50 SHADES OF GREY: On Your Skin Picking Issues
Jun 19, 2012 Posted by Corrie Shenigo
Dear Mrs. Wasserfeld,
While I’m not one to hold a grudge these many years later, I would like to point out a fatal flaw in your “correcting” me after I rightfully smacked James Victor during a heated argument over the naming of the classroom hamster. I still stand behind the fact that “Fluffy” is an unimaginative and insultingly small nom de plume for the long-since deceased and beloved creature, but that is not why I’m writing. I’m writing to tell you that, as an adult, I have found fault with the playground wisdom you extolled on me that fateful day, “keep your hands to yourself.” Please note that I find it counter-productive to extol such a poorly thought out and false belief onto a child’s fragile mind, when it is so clearly not applicable to all circumstances. Sometimes keeping your hands to yourself is exactly what you should not do.
Respectfully,
Corrie Shenigo,
From your 2nd grade elementary school class, 1980-something.
Oh bucket list. I heart you. And now that that’s taken care of, let’s delve into a recent article courtesy of Marie Claire’s June 2012 issue, which expounds on the reason's exactly why you shouldn’t keep your hands to yourself… at least where your skin is concerned. In the article “Skin OCD,” the beauty tome takes a look at the constant obsession to excavate every little bump and blemish on our delicate facades, then – thankfully – turns it’s attentions to “outsmarting the urge” to pick and prod.
So why? Why is it that a scab makes your fingers twitch? An ingrown hair is flat out irresistible to your prying touch? A stray eyebrow can cause a virtual mowing down of all of your eye fringe? Why is it that some people can simply not leave their skin alone when they spot a blemish?
Holistic New York facialist, Elena Rubin thinks she knows why, and she's even put a name to it: skinorexia. “When an anorexic person looks in the mirror she actually thinks she’s overweight.” Rubin goes on to explain that in the same way, “when someone is looking at her pores, she actually thinks there is something there (debris, pus, bacteria - oh my!) — even when there’s not.
There are shades of grey here people (and not the 50 that y’all are salivating over.) On the spectrum of Rubin’s so-called “skinorexia” scale, most of us are probably not sitting in front of our super-magnifying mirrors, picking ourselves into scabby, infected visages of our former selves. A lot of us, however, do feel compelled to pick at the least little evidence of a bump, itch or telltale red spot, and according to the article, this may be because we find self-worth in the perfection of our skin, instead of looking at it as a film screen projecting the effects of some of the stuff we’re inflicting on our insides (*Picking up wine glass for a sip.)
Rubin advises approaching the skin from a position of love instead of as a defiant enemy looking to thwart you with a zit at the least little mention of words like "class reunion" or "best-friends wedding". Then she proceeds to diagnose the causes of such specific skin woes as: small white bumps = over-active oil glands due to warm weather, dark circles = a need for more sleep and less wine, red mark on forehead = a sign the author’s body was fighting a UTI (which turned out to be true!)
While Rubin may have lost me at the “skinorexia” thing, she won be back with the idea that our skin is a map, giving distinct directions to finding your perfect balance of health and beauty. Think about that. The focus turns from fighting your skin, to healing your skin and finding the appropriate life-style changes needed to make the glowy, clear complexion of your dreams a reality. Once again LOVE conquers HATE. Let’s give it a go! (Even you Mrs. Wasserfeld.)
While I’m not one to hold a grudge these many years later, I would like to point out a fatal flaw in your “correcting” me after I rightfully smacked James Victor during a heated argument over the naming of the classroom hamster. I still stand behind the fact that “Fluffy” is an unimaginative and insultingly small nom de plume for the long-since deceased and beloved creature, but that is not why I’m writing. I’m writing to tell you that, as an adult, I have found fault with the playground wisdom you extolled on me that fateful day, “keep your hands to yourself.” Please note that I find it counter-productive to extol such a poorly thought out and false belief onto a child’s fragile mind, when it is so clearly not applicable to all circumstances. Sometimes keeping your hands to yourself is exactly what you should not do.
Respectfully,
Corrie Shenigo,
From your 2nd grade elementary school class, 1980-something.
Oh bucket list. I heart you. And now that that’s taken care of, let’s delve into a recent article courtesy of Marie Claire’s June 2012 issue, which expounds on the reason's exactly why you shouldn’t keep your hands to yourself… at least where your skin is concerned. In the article “Skin OCD,” the beauty tome takes a look at the constant obsession to excavate every little bump and blemish on our delicate facades, then – thankfully – turns it’s attentions to “outsmarting the urge” to pick and prod.
So why? Why is it that a scab makes your fingers twitch? An ingrown hair is flat out irresistible to your prying touch? A stray eyebrow can cause a virtual mowing down of all of your eye fringe? Why is it that some people can simply not leave their skin alone when they spot a blemish?
Holistic New York facialist, Elena Rubin thinks she knows why, and she's even put a name to it: skinorexia. “When an anorexic person looks in the mirror she actually thinks she’s overweight.” Rubin goes on to explain that in the same way, “when someone is looking at her pores, she actually thinks there is something there (debris, pus, bacteria - oh my!) — even when there’s not.
There are shades of grey here people (and not the 50 that y’all are salivating over.) On the spectrum of Rubin’s so-called “skinorexia” scale, most of us are probably not sitting in front of our super-magnifying mirrors, picking ourselves into scabby, infected visages of our former selves. A lot of us, however, do feel compelled to pick at the least little evidence of a bump, itch or telltale red spot, and according to the article, this may be because we find self-worth in the perfection of our skin, instead of looking at it as a film screen projecting the effects of some of the stuff we’re inflicting on our insides (*Picking up wine glass for a sip.)
Rubin advises approaching the skin from a position of love instead of as a defiant enemy looking to thwart you with a zit at the least little mention of words like "class reunion" or "best-friends wedding". Then she proceeds to diagnose the causes of such specific skin woes as: small white bumps = over-active oil glands due to warm weather, dark circles = a need for more sleep and less wine, red mark on forehead = a sign the author’s body was fighting a UTI (which turned out to be true!)
While Rubin may have lost me at the “skinorexia” thing, she won be back with the idea that our skin is a map, giving distinct directions to finding your perfect balance of health and beauty. Think about that. The focus turns from fighting your skin, to healing your skin and finding the appropriate life-style changes needed to make the glowy, clear complexion of your dreams a reality. Once again LOVE conquers HATE. Let’s give it a go! (Even you Mrs. Wasserfeld.)