The healing process is the same if you get a scrap or have your skin intentionally injured during a cosmetic procedure. In each, the skin barrier is broken and your body needs to rebuild itself. Your body is designed to do this. This is a VERY important message. Your body knows how to heal and will do an excellent job if you provide NO additional help. We all must learn that message. What I see time and time again and why I started RESTORE, is in our attempt to speed healing with one magic potion or another, we actually do the exact opposite, we impede the process. The skin is the most fragile after injury. It will absorb more of whatever you put on it and is more easily irritated because of this increased absorption. Products that you think your skin loves when it is intact, it may hate when healing.
When healing, not only can the skin NOT keep things OUT, it also cannot keep things IN. Studies have shown that prevention of transepidermal water loss is a KEY factor in speed of healing. Basically this means you don’t want the wound to dry out. This is why dermatologists and plastic surgeons are always telling you to put ointment (Vaseline, Aquaphor, over the counter Antibiotic etc) on healing skin. These ointments are occlusive, prevent water loss and can aid in healing…..IF they do not contain ingredients your skin does not like. Unfortunately, many of them do. Essential oils, fragrance, lanolin, and even vitamin E are common causes of irritation on healing skin and should be avoided.
Also, most are petroleum-based. Petroleum is a thick oil that is occlusive, but the body cannot use the hydrocarbons for anything, they only sit on the top of the skin and prevent evaporation. Ideally, when you are healing you would have the benefit of occlusion to prevent water loss but also have ingredients the body can use during healing but not irritate. This is why I made RESTORE Healing Balm. It is thick to prevent water loss but made from Castor Seed Oil and Wax to provide important fatty acids the skin can use as it heals. It also contains glycerin, a powerful humectant, which pulls water back into the skin where it is most needed. Union Square Laser Dermatology just did a study looking at healing after C02 lasering using RESTORE Healing Balm vs Aquaphor. RESTORE performed better in every measure during the healing process. The article was published in the Journal of Drugs in Dermatology in 2018. The study is on our website.
After 10 years of seeing reactions to products advertised to help healing skin, I am building a brand of safe, effective, plant-based products to support the skin. These products can be used to speed the recovery process after a treatment or injury, or simply just used every day to make your skin better able to tolerate the retinols, acids, antioxidants or next big thing in skin care. We are not the miracle anti-ager, we are here to make sure your skin can tolerate whatever that happens to be! VG carries the first two products and has an exclusive with the face wash. Our face cream is just about ready, with a target launch in January 2019. All our products are made with only the highest-quality, plant-based ingredients proven to support the skin. They are clinically tested, hypoallergenic, and biodegradable in 100% recyclable packaging.
After every procedure performed in our office, we wash the face with Doctor Rogers RESTORE Face Wash and apply RESTORE Healing Balm. The follow up care thereafter depends on the depth of the injury and the length of recovery.
Please contact us if you have any questions by filling out this form or emailing us at hello@doctorrogers.com.
Meet the author: Board-certified and practicing dermatologist, Dr. Heather D. Rogers, MD, is the founder of Doctor Rogers Skin Care and Modern Dermatology in Seattle, Washington. She studied at Stanford, University of Washington School of Medicine and Columbia University Medical Center. She lectures nationally, is well published, and an active member of the American Academy of Dermatology. Highly respected among the skin care community, Dr. Rogers has been annually named “Top 1% of Most Honored Doctors in the US” by Castle Connolly.
