>> Transracial families know the world is an extremely
diverse place filled with all kinds of people of different
colors. What's just as diverse as the right kind of skin care.
There's no one size fits all that. In this video, we will
go over some basic skin care information to ensure your
black African-American or biracial child develops a
healthy skin care attitude, good skin care routine, and
prevent skin related issues in their future.
There are numerous soaps, creams, lotions and other skin
care products on the market. When shopping focus on
essentials, look for natural and organic ingredients in
products. These are a better choice because they are free of
harmful ingredients.
Now, here are few skin care basics for darker skin.
>> For children one year and older cleanse face in the
morning
and before bed with warm water and a non irritating cleanser.
limit time in the shower or when bathing and make sure
water is warm, not hot to avoid dry out skin
always wash gently with fingertips or soft, cloths and
avoid abrasive agents such as puffs and pads.
>> Preteens and teenagers going through puberty and children
with a high level of activity may need additional cleansing
during the day.
If they have a tendency towards dry skin instead of an
additional bath or shower, the wash key areas to get clean.
>> This would be hands, underarms, and groin areas.
>> It's important to moisturize the entire body after bath or
shower and give special attention to elbows, knees
and hands
apply. Physical sunscreen SPF 30 or higher with zinc or
titanium for children and babies under one year old.
>> Wipe the face with a soft cloth morning and evening,
using only warm water,
babies have very little activity. So it's OK to bathe
every 2 to 3 days.
>> Moisturize the entire body after bath with special
attention to elbows, knees and hands.
If the skin appears dry between bathing or has dry
patches a light application of a fragrance
free moisturizer can be applied. For children over 6
months of
age apply physical sunscreens with zinc or titanium SPF 30 or
higher
infants under 6 months should not be exposed to heavy amounts
of sun without protective clothing on their extremities
and
and head.
Take your time when shopping for cleansers. Look for the
gentle and sensitive in the natural and organic section of
the store. Pay special attention to listed ingredients
on the back of the product.
Stay away from cleanses with chemicals listed in the
ingredients, especially sodium lauryl sulfate it strips the
skin of its natural oil and may cause peeling.
Here's a sample list of preferred ingredients to look
for in face and body cleansers
colloidal oatmeal. Which hydrates, sooths and calms the
skin. You
can also use aloe, chamomile, lemongrass, Shea butter
peppermint and lavender. People of color can tap into
their heritage and use many tried and true lotions,
moisturizers and serums for the best skin softening results.
Look for these natural ingredients and products.
Some work best in products. While others, you'll be able to
you straight from the kitchen or bathroom shelf.
Cocoa butter, caster oil, Shea Butter, Almond oil. Sunflower
oil
vitamin E vitamin C and petroleum jelly.
When children hit puberty, most will need deodorant.
The underarm skin is extremely thin. So it's easy to
irritate. It's also prone to bacterial growth because of
warmth and moisture
for black African-American and biracial children. Hyper
pigmentation as well as eczema can become an issue.
Read the label. Many deodorants, including aluminum,
dyes and other chemicals you want to avoid. You may have to
try a few before finding the right one. So don't get to
discouragedl. Here are a few ingredients in deodorant to
look for that will naturally neutralize bacteria older while
keeping skin soft.
shea butter, tea tree oil, green tea, sage, aarowroot
powder, magnesium hydroxide Jojoba oil and castor oil
avoid deodorants with sulfates, silicones, alcohol,
formaldehyde.
metals such as aluminum and nickel and unnatural
fragrances
>> I would say that as African-Americans, we are not
primarily prone to more dry skin, however, are dry. Skin
tends to be more obvious because of the pigment in the
shade that we have in our skin.
When our skin becomes dry, we start to notice that find
flaking a lot easier just because the shade that tends to
appear in the dryness and the superficial layers of the skin
are much more apparent. You know we colloquially call
ash? Yeah, right throughout the winter months. So for brown and
darker skin, you know, as far as moisturizing specifically,
are there certain ingredients that tend to work a little bit
better? The answer to that is some of the old faithful in
traditional things that we've been using our community for
years like cocoa butter and things of that nature, even for
me growing up as a Jamaican castor oil right is something
that we used a lot traditionally on our skin from
my grandmother. And those things do tend to absorb better
are much more moisturizing the skin and then going to give us
the long lasting moisturization that we're going to need
throughout the day. Because, again, our skin is going to
show much more evidently are much, much earlier on when the
dryness appears rather than her Caucasian counterparts would..
It's not going to show up as quickly or as easily.
>> So it's it's something that comes up all the time. You
know, as as people of color to we need sunscreen because we
have so much of this lovely, beautiful natural melanin.
And the answer is absolutely yes. And so they're kind of 2
factors at play. Right factor. One is tanning of the skin are
getting darker of the skin, which we have baseline have a
little bit more melanin and larger granule. So they
are actually more apparent. But that's one wavelength of
light that affects our ability to tan. There's a whole nother
wavelength of light that also damages our skin, damages the
DNA within the skin. And although the melanin does give
us some protection, right, it's not fully protected. We look at
people like Bob Marley. He died of melanoma. So it's something
that's very serious for us that even children of color that we
as African American children need to have sunscreen on us
daily SPF 30 or higher what we tend to recommend and even
though some of the more what we call physical sunscreens.
So these are things with zinc and titanium in them tend to
give us more of a sheen. All right. This kind of white
ghostly appearance that we don't love, right. And it's can
be challenging to put on our skin even nowadays they're
getting better at micronizing these things and allowing them
to absorb into our skin better. So they're not as evident
because we really want to stay away from our skin from some of
these chemical sunscreens and try to find things without any
chemicals that are just purely based in zinc and titanium that
that are much safer for us in the long term. But we
absolutely should be wearing sunscreen even daily,
hyper pigmentation. So it's it's a really broad term.
It's it's a it's a general term to just described are darkening
of the skin. What causes hyperpigmentation the truth is
almost anything that happens to our skin can cause
hyperpigmentation were little children and we get cuts right
heels a little bit darker. Sometimes over several months
will look back and wonder where that cook body will absorb it.
Acne can cause hyper pigmentation eczema and that
can
cause hyper pigmentation psoriasis. Any the thing that
causes the body to heal, or have information can
then end up in over production of pigment in the skin and it
can be really challenging to treat the longer that we allow
these things to go on. And so I would advise that if if our
child was to develop some type of cut or scar sun protection
is
very important. Keeping the wound moisturizers is very
important. Even putting sunscreen on the area
afterwards is really important to prevent or get ahead of the
hyper pigmentation and then the same thing with some of these
other things like acne, eczema, psoriasis. If we notice these
things appearing in our child and we notice discoloration as
the end result, it's really important that you get in to
see someone as soon as possible to get treated
so they don't have as much or as long term sequelae
hyperpigmentation.
>> So yes, so what are keloids, right? That's a great question.
So keloids themselves are just an overgrown scar. So by
definition, it's a scar that grows outside of the of the
area that was injured. So if we get a cut, the scar then grows
beyond the borders of the cut that we had. Right. A simple
line now turns into something that several centimeters in
size. How did that happen?
If there's a genetic mechanism behind it, that the
African-Americans, we are are higher of higher likelihood to
develop right based on just purely genetics and
these things should they need to be addressed very early on
because they can be, unfortunately, a painful they
can be symptomatic itchy, they can be disfiguring. They can
have long-term psychological effect. So if we notice that
our child starts to develop any type of scaring that extends
beyond the area, that was actually, you know, cut or had
a
scrape to it. That's where we need to make sure we see a
dermatologist immediately. Because like most things,
if we can treat them very early, we can improve them
significantly.
So diet is very important in skin care. And we are learning
so much more about it right now. We're doing a lot of
studies actually in the GI system to identify the links
between what's going on internally and how it shows up
on the skin,
specifically for our children, for instance, the big
studies are surrounding what we call a topic dermatitis or
eczema.
These are people that are more. It starts in childhood
predisposed, though, to asthma seasonal allergies and eczema.
So these 3 things are closely linked, all 3 of them. So if
your child has asthma, if your child has seasonal allergies,
they're more likely to have eczema.
And so as far as dietary factors that go into that,
we used to think that trying these massive elimination diets
were helpful. trying to avoid all dairy, avoid all
milk, all products. And some of the newer data says that we're
actually doing more harm than good. So there's evidence that
some vitamin D supplementation may be helpful for overall
healthy skin in our diet. Now, moving ahead, an agent
definitely there are links between acne and our diet so
that the literature's consistent dairy and carbs are
the 2 things that are highly linked and we use. We always
think it's greasy food. If I eat greasy food, it's going to
make
my skin have more acne or break out. It's actually because a
lot of our greasy foods are fried foods are starches,
right? And so there's a lot of carbs and all of these things
and so low fat dairy, we should avoid in our teenage years
because they remove the fat and put sugar into the milk.
And that's why it it can flare are acne up and then and the
thing with a lot of carbs. So unfortunately, again,
that's where the bad guys. So pastas Rice's potatoes have
to just be careful. Obviously you have to enjoy life, too,
but just know that these things can be associated with flare
ups and in our breakouts and things of that nature.
I think it's important. We understand our children tend to
kind of underreport are symptoms as well. You know,
we don't tend to make as big of a deal about itching or burning
or pain. And we as people of color tend to
to not make as big of a fuss about it. You know, we have
lots of literature on this that discusses the disparities in
healthcare just based on that alone, right? If I don't make
enough noise and it's not necessarily taken as seriously,
right. It's important that we listen to our children, even if
they don't seem to make as a big of a deal as we would think
it would warrant being evaluated by a physician.
I think it's always important that we listen and early on.
It's going to are we we get these children seen. We get
them treated the earlier, the better because a lot of times
what happens with our skin is it's not the initial rash,
right, that that is the problem. It's the long-term
effects, the hyper pigmentation the last for months, 2 years.
And then we we're stuck in a cycle of treating with
lightning creams and and things of that nature. And these
things are just not.
>> They are not appropriate for the skin unless absolutely
necessary. First of all, majority of the issue is
common. Common common things that just go under diagnosed
misdiagnosed, under treated, mistreated because people just
don't know enough about skin of color and how to take care of
it. So it's really important that our children are heard
are taken seriously and then are taken to a professional,
can really understand what it takes to to take care of their
skin.