- If I'm on a flight from New York to LA,
I'm moisturizing my skin probably minimum
two times, maximum probably four.
I try to do it every hour, hour and a half of the flight.
Hi, I'm Jasmine Barmer.
I'm a flight attendant and I have moderate psoriasis.
Today, we're gonna go through every single way
psoriasis impacts my day to day life.
[soft music]
My psoriasis routine is ever changing.
It feels like sometimes it's constant,
but sometimes there are bumps along the way.
To simplify it all, I've broken it down into sections.
My diagnosis, beauty, career, diet, fitness, and sleep.
Psoriasis is a chronic auto immune disorder
that speeds up the growth of skin cells.
For me, psoriasis looks like large scaly red patches, both
on my scalp, my face, and sometimes on my chest and arms.
I have been dealing with what I thought was eczema
probably since I was five or seven.
I can't really pinpoint an age because it's been so long.
It's my sophomore year of college.
I really just was sick of being
uncomfortable in my own skin, literally.
It was so bad, I didn't want to wash my,
like I didn't want to get up half the time
but watching my face hurt, it hurt to talk.
I was scared to walk around campus.
I literally went from my dorm to class, back to my dorm.
I missed out on so much.
Like, my friends were upset and everything.
And at that point I was like, okay I'm missing out on
my life because of the way I look, something's got to give.
So I did some research and I found a new dermatologist
and I'm telling you, the moment he walked in the room,
he was like, I think you have psoriasis.
He called me back two days later, confirmed it.
I went back in and that's when we started a treatment plan.
Everything else cleared up except my scalp.
Every single time I scratch, anytime I wash my hair,
when I woke up in the morning, there was always scalp
and pieces of hair just laying around or falling out.
And so my dermatologist he's like, all right,
something's got to give, you're either
gonna have to wash your hair twice a day
or you're gonna have to cut it off.
And in that moment, I'm like, sir, I'm young and beautiful.
You really want me to cut my hair off?
It took me about five or six months to really decide
what I was gonna do, and that last day of my sophomore year
I went to the barbershop and I haven't looked back since.
[upbeat music]
I guess I was more so worried about how people would react
when in reality, this has become my look.
I'm loving the way my skin looks right now.
Beauty is a really natural place to start
because psoriasis has such an impact on my beauty routine.
If I skip one day of my moisturizing routine
it's not even gonna take 24 hours, like within
a couple hours, I'm going to notice a difference.
Like, I'll start feeling tingliness on my face.
And then slowly, the redness will show up.
My whole body feels it and is impacted.
I wash my face with Dr. Bronner's.
I use ordinary hyaluronic acid.
I also use the ordinary argan oil.
And after all of that I use a coconut oil moisturizer
as well to kind of lock all of that in.
And just because coconut oil is an extra
layer of hydration for my skin.
Even though I live in New York City
I still try to get as much sun as possible.
I spend a lot of time in the sun.
I know that you need a lot of sunscreen.
So I think the SPF in the sunscreen is definitely helpful
in like trying to balance my skin out
to get rid of the discoloration.
If I want to wear perfume, I am spraying it on my clothes.
I definitely wouldn't put that on my face, but like
if I just wanted to test the waters and put it
on my leg, I probably, within 30 minutes would have a patch.
It's crazy how quick it happens,
but it's like my body's like, no, what are you doing?
There's a fragrance.
And literally patches will start to appear.
If I know that I'm gonna wear makeup,
I am solely drinking water probably starting about
three days out from when I know I'm gonna wear makeup
just because makeup's pretty drying for the skin.
When it's time for me to sit down and do my makeup routine
I do all those moisturizing steps that I mentioned as well
as use a very hydrating primer from First Aid Beauty
just to make sure that I'm like giving it an extra layer
before I give my skin that drying makeup.
I use Juvia's Place foundation.
It's a velvety like hydrating foundation.
As a result of my psoriasis, I have like discolored skin.
I feel like my skin's like five different colors
and it's been the best thing that I could use.
Even during a flare up, it will give me that
sense of like normalcy with my skin.
It'll still give me like a full coverage
but it also helps my skin to remain hydrated as well.
To start my body skincare routine off,
I use Dr. Bronner's either mint or unscented soap.
I can't really use loofahs or washcloths or anything.
So I actually use these microfiber gloves
that my mom found on Amazon, and they've been amazing
just because they're soft enough and
they won't make my skin irritated.
When it's time to get out of the shower and moisturize,
I try to leave my body damp, I don't fully dry off.
So I pat my skin so it's damp.
I start with a raw Shea butter on my skin
to get that first layer of moisturizer in there.
Then I'll go over top and kind of lock it in with another
either non-scented lotion like CeraVe or Cetaphil.
After that, I wash my hair.
Every time I shower, I wash my hair.
A few times out of the week, I use a coal tar based shampoo.
Coal tar is really an ingredient derived from actual coal
that's used normally to treat the scaliness,
itchiness and inflammation.
Even if my is shaved, just to be on the safe side,
I also use an argan oil conditioner.
And after that, I usually just brush my hair
and I would use a scalp moisturizing product from the same
brand Kitikiti and just brush my hair and go about my day.
When it comes to an active flare up,
everything that I mentioned, I kind of strip it away
and I try to keep my routine as simple as possible.
And that's whether it's body, face or scalp, as well
as the medicine that I've been prescribed by dermatologist.
My skin already has a lot going on at that time
and I don't really want to shock it and irritate it
or anything, so I try to scale everything back
and keep it pretty simple.
I'm a flight attendant for a major US airline
and I'm probably in a plane 30 plus hours a week.
The air up there 30,000 feet is extremely
drying, like so drying, so I try to stay on top of that
dryness whenever I am in the air.
I keep all my travel moisturizers packed
so I don't have to think about it when it's time
for me to throw things in my bag for work.
So that includes mini versions of all of my moisturizers
because I don't want to introduce my skin
to anything new or anything extra drying.
So I try to make sure that I have everything that I need.
I'm in the airport, I'm walking to the plane,
and literally the first thing that I do
when I'm on an airplane, I keep a Sharpie in my bag,
I grab my Sharpie, I grab two bottles of water
just so no one like will take them
or drink from them or anything.
I write my name on them and that's when
that in-flight hydration really begins.
So when I'm on the plane I'm actually
re-moisturizing my face pretty regularly.
That thing you hear in the plane, as soon
as I'm able to get up, I'll take one of the water bottles
and pour it over a washcloth and kind of wash my face off
and then reapply the moisturizers that I keep in my bag.
And then I'm ready to begin the flight attending.
If I'm on a flight from New York to LA,
I'm moisturizing my skin probably,
minimum two times, maximum probably four.
I try to do it every hour, hour and a half of the flight.
So really the journey of discovering what I need to do
whether in flight or just a routine in general
it's all trial and error.
I didn't start doing that like the first day I flew,
but it kind of came with time when I realized,
okay, I'm in a plane more so, meaning that
I'm gonna have to hydrate more or just talking
to other flight attendants, asking them like, oh
what are some things you do, you know, to hydrate your body?
They always say, you know, drink, drink, drink,
drink lots of water, but I know that I have to take that
a little further and be able to wash my face,
be able to do that re-moisturizing, just
so I don't cause any flare ups in my skin.
For me, managing my stress and keeping it
at a very low level is so important because
if I'm stressed out, that means my skin's stressed out.
And that means a flare up probably will happen.
So I do a few different things to kind of maintain that,
but my favorite is actually practicing yoga.
Every flight that I'm on, my yoga mat
is inside of my carry on bag.
Usually I'll try to stand up and you know,
I don't know what it's called, this is so bad,
but I'll try to physically balance myself.
You know, when you like stand up on one leg
and you put the other one, like up in your inner thigh.
So I feel like balancing myself
and really focusing on that usually helps me calm down
quickly because I'm just trying not to fall.
I try not to work out too hard
because sweat or any type of salinity on my body
really will cause an immediate flare up.
So if there is a by chance that I sweat
I literally will run into the shower
like hop right into the shower.
That's why I prefer to work out
at home or work out in a hotel room.
I keep body wipes in my bag as well
just in case I can't get in the shower immediately.
I'll just do like a quick wipe off just
to avoid that breakout caused by sweat.
So for me, drinking what seems like gallons and gallons
and gallons of water a day is just so important
because I realized that my psoriasis
really starts with my insides.
Like making sure that I'm hydrating those skin cells.
They're going to grow fast, I can't help that,
but I can just make sure that I'm doing my part
and moisturizing to kind of avoid them
really flaring up and breaking out.
Over the years, I've realized that alcohol
is a trigger for my psoriasis.
After about two drinks, I'm running the risk of waking up
to skin irritation the next day.
Shortly after college, you know, I was like in my first
big girl job, I was making a lot of money.
All my friends lived in close cities,
so we'd, you know, go drinking.
My skin was still frequently breaking out.
My mom one day mentioned, she's like,
did you ever think about cutting out alcohol?
I'm like, no, I'm 24, 25, I'm not doing that, no.
And so my mom really challenged me to go without alcohol
for, I think it was like, it was 30 days.
And I will tell you, she was right.
That was 30 days that I went with no flare ups, no skin,
I actually had no skin issues at all.
After that 30 days I've kind of gotten into a routine
or a place where I just limit my alcohol intake.
I usually can have about two drinks
before my skin will be like, okay, nope, it's time to stop.
I definitely make time for sleep.
I try to get in the bed at a decent hour, which can be kind
of hard as a flight attendant sometimes because you know,
you're jumping time zone to time zone to time zone,
but I try to get seven hours of sleep
just so my body can relax.
You know, I try to do things to keep my body relaxed
but sleep to me is the best way to do that.
When I'm dealing with a flare up, I just try to use like
three to four extra layers of moisturizer
and then to give it that extra lock-in I wear these
ugly long sleeve, long pant pajamas just to protect
my sheets from getting super stained and super greasy.
I like using a diffuser just because it kind of helps
set that calming mood in the room to have that smell.
So I like to use lavender or mint either, or, especially
when I'm going to sleep, I like both of those smells.
But it's just an extra layer of like calming
and comfort that kind of helps me to wind down.
Eventually I want to go to law school
and I've taken the LSAT, and when I was preparing
for the LSAT, I was freaking out, like stressed out
all the time questioning if that
was something I really wanted to do.
I wasn't sleeping because I was up late trying to study.
My skin started to flare up, my scalp, even my scalp,
even though my hair is short, my scalp
started to flare up as well.
And you know, I was talking to my mom about it
and she's like, you have, you have, you have to like
calm down and get rest and not stress yourself out.
She's like, you know this.
You know it's easier said than done for sure.
But just having someone else be able to remind me, like
if you want to maintain that normalcy with your skin
you can't let this LSAT defeat you
in a way that it consumes you so much.
I have definitely, and it took time, but I have definitely
come to a place of acceptance with my psoriasis.
I know, you know, now that I'm older and I know exactly
what it is, I know what I need to do,
emotionally, physically I am in a much better place
about dealing with psoriasis.
[soft music fades]