to be injected in the outer layers of the skin. This procedure is known as mesotherapy.
If mesotherapy can be done by medical staff, it means it’s not necessary to do micro-needling in a beauty salon. All you actually need is to buy a roller with needles. This can be an at-home procedure as well. It won’t have much of an effect but it will improve microcirculation and enhance the penetration of cosmetic medicine that you apply to the skin. The main thing to watch out for is an infection which is why one should carefully wash their face and disinfect the roller and needles with chlorhexidine.
The truth about plasmolifting
Plasmolifting is an injection of plasma of the patient’s own blood. This procedure improves skin elasticity, enhances its color, decreases pigmentation spots and inflammation, and smoothens wrinkles.
The tubes with blood also contain a preservative called heparin. It has a local anti-inflammatory effect, improves microcirculation, and activates tissue metabolism, thereby reducing swelling. Therefore, heparin itself does the same thing plasmolifting can.
In any case, try to consider taking necessary vitamins and reducing your intake of sugar, alcohol, gluten, and dairy products.
How often is cleansing the face in a beauty salon necessary?
The skin is a self-cleaning organ that doesn’t need our help in the absence of disease. I am not speaking about acne where cleansing turns into a medical procedure, extracting pores. I’m talking about skin in a general sense. We always want to do something with it to reduce the visibility of pores, for example.
In fact, the famous ultrasound cleansing is a vibro-massage with the help of a special spatula. It has the same effect as scrubbing does. If your beauty practitioner is trying to squeeze the acne with the help of this tool, it means you’re dealing with a self-taught, non-professional. Beware of getting burns from this.
The same thing applies to vacuum cleaning. It’s a good way to clean things but isn’t considered necessary.
- Dark spots are perfectly adsorbed by any clay mask. There is no point of squeezing them because the next day you will get them all back.
- It’s impossible to remove skin unevenness by cleaning it — it’s only peels that can help. In the summer, you can use special all-season peels or masks with acidic properties.
Evgeniya prefers exfoliation or an acid peel at least once a month.
Relieving stress without pills
The main goal of spa procedures is to help a person relax, to improve blood circulation in the skin, and get rid of subcutaneous fat. It helps to improve the skin’s texture, remove cellulite, and generally improve and strengthen the body.
Those who don’t want to visit beauty salons can do a procedure known as oiling at home. Apply any type of oil on your body before taking a shower, put on a gown that you don’t mind staining, and relax for 20-40 minutes. After that, wash your body with a shower gel.
Oil contains vitamin A. Our liver accumulates retinol during emotional stress while the areas around it get deficient in this element. When the surrounding parts get vitamin A, the body believes that there is no more stress, and relaxes.
At the same time, there’s no point in taking vitamin A in drugs and supplements for emotional reasons. By doing so, you might end up increasing its concentration in the liver, making it toxic.
Taking turpentine baths
You can easily arrange a physiotherapeutic procedure called balneotherapy at home. To do so, you need to buy turpentine baths, which is a small bottle with emulsion you can find in the pharmacy. Only buy white emulsion if you have low blood pressure and yellow if you have increased blood pressure. The white one cleanses the body, restores mobility, and inhibits the aging process; the yellow one corrects the body shape, stimulates metabolic processes, and restores skin elasticity.
Fill the bathtub with water at 100 °F — 104 °F in the evening and dissolve 20 ml of emulsion in it. Get into the tub and wait for the first drop of sweat on your forehead. Usually, it appears 6-15 minutes after you get inside the tub. If nothing happens within 15 minutes, get out and add 40 ml of emulsion the next day.
Taking a turpentine bath is often followed by a slight burning sensation that appears in the bends of the arms and legs as well as the inner surface of the thighs. Get out of the bath without rinsing, wrap yourself in a bath gown, and lie under a blanket. You can actually sleep this way, but if you can’t fall asleep, take a shower after an hour and change your clothes out for dry ones.
What questions would you like to ask a cosmetologist? We’d be glad to hear from you in the comments!
Preview photo credit evgeniya_dragunskaya
