(ThySistas.com) Health challenges due to illness can mean taking a lot of different medications that can be difficult. Every woman wants to feel beautiful. Hair, nails, and skin are a very important part of one’s self image. In addition to what illness does to the body, medication can make one feel as though all vanity is lost once the side effects begin. I take looks of medication for a laundry list of illness. I found that my meds, that could no longer be adjusted, took a hard toll on my scalp which caused hair loss, and my skin. My skin reacted to some of my medication by behaving as if I had eczema. It was hard wake up and see dead skin, and the itching would be unbearable at times. I had been given many different creams to help calm all down the itching and sooth the burning.
However, my skin would be left dry, scaly, and just plain ugly. I was willing to try every lotion I could find, Vaseline and lots of cocoa butter but nothing seemed to moisturize my skin well enough. Nothing seemed to help the scarring that had occurred. All I knew was I hated being in public because being stared at is uncomfortable. I felt ugly and I could only imagine what others thought. I lost a lot of my strength, and hair…but my skin was my breaking point.
I love being a black woman, and being in a community of sistas. Eventually, an elder saw my skin and asked had eczema or medication. I told her I had the later and explained my situation. She informed me that I needed to blend butters. I needed moisturizing, and sealing oils. At this point I was willing to try anything to help alleviate my shame. I was introduced to shea butter, kokum butter, and mango butter; this was added to oils such as coconut, avocado, and vitamin e. I had never thought to bring natural oils and butters together to work on my skin. I looked into various essential oils that could aid in the healing while offering aromatherapy. The elder helped me understand the properties of each butter and oil, and we began to work on a recipe that would be good for my skin. I kept a journal of everything I was doing so that I could show my doctor’s what I was going to do about my skin issue.
The first thing I decided was no more creams. We looked at ingredients that would help with it itching so I would scratch my skin up to burning. I wanted to try doing this completely natural since I have to rely on medication for everything else. I will be honest I was hoping this would work, but I was also mentally prepared for it to fail. However, the time spent with the elder, and other sistas putting this together did my heart and soul good. They reminded me that beauty is more than my skin and hair. Though what I was going through was traumatic they reminded me that I’m smart, and beautiful with much to offer to the world.
I began using my butter & oil combination three years ago, and I’ve been with it ever sense. It took consistency in usage but in about a week I was able to see a noticeable difference in my skin. My skin was healing, and the itching was disappearing as I was able to keep my skin moisturized. The butters saved my skin, and what was left of my self image physically. The situation taught me to look to culture, and think outside of the medical box when things go wrong with my body. Yes, I take medication for a lot, but where nature can heal it is welcome.
Staff Writer; Chelle’ St James
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