Summer Skin Tips: Sunscreen Myths Busted!

Introduction to the Wellness Watch 0:00

The African-American Wellness Watch. Trusted information for us, by us. Dr. Mike Lenore and other experts from around the country and around world have the latest on how you and your family can get healthy and stay well. It's time for the African American Wellness watch. Welcome to the wellness watch, I'm your moderator George Strait. Well, summer's here and we're outside in the sun a lot more, but is our skin and our hair ready for it? If not, we are going to get you ready. Dr. Mack is here. Doctor Melanie Macklin, star of stage, screen and everything that has to do with black skin, and hair care.

Yes. It's an absolute pleasure to have you with us. Oh, it's absolutely a pleasure and I'm excited for the opportunity. And Mr. George, I am ready to rock and roll and share some great wellness tips for your audience. Perfect. Perfect, okay. So where do we start? I mean, it's summer, we're out in the sun. Let's talk about suntan lotion first. Oh, first and foremost, that is the most important thing because it is sunny outside. The sun is emitting these lovely ultraviolet rays. We usually say UV for short.

There are UVA rays, which I say A for aging. And then there's UVB rays, where those are rays that emit a shorter wavelength. And those can cause more burning, hence skin cancers.

Sun Protection for Skin and Hair 1:32

So no matter if the, I think George's a myth out there is that if you have a darker skin complexion, that you don't need ultraviolet protection. You don' need sunscreen. Well, That's an absolute myth. We all do. No matter, if your skin types one, which is the lightest skin type or skin, type six, which is of the darkest tone. Regardless, George, we need the sunscreen. And we to look for suntan lotion, sunscreens, as we call it, with an SPF, which stands for sun protection factor. We need to for ones that are at least a minimum of 30. By the American Academy of Dermatology, We recommend at at 30, especially during the summer hot months.

You may be able to get away with more of a SPf 15 in the winter months and so forth. But the 30 is really, that's 30 times more protection that you're getting when you are outside. And wanting to look for a broad spectrum, meaning... What does that mean? Broad spectrum meaning our ultraviolet rays are ultra violet A, ultraviolent B, and ultra-violets C. So you want to have something that has a wide spectrum that is going to cover all those bases. Honestly, George, even the fluorescent lighting where we sit in our office spaces, That's a form of ultraviolet radiation.

And we don't think about it because, of course, none of us have really been educated on it, and that's what I'm here to do. But yes, that why it's critical year round because in some capacities in your office space, you're under the fluorescent lighting. So SPF of at least 30 and you can wanting to slather that on every day. So I guess what you're saying is we need to put that on in the morning before we go out. Now, suppose we start to sweat or go to the beach, that kind of thing, how often does it have to be reapplied?

That's a great question because that's very critical. If you are outside, swimming or sweating, you will be more prone for that sunscreen to dissipate. and not be as effective. So get in the habit to reapply about every two hours, especially if you're in and out of water and heavy sweating. That was a very important question that you asked. On a day-to-day basis, you want to wake up and cleanse your face and you wanna apply a moisturizer with SPF, so that's very And if you go to the gym and sweat a whole bunch, even if don't go the beach, maybe you ought to do it after after your shower, right?

Absolutely. Once again, the skin color doesn't matter. You still are prone to ultraviolet damage that can go on. And it's a cumulative thing, George. I mean, as the years go one, more and more that you get it. have more sun exposure, it's a built-up sort of thing. And so your skin cells are constantly, as they're getting exposure to the ultraviolet, they are going to constantly stay damaged, even damaged deeper into the skin. You know, you talk about folks not paying attention to that message. Yes.

I'm guilty. I've had a couple of those things and they had to be removed. I mean, it wasn't a big deal, but it was stupid. Frankly, if I had listened to my wife, I wouldn't have happened. But I guess I'm like too many black men who don't listen to their wives. Better start a happy wife happy life. But if you've got a little splash on your face or your back or ears, what should we look for that may be problematic? Yes, no actually that's a great question because oftentimes we will just say oh here's the mole and we just bypass it or this is something on the skin.

I would always say start with at least snapping a picture whatever that you see that may look strange because that is great when you go to your doctor. But we think of it as like the ABCD. A for something asymmetrical meaning if you draw a line down the middle of does it look equal or unequal on both sides. B for the borders. Is the border crooked or is it smooth border? If it's crooked, there's likely something strange is happening there. And then C for color. Are there variations of black, brown, red?

Those are signs if there is multiple mixed colors that that's a problem potentially as well. Then D is for the diameter. How big is this area? Is it growing in size? But these are all things that a person needs to be aware of and certainly go and see their dermatologist, specifically a dermatologists board certified that can look at these lesions. You know, you may be able to show your regular internal medicine doctor, whatever, but you want to go to a specialist dermatology that we have a trained eye for looking at the sort of things and make sure you snap those pictures because What you may have seen earlier may look different when you take going to actually get that appointment because sadly it takes about sometimes two to three months to get an appointment with a clinical board certified dermatologist.

That's true. So let's talk about overall skin care and hair care given the summer months. like moisturizers and that kind of thing. I know that you talk an awful lot about what the sun not only can do to your skin, but also to you hair. Oh yes, yes. The sun, hair is a skin appendage is what we call it. So it's still an external sort of application of the skin and it needs ultraviolet protection as well. There's a lot of, if you know you're gonna be in that hot sun especially from the hours of 10 to 4 a.m.

I mean, 4 p.m., I'm sorry. Those are prime, the hottest heat index, prime rays of the ultraviolet spectrum. So, you know, there's some hairsprays that have the UV protection in there. Of course, hats are a great option. You want to look for wide rim hats. the ones that have a lot of straw or woven sort of, you know, the rays are going to get right through those sort, that sort fabric. So the white and hats. Um, and also you want to make sure that I know George, a of times women, when we go on these lovely vacations, we want go and get braids and braiding.

That's great. It's an easy, no maintenance. You're going into the beach and we can flop around the braides and whatever. But the braids actually can trap in not only the chlorine from the pools, the sand, just environmental elements. And so it's getting trapped in that braid. So if your hair is braided in the braid, your head is going to have some of that debris that's going be trapped there. It's tough for it to be thoroughly washed out. Even though the braids seem easy maintenance for these lovely vacations, they may be counterproductive because when you go home and you get the brace taken out, you may have a lot of external hair damage and break it and go on.

So you have to really be cautious about that type of style that's trapping a a of the sand and the chlorine and like. So what about moisturizing during the summer months? Because you go out and you sort of, you sweat a little bit, but that's not really moisturizing your skin. So I would guess that during summer month, I mean you've got ashy elbows and ashen knees. Right, the wonderful ashey knees and elbows. Well, those are parts of our body that have excess skin and that is important because those were the joints.

We need the excess skins to bend and so forth. But that also allows the buildup of a lot of old dead skin cells. And so those knees and elbows can look excessively dry. So you can reduce that by getting some sort of luffa sponge when you're showering to remove a of that old skin. You can get some body scrubs. But then as a day-to-day sort deal, you could look for products that have dimethicone in there. It's like a silicone base that just really helps to hydrate and trap in some of the moisture in the areas like the knees and the elbows, which are more prone to looking dry.

But once again, a lot of dryness is there because it's a a of a old dead skin that's flaking off so the skin is looking dried. So that is why the importance of exfoliation and then if you use something like dimethicone body lotions, they will trap in that moisture and actually smooth the surface, and it looks really nice. I mean, of course, a lot of people like the cocoa butters and all of those types. Whatever, I say whatever works best, the less ash, best. The better. Well, if I was reading something that you had written a while ago about, about the influence of diet, as far as keeping your skin healthy as well?

Yeah, well, I tell folks that you are what you eat. Your outer beauty is the reflection of an inner you. What's going on? We can look at someone's skin and see that they're not getting the proper nutrition. And it will reflect on the way that the skin can work, especially just even something as simple as water. Because the the is a largest organ in your body. and 75% of your body is made up of water. So the water is critical. It's gonna keep the skin cells hydrated. Nutrients are very important.

Fresh fruits and vegetables are critical, all those have great antioxidants and really can give a smoother skin tone. A lot of folks out there that are having skin issues definitely reflect on your diet. That was a great question, George. So let's wrap up this segment with what are your overall tips to making sure that your skin is healthy and your hair is helping during these summer months? Yes. Well, as we mentioned earlier, the importance of slathering on that sunscreen every day, SPF of at least 50. The importance having a skincare routine, George, because a lot of people don't.

We, you know, some folks are quick to hop in the shower and they'll use the same washcloth. that they're using on their body and use it on the face. And that's an absolute no, no and no. The washcloth is the haven for bacteria. So just imagine you're washing your body, and then now you are imparting whatever's on that lovely wash cloth onto your beautiful skin. You want to be cautious of that. I always say use your hands. Your hands have a great texture. Put some of your facial cleanser in your hand, rub it around and then wash it pat dry.

Moisturizing after that is critical. And once again, make sure you have that SPF in there. Just doing that twice a day is very important. Now, one thing that the ladies can do that's an extra added protection is I always say that you know, the last step in skincare for women to me is powder. You don't have to use a whole bunch of makeup if you don' want to, but the powder traps any of the external debris and bacteria, whatever that's on your hands or what's in the environment, so that that seals the pore.

So that once you get home to wash it off, you're washing off all of that old debris, and you wash that off into the sink instead of being able to absorb through your pores. That's a final step that women can do after they wash their face and moisturize. They can apply a thin layer of powder and it gives them a finished look as well. Now during the summertime, let's really stay off of a lot of the heavy makeups and so forth because they're just going to clog the pores more. Of course, unless we're doing a segment during a hot summer like we are doing now and we got to get camera ready.

We got a little bit more makeup on than you, but the pores are very important to keep them protected and keep from getting clogged up because that doesn't make for pretty skin complexion once the pours are clog. This is just terrific. It's great information. That's easy information to absorb, if you will. And frankly, it's the kind of information that keeps you young. Yes, that's right. Keep it simple. I like to just try to explain things, George, in a very simplistic manner, because as much as we know all of these fancy terms that are up here in my brain, I just like make sure to regurgitate the basic, informative information in as simple where a two-year-old can understand what I'm saying.

So as long as I've been able to relay the message like that, it makes me feel great. Well, a little bit more than two, and I get it. Well, you look lovely too. And I know our audience well as well. Dr. Mack, thank you so much for joining us. You're quite welcome. Thank you for having me. Just don't forget, we've got a couple of websites that you ought to be attuned to. That website is now up on the screen. Also you can get all of these tips and more from our website, which is www.aawellnessproject.org.

through both of those websites, you'll be able to keep your skin and your hair healthy this summer. I'm George Strait. Thanks for joining us. Well, that was great. That was good. We had 15 minutes. So that is just the right one. The next one is on just on hair. and sort of move some stuff around here. OK, I'm going to take you off the screen. We'll start number two. You have such great energy. Thank you so much. This is great. Right. A couple of weeks ago, George, you didn't want that document. I would be not appreciated for your segments here.

OK. Here we go. Welcome to the Wellness Watch. I'm your moderator, George Strait. Oops, one more. Hold on. Okay. Start again. Welcome to the Wellness Watch. I'm your moderator, George Strait. Well, among the physical things that set us apart gloriously from white folks is our hair. Taking care of it and keeping what we have is always top of mind. What are the best ways to do that? And what about those news reports about hair straighteners? Well, we had Dr. Mack to set us straight. Dr Melanie Macklin is a world renowned dermatologist, researcher, and consultant to the stars.

Hair Care, Shampooing, and Hair Loss 18:38

Doctor Mack, it's a pleasure. Pleasure. Thank you, George, for having me. This is wonderful opportunity. Always love giving great wellness tips to world. Well, let's start with something easy, then. Shampooing. What kind of products work best, and how often should we do it? Yeah, well, you know, with shampooing is very important. I know this is what a lot of us in our African-American culture don't like to hear, but we must wash our hair at least every week, at is something that we forget about.

It's not just the hair, it's the scalp. The scalp can build up with bacteria and yeast and can make the scout look extra dry and flaky. But that means that the scope is inflamed because it is flaking off. So we don't, you know, so we then we go and put some oils and lotions and things of that nature on the scouts. And that's only making the problem worse. George, shampooing once a week is very important. If someone is experiencing some dryness and flaking, there are medicated shampoos out there, head and shoulders.

But really, I say, look at the ingredients. So there's zinc pyrithione, selenium sulfide, salicylic acid. If you just go to the shampoo section and look for the medicaid shampoo, you can put that on the scalp. Leave it on there, even without wetting it first. Just apply some to the scalp, George. Leave on it for a good 10 to 15 minutes. Then wash it out with whatever's your favorite moisturizing shampoo is my favorite. Because the key is the moisture that's in the shampoo, because the medicated shampoos can be very drying to hair and to scalp.

So you use the Medicaid shampoo and then, of course, your regular moisturizing And so I think that's the real big take-home fact here, George, that a lot of people don't think about is the importance of using the medicated shampoo, especially if they're having an itchy or dry scalp. That's a very common problem in our culture. It's impossible actually to shampoo too much. Well, you can shampoo too much in a sense where if you're doing this on a daily basis. But really, it's just like, we wash every day.

We don't do our hair every, day because that's inconvenience for many of us because of our different hair textures and the like. There's really no such thing as washing too, much because at scalp builds up with oil and debris and so forth. I think its main take on fact is that we need to shampoo at least every seven to 10 days. All of this every two weeks, three weeks four weeks or months, that's just only gonna cause more problems and bacterial and yeast, what we call the pitiform yeast is the type of yeast that grows on the scalp.

What about a topic that is near and dear to my heart and to a lot of folks as well. We don't have as much up here as we used to. Yes, a lovely meaning that we all will suffer at some point in our lives, some folks sooner than later. But in the male population, the most common is many people have heard the word DHT, which stands for dihydrotestosterone. And that causes the follicles in and the scalp, and mostly men, but also women as well. However, it causes the scalp follicles to shrink. And so as a result, then hair can't grow out of those areas any longer.

So DHT is the common word that's thrown around. That stands for once again, the dihydrotestosterone. But so thinning hair is not just a problem for men? That's right. We can forget about women because there's a host of underlying reasons there. There's still DHT that we just spoke about for men. Women can have that issue as well. But also, iron deficiency anemia, where that, you know, the low iron caused that hair to shed and things like postpartum shedding, women that's just had a baby. During the times when she's carrying the baby for those nine months, a lot of that here is not shedding.

it's actually in the actively growing stage. So all of the hundred hairs on average that she was supposed to lose per day, she does it. If you count all those hundred hair that you technically should have lost every day while during pregnancy, then those lovely hairs start coming out once the baby and the hormones start to get back in balance. Also, we have thyroid issues, whether it is hyper or hypothyroidism can cause excessive hair shedding, causing the hair to be thin. There's medications, George.

Low-pressure medicines are very common. Folks that take high doses of vitamin A, those are common folks that have acne. They may be on high-doses of the vitamin and that causes a lot of shedding as well. And then also, we can't forget about nutrition. folks who have a yo-yo dieting. In today's time, there's all of these different diabetic medicines that are now being used for weight loss and it's just a fad. And I'm nervous, George, because when folks stop using these medicines and the body starts to change a bit, they can have a lot of hair shedding as a result.

So there's a lotta different factors that can cause the hair thinning, cause a hair technically is supposed to grow about two to three strands per hair follicle. But some of these underlying conditions can call for no hair to go out or maybe one strand to out grow out, or two. But not maybe the full three strands and so over time of having those different factors that can start looking thinner So there there are lots there. Are some products elements with lots, but there some that are out there that At least if you listen to the commercials, they either slow this this whole process down or completely stop it Set us straight here.

What works what doesn't work? What are the scans? Right. Well, there's a lot of scams out and I have to say that I You know, I've done a lot of research. This is one of my areas of expertise. I'm actually the pioneer US pioneer dermatologist that brought the whole concept George of taking something internally for helping to improve the hair. Helping to help help it to grow better. And so a lot of research studies behind certain nutrients that can target those hair roots to get them back stimulated so that the hair can start growing out a little faster, a lots thicker, filling in those bald and thin areas.

And, so, there are specialized nutrients, and actually they can be found in my product. I have Bella Nutri for women and Bo Nutria for men. Those are supplements. Now we talk about the scams. There's A lot of companies that have what I call become imposters, meaning they're just putting a fancy label over a basic multivitamin, George. That is the biggest scam in the world. They're calling it a hair, skin, and nail vitamin. And all it is is a multavitamins that they put a label on and called it hair skin and nails vitamin And so I like to caution our community about that because you can do what we call overdosing of vitamins.

So say you get a basic multivitamin and then you're taking the hair, skin, and nail vitamin. Now you are ODing because your taking basically the same product just labeled differently. You really have to be cautious of that. There's a lot of topical hair growth quote unquote products Quite frankly, unless it's something medicated such as Rogaine, which comes in a topical formulation, although that just stimulates a lot of just baby fine hair. It doesn't really do much for getting that thicker hair strands going out.

And if you stop using it, it falls out? Right, because it acts to what we call help to improve the blood flow in those areas. But of course, if you stop using it, the blood flow slows down or decreases or diminishes completely. And then that lovely hair, well, like I said, a little baby fine hair that was there, that comes out. But there's a lot of topical products out there that save hair growth. You got to be cautious because the scalp is very thick. The dermal papilla where the hair follicles actually the hair root stem cells emerge from deep in that thick scalp, it's way down.

So that topical product is not really absorbing deep enough through the scalp to really do anything. You're going to end up basically ruining your fingertips trying to rub in these top of products and not doing anything anyway. An awful lot of folks who are watching this use chemical hair straighteners. Yes. And there's been some recent reports about links to cancer and all the rest of that stuff. So let's talk a little bit about hair straighteners and what those new reports really mean. Yes, George, this is actually a near and dear subject matter.

I've been talking about the adverse effects of hair chemicals for now over 25 years. Those folks that listen to me and caution about their hair relaxers, they They're not having as many problems as those folks that are using the chemo or have used, especially when they're used too young, because it starts to affect the hormone system and so forth. And so we do know that the use of hair chemical strains can cause early puberty before the age of 10, early menses before age 10. can cause benign uterine fibroids and they can start just as small and then they could just get larger with consistent use of the chemicals.

It can lead a woman to an early hysterectomy before she's 40 years old. And then also the infertility that can be associated. But really, George, one of main harsh things is the especially with the different NIH study, especially that came out in 2019, talking about the association of the hair chemical straighteners and even hair dyes associated with uterine cancer, ovarian cancer and then breast cancer. Breast cancer was not something that we commonly got in our African American community. But we commonly use chemical straighteners.

And then we have a double whammy, because a lot of us are using hair dyes as well. Historically, we really didn't use hair dies. That was something that was more commonly used in non-African-American races. But now we're doing everything. We're going to hair ties. we do the chemicals. and we are really doing too much. I say this. Chemical-free curls for healthier girls. If anything, let's keep the chemicals away from our baby girl scalp, because that early exposure, George, is what's causing a lot of the issues.

Those chemicals are getting through that scalp. They're burning scalp because women know what I'm talking about. You feel the burn. It's going through the scalp and it's getting into the highly rich blood supply scalp which is getting in the main bloodstream and that's causes endocrine disrupting hormones. So it's affecting the hormones to the point where you are getting these, what I mentioned early about the fibroids and the early menses and early puberty, and then the increased risk for the uterine ovarian and breast cancer.

So we just really have to be careful. If in fact someone is really, because I'm hearing that there now is a re-emergence of women's interest in getting hair relaxes because the tough nature of what it takes in order to maintain more natural hair, a lot more time consuming. So I say this for those women. Well, first of all, we're going to keep the chemicals off of the little girls, OK? When I said that, 18 and below as a parent, no chemicals. Now, once they're 18, they can decide what they want to do.

They're legal at that point. But I tell the parents, let's keep chemicals of little girl. For adults that are still wanting to use the chemical, I would hope that you don't have any of these pre-existing issues that I've already mentioned, because certainly you want further increase your risk of getting these sort of harsh cancers and things of that nature. But if someone does not have like the family history or personal history of cancers, and infertility and fibroids, then if they choose to still use hair relaxers or hair dyes, at least protect the scalp.

you coat that scalp with a heavy base so that then no matter what chemical that's being put on the scalp, there's a reduced risk of it absorbing through that scout. That's the main thing is the scout is, is entryway George, that these chemicals are getting through the scope and causing a lot of these harsh effects. So protect that scope. Let's not just focus always on hair. Think about the scalping and the scalp is skin. and it's highly basculine. It has a very rich blood supply and can get us in trouble.

Some of the most beautiful hairstyles that African-American women have is when they go bald. Yes. But it can also be a disease, an issue that can cause people to go bold. Talk a little bit about alopecia. Yeah, alapecia is really a medical term for hair loss. But there's different types. We group it into a category where there is either non-scarring or scarring. When we talk about non scaring, we're talking about things that are related to low eye deficiency anemia. Someone that has postpartum hair shedding, for example.

An immune disorder that just cause that what we call alopecia areata where just causes a patch of in a circular form to just come out and we don't really know why stress related we really don' know. But then there's also. alopecia that can occur, alopesia totalis, where we've lost not only the alapecia, I mean, the hair on our head, but also, you know, eyebrows, eyelashes. And then there's alapesia universalis where, we just lost the hairs from our heads to our toes. There's no hair anywhere. Now, let's talk about the scarring types and the scarring types of some that are permanent hair loss.

I means, it's scaring of the air follicles. And there's certain autoimmune disorders such as lupus, what we call viscoid l Lupus is a is the skin version of lUPus that can cause a lot of patchy, scarred over hair loss on the scalp. And it's a whole laundry list of other type of medical conditions that cause the scarring alopecia. But something that's more common that can cause scarring of the hair follicles and under the scaring alopecia is traction alapecia, tension alapecia where someone is either having too tight of a ponytail or they're having to tight a braid where it's really pulling it and flaming the hairline to the point that there's a scar that results in that area of where the pulling and tugging happens.

So I always say this, if a woman is wearing a ponytail, please try to, or even to the child, Please don't have it so tight where you can, If you're feeling that it's tight, that means that the nerves are activated, which are around the hair follicle. And that's the problem. Because of the nerve are activating, we're going to possibly be in trouble to a point where it is going shut down that hair fallicle and cause complete hair loss, and scarring. So are there medications for alopecia? Well, first, you have to really figure out, well, what's the underlying reason?

Oftentimes, if we figure that the underlined reason is the tight braids, for example, let's not do the type braid so that then let us see if the area is fortunately not scarred. Maybe we can start trying to get some of those hair follicles revived. But there's textbooks, George, on the whole hair loss. And that's just something that has been a real passionate topic for me. So I've read them from cover to cover. But a person really would have to really try to figure out, well, why are they having this issue?

And really tackle it from that point. Then that will take you down the lane of trying to find out what's going to work best. for ones that are non-scarring that we were talking about. If, you know, once the woman delivers a baby, the hair starts to grow back. Once the deficiency anemia is corrected, then the haircut can start going back once a person's thyroid levels are got, have got under control. Then those hair can to come back if there's on some medications and blood pressure medicines or high dose vitamin A that's causing the hare issue.

Of course, you don't just stop your blood pressure medicine. You would consult with your doctor first. They may switch the medicine, some that have a less risk of the hair coming out. But yet you really have to zone in on why you're having the underlying reason for having alopecia. And that can help to better cater to how the treatment plan will be. This is great stuff. It's so needed.

Healthy Skin Basics and Acne Care 36:48

Frankly, it's the kind of material that too often our communities don't get to hear. That's what I'm here for. Well, that's why we're so happy that you agreed to come. Yes. Really, really important. Dr. Macklin, thank you so much. You're a lifesaver for an awful lot of folks. Thank you. I would love to continue to be that way. Indeed. Remember, you can get a lot of this information on our website at aawellnessproject.org. That's aaWellnessProject dot org. And also, we link to Dr. Mack's site as well.

So I can not only get the tips from her, but also she has a number of products that she recommends that might just be right for you. Thanks to Doctor Mack again, and thank you for watching. That was great. Especially the stuff on hair straighteners is just so needed. Yeah, that's a whole two-hour show. I was just trying to get the bits and pieces. It's funny, when I growing up, my mother had straight hair and basically straight. She didn't use a hot comb or anything. And I was the only child, so there were no girls in the family.

And the first girl that I started to date, I went over to her house. I guess I'm a little early, and I smelled this stuff burning. So I said, what is that? And she said you don't have any girls or family, do you? Right. You were smelling the sulfur from the hair, the heat from a hot comb. That's right. The sulfur that was in the head. And that's what lovely smell is. She said, this is what I go through to prepare for when you come over. I said hey. He's like, hey, do what works for you. Exactly right, all right?

This one is a relatively short one, but we're just going to sort of talk in general about tips for healthy and healthy looking skin. So it's moisturizers and do your dermatologist and sort that kind of thing. Let me move this over here. Hmm. Okay. Welcome to the Wellness Watch. I'm your moderator, George Strait. Quick question. What's the largest organ in your body? It's your skin. And did you know that it replaces itself entirely about once a month? So how do we take care of it in between times, and particularly African-American skin?

Because we are special. No one knows more about this than our guest, Dr. Melanie Macklin. Dr Mack is a brilliant researcher. She's a dermatologist and a lecturer on the subject of keeping black hair and skin well. Doctor Mack, thanks for being here and welcome. Yeah, no, thank you, George, for having me. This is wonderful opportunity and I always love to give great wellness tips to keep us well. How about that? Indeed you do. So Dr. Mike, let's sort of start with, give us your top tips, to maintain a healthy and healthy looking skin.

For instance, what about my ashy knees? What do we do about those? Right. Well, we all want to have the ashey knees because we want all to figure out what to do with them, okay? That includes ourselves as well as our children. But no, I think just in general, we have to maintain a good daily grooming practice, George, which sadly a lot of people don't. Some people do not know. They may not shower every day or every other day, or week or whatever, but it is very important because your skin holds a It can get a lot of bacteria, a lotta yeast growth on there.

So it's very important to have a proper cleansing routine on a daily basis. And then after that, you wanna make sure that you're doing some sort of proper moisturizing as well so that we can reduce our risk for those lovely ashy knees and elbows. There's so many different products in the marketplace that can be used for moisturizing the skin. And I say, look, whatever's your favorite and you like, I love it. As long as you don't have any sort of reactions to them. A lot of products, George, it's very important to remember, they contain fragrance.

And fragrance is probably the number one main issue for allergenic reactions, to occur. So if you find yourself using a moisturizer, you're getting a little itchy or an area of the parts that you've been using it start to look a low extra dry or red, Then there may be something in that moisturizer, because it is left on the skin. It's allowed to absorb more. That's actually causing some harmful effects for you. So people are product junkies, especially us women. We just like to use a whole bunch of stuff and slather on whatever.

But I caution with using a hole bunch different products. Use one at a time. so that you'll be able to assess whether or not you have a problem with that product or no. If you're using all these different things and a lot of different makes of products, you really don't know what's causing your problems. So if you going to be a product junkie, just say, look, I'm going use this one this week. And then I'll use one the next week so then you can really zone in on if it's costing you a problems So more products is not necessarily better.

No, more is just making you more broke. Because a lot of these lovely skin products have a lovely higher price tags. And that's another thing we think, some of us think rather, that the higher amount that we pay for a product, the better that it works. I beg to differ, because I say look at the ingredients. There's a lots of different ingredients out there that may be in some at your big beauty supply or the store, retail stores, the Nordstrom or The Macy's or whatever, and you're spending all this money in that same ingredient, I can show you and tell you what to get right at you local Target or Walmart.

It's all about looking at the back of the label at ingredients, George, because it can really save your pockets. You know, you were talking about the cleaning a few seconds ago, some of the materials that you've written really talk about the difference between what you use to clean, say, in the shower. You know, it's not just one cloth. I guess what your saying is that there are various ways to cleaning your body and there various materials you should use, right? Yes, yes. So, for example, we shouldn't be using the same wash cloth that we wash our bodies with on our face.

That's just transmitting the bacteria that's on your lower half of your body up to the fragile skin that is on the face, so one of my favorites to use for your face is your hands. Your hands have a great texture, you put some of the facial cleanser on you hands and you wet your hand, put the cleansers and wash around in circular motions and pat to dry and other materials that you mentioned that are in the luffa category, which have a more rough texture, if you will, that help really exfoliate a lot of the old dead skin, because skin cells turn over like every two weeks.

So the more we can kind of keep the skin cell sloughed off, The more the skin is going to have a better glow, it's not going look as ashy and dry. You know, we want to reserve the facial scrubs for maybe once a week or so. We don't want overdo it because the face is very thin and it can get very irritated. Your body is thicker. So you can use that loofa sponge on a day-to-day basis on your body because it is a thicker skin. Now let's say a word of caution about the loofah sponges, because of course you're removing old dead skin cells, George.

It's getting trapped in that tightly woven scrub material. So you want to make sure that you cleanse those properly and you hang them to dry. Just don't leave it on the shower floor or the side of the tub. You want it to hang this to drive because the more moisture that is getting tracked into that loofer, the more bacteria and mold that's going to grow in there. So I love the luffas, but make sure that you're being very aware of how to keep it nice and clean from a hygiene standpoint so that don't transmit that bacteria.

You scrubbing more back to your in your skin. We're been counterproductive there, so yes. What about care for your lips? Oh yeah, you know, a lot of us will forget about the lips will quickly, Reaching our pocket or our purse for some chapstick. Well, you know what? You may not have to use chapsticks if every day you take, when you're brushing your teeth, brush your lips. The lips still have some thin skin there that needs to be exfoliated off, and it'll just smooth out the lips as well. But also, we can't forget about our lips when it comes to sunscreen.

Our lips are highly prevalent, especially in our community, for getting lip cancer. Our lips still have melanin in there, which is the melanocytes and that ultraviolet rays can get through our lips because the lips, what we call non keratinized skin. So it's, it doesn't surface on our skin is not the same. It doesn' have that outer layer on your lips which makes it more prone for the ultra violet rays to affect those lips and can lead to a melanoma on the lip. They put them now in lipsticks and lip balms.

So that's even more important than just your basic chapstick. If your lips are needing chapsticks, they'd just dry and they just need to be exfoliated. Get that toothbrush and do what you need do every day. Let's talk about a common skin problem, that is acne. But before we talk, what I'm going to do is show one of your videos where you talk tips to deal with this. Yes. OK, we'll pick it up. So Dr. Mack, that was terrific. Let's talk about some medications for acne. I guess that there are a lot of them out there from topical creams to prescriptions.

Yes. And some of the basic things that you can get at your drugstore if you have mild case of acne, you could look for products that have benzoyl peroxide. They have benzolyl Peroxide wash. They're lead-borne benzoyl peroxide gels and creams that can be used topically. And, you know, I always say save the benzoperoxide products for the nighttime because, of course, it can cause some irritations if you're out in the ultraviolet, the sun rays. There's products that have salicylic acid. They help to exfoliate a lot of the old dead skin around those pores by which the acne is starting in those, in, at those pours.

The more that you can kind of unclog those areas with the salicylic acid, that's going to help with acne as well. Now, over the counter is probably for some people reserved if you have mild forms of acne. But if your hormones are really causing the acne surge and you're getting some pustules, some whiteheads and blackheads, then that calls for more prescribed medications And in those cases, oftentimes we'll use oral antibiotics like erythromycin and tetracycline, and you've heard of lots of those types of antibiotics.

And then we use a class of medicines called retinoids. The retonoids are really kind of a form of chemical base of vitamin A that helps to remove a lot of that old dead skin and unclog some of the pores from a prescription strength, if you will. There are some over-the-counter retinoid type of products, but of course, they're not the same strength as you would get from your prescription from you dermatologist. Then there's a whole cosmetic lane for helping with acne as well, the microdermabrasion, there is lasers.

But one thing that we don't want to do, which I know is a habit that people have is If they see an acne month they want to pick it George we can't do that because it's just going to cause acne pits just like I said so don't pick so that you don' t get the pits and they look like little you know indents in the skin. That that are scars basically from from the picking. Now, there are types of acne that can go deeper into the skin, what we call cystic acne. So those ones that, you know, the areas that are more red and flame, they're deeper in the scan.

Now those can lead to a lot of the acne pits as well in deeper scarring. It's important that a person goes to see their dermatologist if they are having serious outbreaks of acne, because it can not only affect the face, it could be on the chest, arms, back. When it goes widespread like that, we want to really kind of go to the dermatologist and get some real treatment there so that we don't have a lot of the scarring and the adverse darker marks and things of that nature that go along with the acne side effects.

I remember talking to one acne expert who said, especially severe acne doesn't just scar the skin, it also sometimes scars the soul. Because people feel bad about not the way they look and shouldn't. Yes, the psychological effect. And that, honestly, George, goes with most hair and skin issues because we can physically look at what's going on on the skin. We can basically look what is going in the hair. If there are problems there, it can certainly affect our mind. So that's why it's very critical that you seek treatment, evaluation and treatment so that we could protect that mind and keep a healthy mindset about who you are.

And that's what you do so effectively. Oh, thank you. I mean, there's just a joy in what, you say is a journey and what. You've learned is the joy and in. What you give to our community. Yeah, but I love people helping I have had a passion for. That's why I had my whole ask Dr Mac platform that I've had celebrating 25 years George of doing that on radio and television and like. It's just my passion for helping people. I said, you know, God granted me the capability of being, being an African-American dermatologist because it's not that many dermatologists, number one, and let alone being a black one.

So I feel that, can give you some over-the-counter tricks of the trade that because a lot of our community, quite frankly, cannot get to a dermatology. And so that's why I felt that I was put here on this earth to be able to at least give some great over the counter tricks with the trade instead of folks going to Dr. Google, because Dr Google can get someone in a lot of great trouble. A lot things that what looks like on the skin may be a plethora of about 10 or 20 things. So you want to get to a credible dermatologist that can evaluate whatever's going on.

Dr. Google wasn't put here on Earth to take care of us. But thankfully, you were. And thanks for sharing not just your expertise, but also your passion. Dr, thank you very much. Thank you, George, for having me. And remember, you can get a lot of these tips on our website at aawellnessproject.org. That's aaWellnessProject dot org. And you'll also find links to Dr. Mack's website and all of her products as well. Again, it's aaaWellinessProjec. org and also on the screen, You'll see Dr Mack website as Well.

Uh, again, thank Dr Mac for sharing her expertise and her passion with us. Thank you for watching. Okay, just hold on one second, I'm gonna do a couple of cutaways here. Okay Dr. McCombs, what I need you to do is just look at the cameras if I am asking a question, we'll do couple cut aways with you. That's great. So this has been a very productive hour. Yeah. Let's see. I see 56 minutes up there. What time is it? Oh, 530. We're an hour on the nose.