Professional Skin: Interview Day

Dear Professionals:

Honestly, I live two lives: the life of a black, fairly-social 24 year old and the life of a hermit. The fairly social life is glittered with bars, clubs, poetry cafes, local concerts and networking events. The life of the hermit is spent scratching for hours at a time. The amount of time that I spend living each of these lives is dictated by one thing: my skin.

Upon graduation from college, I decided to enter the professional world of corporate america. Since the only thing I really care about is books, I was sure that publishing was the industry for me. Moving to the big apple was something my skin did not agree with. I am not sure whether it is the waste facility burried beneath the state park 5 blocks from my brownstone, whether it was the germ infested subways and stations, or if it was just the daily pollution of 5 million people. Whatever it was, New York was not kind to my eczema.

But, I had less than a thousand dollars left, and no employment. I had to interview for jobs. My skin begin reacting in ways that I deemed humanly impossible. But, I had to interview.

Here are a few things that saved my life:

• Ladies Scarves-- while initially used to cover apparent rashes and scars on my neck, eventually I discovered that the pressure from a tightly wound scarf actually dismisses any feelings of itchyness
  
• Foundation-- foundation can be a blessing and a curse. It may be effective at temporarily masking rashes and dead skin, it may also lead to future breakouts. My recommendation, stick to liquid foundation avoid powders.
• Oatmeal Mask-- a quick oatmeal mask in the morning, gently removes dead skin without scratching, rubbing, ripping.

These aren't the perfect remedies... but if you wake up and your skin has flared up beyond your expectations. You can't cancel your meetings. You can't miss your interviews. You can't run to get a steroid injection shot, without an appointment, before work. Sometimes, you just have to make do.

Love,

Lhea J.