My Laundry List of Derm Questions
My Laundry List of Derm Questions
Why am I obsessing over this dermatology appointment?
In today’s post:
A Q (not) A Some beauty and pop culture questions.
The Full Beat My Laundry List of Derm Questions: Why am I obsessing over this dermatology appointment?
A Q (not) A
Do you believe that the children are our future? They are.
Why are
movie villainswealthy people so obsessed with immortality? Bryan Johnson is selling an anti-aging curriculum to other *****s who want to reverse their biological ages and live longer than any other humans have before. Perhaps a film club/group therapy session wherein they interrogate their similarities to fictional and immortality obsessive characters would be more useful?Is There Really Such a Thing as a Mini Facelift? Girl no. I figured that before I read the article, but if the risks are “pretty much the same as the risks of a regular facelift,” then absolutely not.
My Laundry List of Derm Questions: Why am I obsessing over this dermatology appointment?
I made an appointment with the dermatologist for a very specific issue: stubborn hyperpigmentation near my hairline. Since I’ve made the appointment I’ve found myself adding other issues to my phone note “Mention to Derm.”
The list has grown from “tell her about the cloud of darkening skin above my brow” to a series of questions like:
Is there anything to be done about the texture on my cheeks?
Are my nighttime serums doing anything for me anymore? It doesn’t feel like it.
Which sunscreen do you like (take the Murad)? I don’t like the texture of mineral sunscreens so keep those recs bbygrl
Will a short-term retinol treatment plan be helpful in evening out my skin tone?
Local laser hair removal recs for Black people?
Knowing that the appointment is coming up has brought up a lot of “non-issue” skin issues. More than ever I’m wondering if it’ll be simple to fix all of the minor problems that now feel a bit more important. I must acknowledge that this is a hypocritical list for someone who bemoaned a woman complaining about her dimply chin a couple of weeks ago.
Will we ever stop finding random things to hate about our bodies? Not to be insensitive because, as Valerie Monroe writes “I respect her wish to feel better about it.” But this piece on correcting a chin that’s “too big and dimply”, and which the experts in the article know is just fine, is just…Girl.
Am I walking it back? Absolutely not. I am much too hard-headed for that. Also, I recognize that like the woman complaining about her dimply chin, my concern about the uneven texture on my cheek is a non-issue. In 2014 Monica Harrell wrote about our “obsession with cosmetic tweaking” and how easy and affordable it was to access fillers and injectables. I’ve found less writing on women like myself, who are headed to derms and estheticians for non-cosmetic tweaks to small issues.
Perhaps the traps of pursuing beauty are that (1) no issue is too small to fix and (2) we believe that if we fix all the small issues we’ll feel beautiful. But the rotating shelf of beauty standards means there will always be an issue to fix, no matter how small.