Sunday, September 23, 2012

Oily Skin Moisturizer & The Effect During Awkward High School

By Rob Sutter


If you can't tell by the way I use such intricate words like "ostentatious" and "abhorrent," I was pretty close to nerdy during high school. I might have been able to shake off the nerd label once I was able to fully immerse myself in adulthood but I couldn't have been more uncomfortable with my appearance. I didn't have the best skin back then and even today there may come a time or two when I struggle with the occasional zit. I suppose I should be lucky that oily skin moisturizer kept me from being an utter crater face.

I am of the opinion that the first thing that made me want oily skin moisturizer was the surroundings my high school was cursed with. The colder months, even, produced an amount of sweat that would make the most intense saunas blush and it wasn't made much greater when we had indoor physical education classes. Needless to say, my skin did not thank me for it. I'd like to think that organizations along the lines of Likewise work to help people like the high school version of me, who simply weren't comfortable in their imperfect skin.

When I was a kid, I started to think about the reasons as to why people like me had complexions while others did not. I researched extensively and while many possibilities came to light, the biggest one had to be genetics. It was unavoidable and the worst part for me, at that time, was that I could blame nothing else but my own genes. I attempted to eat healthier and use facial creams more prevalently but those only seemed to be short-term solutions; the latter only lasted so long.

I'm certain that an argument can be made that my high level of stress had a great part to play when it came to my somewhat blotchy skin. High school wasn't the easiest place for me to be since I didn't present the "coolness" factor that was apparently needed at that time. After some research, I found out that a 1999 study concluded that stress-induced breakouts were pretty common. This was especially true if the afflicted already had terrible diseases to add onto the aforementioned stress. It was times like these were I felt fortunate for my own reasonably healthy status.

In the big picture, skincare helped me far more than I realized back then so that I could be better prepared for a more confident adulthood. I couldn't have predicted I'd be happy with my appearance back in high school, either. After all, this was a time when I had copious amounts of stress placed on me and bad skin wasn't easy to overcome. Academic responsibilities and typical bullying didn't help me, either. Looking back on it, I happy I overcame all of that adversity and found a better appreciation for my skin in the process.




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