Going for a Night Out? Try Covering and Lightening Up Methods

Are you going out for a date? Or, are you invited to attend a party but don't know how to hide those irritating plaques and lesions? Instead of staying at home and licking your wounds for the constraints that our condition has brought us, you might find the following tips helpful in mitigating embarrassment.

Cosmetic Cover-Up
Experts recommend, with caveats, the use of cosmetic products such as masking cream or concealer as cover-up on the face and other affected areas. Not all cosmetic products, however, are helpful for camouflaging the redness of the skin. It does seem that the unsightly redness can be neutralized by creams containing green dye. You may want to ask your dermatologist for recommendations as to the best product that is suitable in your case.

Keep in mind that there are limits in using these cosmetic products. If you have open sores or you develop skin irritation, then you should never use them, or stop using them at once. Some psoriasis sufferers will not benefit from camouflage techniques, however. Severe cases where patches of skin are thick or scaly will not respond adequately to cover-ups. But well-controlled conditions where there are only brownish or slightly reddish spots can be helped quite satisfactorily.

Light Colors and Fabrics
One of the things that embarrasses us the most is when we find out that other people see flakes falling from our hair and sticking onto our tops. Ew… Thus, it is only practical for us to wear light-colored and light-patterned tops. Fabrics, such as silk and cotton, which provide more comfort when we wear them are better than wool, as the fashion guru Tim Gunn of Project Runway recommends. Linens, according to him, may not work as well because the surface texture is rather stubbly, making it slightly uneven and rough.

If cosmetic camouflage does not work, then tell the people who ask about the redness on your skin that you have psoriasis which affects at least one-percent of the Philippine population and up to three-percent of the world population. It is not merely a skin disease, but rather it is an auto-immune condition which runs in families. Assure them it is never contagious. And finally, tell them that they should thank their stars they do not suffer the condition.

Photo credit: Kaunokainen (flickr.com)