#moderndayheroes

As a young and broke college student with unforgiving skin, it is very frustrating to try out different products you see in beauty and wellness shops hoping that it would be the answer to my blemishes, only to find out that it doesn’t work on my skin or worse, it only worsened my skin. Setting an appointment with dermatologists is kind of out of the option because it costs a lot and it will definitely dent a week’s worth of allowance. And so I just repeat the cycle of buying another product and hope that it will be it. But when I think about it, if I sum up all the wasted products I bought, I think that would be worth a couple of appointments with a derma already. And so all I’m left with are my blemishes and a 12% value added regret.

Fortunately, I came across two sent-from-above accounts on twitter.

Dr. Erin Tababa and Dr. Winlove Mojica are both dermatologists who both share their expertise on social media. They go by usernames @thenerdyderma and @theskinsensei respectively. They answer questions from the netizens who are eager to score an expert’s opinion on different skin concerns and products as well, and they also debunk common “miskinceptions” about caring for the skin that have been passed in a number of generations. Both of their accounts have continuously reached more audiences and gained followers which only proves that people tend to be more concerned now on their health and that they use social media not only for keeping up with their friends but also to seek professional advice for their health and wellness.

One of my favorite advices I learned from @thenerdyderma is how facial scrubs cannot remove blackheads. I was shocked at this revelation because I’ve seen lots of facial scrubs, both high-end and drugstore, that promise the removal of the omnipresent blackheads. I still remember how this fairly popular brand of apricot scrub have always been believed to be effective blackheads remover, only to be debunked many years later by @thenerdyderma, a diplomate of the Philippine Dermatological Society. She said that the beads in the scrub are too big to reach the roots of the blackheads therefore cannot possibly remove it. It could only go as far as reaching the surface level of the skin, which has nothing much to do in removing those little black insecurities.

On the other hand, my favorite advice from @theskinsensei is to never use calamansi on your face. The calamansi theory goes back from several ancestors ago. My lola still uses calamansi on her face but no matter how I convince her not to do this anymore, she just wouldn’t give in because she feels that it really benefits her skin. She also used to tell me to do the same when I was younger, when I first had pimples. I never did, though, because I was scared that it would be mahapdi. This centuries-old belief of our grandmothers was debunked officially by a credible dermatologist. This topic had gone viral because many people’s grandmas and mothers have mutually believed this. It was life-shattering, even perhaps a my-whole-life-was-a-lie moment. Now, I am even more thankful that I didn’t put calamansi on my face. As for my lola, well, I just think that I’ll let her be. For now. Or maybe I should start stealing all the calamnsis in our house, hmm?

I am very grateful that these two kind dermatologists have chosen to impart their knowledge through social media even if they don’t directly make profit from it. It is also timely that these professionals engage in wide-reached platforms especially now that skin care has become a bigger concern among the social media generations. It is a generous act for both of them to do what they do, and I just hope that they won’t get tired of answering questions because they don’t know how many people are being saved from harming their skins more because of their tweets and posts.

To end this blog, I just want to share this advice from @theskinsensei which I believe all people, especially myself, should be reminded about: