Comfortable in my own skin // how to treat wax burns

Disclaimer: photos in this post may not be eye-pleasing and some may find disturbing. 

This is a very different kind of blog post to my usual. I normally post photos and blog posts that are all about how glamorous life and fashion can be. Sadly, that's not always the case and I am very proud of myself for sharing this post to the whole world when initially I had only been able to show photos of the incident to the people very close to me. I started blogging not only because I liked taking pretty pictures of my outfit and uploading to Instagram but also because I wanted to share my genuine experiences in life that may not all be 'pretty' and show that there is more to my Instagram and Instagram in general than just fashion. With Instagram, people have become their own worst enemy, body shaming themselves and never really happy with how they are because they think they should look a certain way. This is heartbreaking. With that being said, I want to break this cycle and show you photos of myself that are NOT attractive or Instagram worthy and it's okay because the most important thing in this doomful technological age I think is self confidence and NEVER letting anyone or any platform put you down.

A while back I was complaining about breakouts on my face and wanted a quick solution. I started using 'ACNELYSE' which is a Turkish brand for treating acne that a doctor recommended. I was warned that my skin would become extremly sensitive and thin due to the cream that would cause my skin to peel, but this fact completely slipped my mind when I had arrived at my upper lip waxing appointment.
The term 'SKIN LIFTING' up until that point had been foreign to me, and instead of finding out what it meant by googling it or watching youtubers talk about it like I do with everything else, I learnt the term the very hard way; by painfully going through it first hand. Lifting is when wax pulls off both live and dead skin. When the therapist pulled off the wax strips I did not feel anything different, it was the usual slight pain that a lip wax would be like. But when I looked into the mirror I knew something had gone terribly wrong... You could see the whole upper layer of my lips was gone. Because I was so terrified that something was wrong, I left the shop immediately and being the person I am I casually walked into Primark acting like nothing was wrong. It was 1 minute after this fake shopping stroll that I tried to open my mouth slightly for some reason and I felt the most excruciating pain, it was as if someone had ripped my lips off. I immediately started crying and frantically trying to facetime my mum for help but she wasn't answering (as usual!). I literally sprinted to Boots pharmacy and the only thing the pharmacist said was to use an anti septic cream called 'Savlon' and that is all I could really do....... I was NOT having that. She pissed me off as she was utterly useless in trying to calm me down even though she saw how distressed and panicky I was.
I know some people may read this and think I am a drama queen, and frankly I may be that exactly. But to be completely honest, I don't mind people thinking that, as from a very young age, my mum had always taught me the importance of looking after my face. As with old age, our hair falls out and our bodies change inevitably. Yet my mum had always taught me, you can never tell a person's age if they have good skin and that is so true. Skincare is so underrated. After becoming a bit obsessed with having perfect skin like my mum and other beauty bloggers (something which I am yet to attain but will update you on that If I ever do manage to get it ha😓). The reason I became SO worried and manic (understatement honestly) about this incident is my fear of developing marks and scars on my face which are results of wax burns. If this happened, my dream of perfect skin would actually be flushed down the toilet.

 Photo of my upper post a few hours ↴

1st STEP IN TREATING A BURN -----> Savlon anti septic cream. (Purchase HERE)
This is SO important so the wound does not get infected.
2nd STEP -----> A soothing and calming cream: Aqueous Calamine Cream (Purchase HERE)

Photo of when it started to scab ↴

3rd product----> I used Acriflex skin cooling gel which helped decrease the burning heat sensation I was experiencing. (Purchase HERE.)

4th & 5th products: now these are THE HOLY GRAIL products that I swear by and that helped heal my wound within  5 days no joke. I would apply Guinot 'Longue Vie Cellulaire' which is a skin renewing treatment and around an hour after I would use Fucidin (this is prescription only, but you can click here to start a consultation). I would perform these steps once a day and once a night, which rapidly helped my skin heal.

Throughout this process, I cannot stress enough how important it is to NEVER expose the wound to the sun as this is what causes marks and scarring. That's why I would apply a very high SPF sunblock (Guinot Newhite Brightening UV shield SPF 50) that would turn into a concealing cream when rubbed in (INSANE I KNOW, purchase HERE.) I literally walked around London for 5 days with this mask on my face and I did it so confidently you would think I'm an absolute nutter. (P.s Although at some times, I would feel a bit broken and down.)
I had people stare at me like a weirdo and even a bus driver say madam and point to my lips when I first had a thick layer of anti septic on. I've learnt from this, that I will never ever stare at a person if they have some deformity or some kind of scar on their face because some people might not be able to be as strong and brush the stares off their shoulder like I did.

Day 5: Final stages of healing ↴

All the creams for reference ↴

Photo: Jersey Beauty Company

Now it's been over 3 weeks and I have NO MARKS OR SCARS. Thank God, I am so blessed to be able to say that and I pray for anyone who has suffered from worse conditions such as acid attacks. 

It took a lot of guts to post these images but I am always trying to grow and hope to at least help one person out there that might be going though the same thing or even similar. 

How to prevent skin lifting:

1. Do not wax or thread the face if you are on ANY acne medication/ creams like Roaccutane or similar products.

2. Make sure to always wax or thread one small part, leave for a few minutes and check how your skin has reacted before moving on to another area.

3. Do not wax or thread if you have any kind of burn from the sun or any other cause. 

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Leave me a comment below if you have any suggestions of other creams or techniques that are also helpful or if you have experienced this horrible process too!

                                                                                                      Love you & leave you for now,
                                                                                                                                            Maysoon xo