Stopping Old Skin Game From Turning Deadly

Bonnie Holmes was just 26 years old when doctors diagnosed a small growth on her face as skin cancer.

After they removed the first malignancy, three others appeared. Doctors were alarmed to see so much skin cancer in someone under 30. Holmes knew her skin was in trouble, and she knew why.

“I baked in the sun when I was young,” she says.

Fifteen years later, Holmes’ fair Irish skin is clear and trouble-free, betraying none of her ill-spent youth.

“I got into skin fitness,” Holmes says. “Within two months of really being deliberate, my skin changed enough that I got off foundation. As I went in for my annual checkups, doctors saw fewer things. Now there’s nothing left except superficial wrinkling.”

Just as failing to exercise will cause the body to lose its shape, so failing to properly work out the skin will lead to a troubled complexion plagued by wrinkles, cancer and sun spots.

With polluted air and stronger ultraviolet rays penetrating a shrinking ozone layer, skin today requires a special fitness regime.

“Toxins build up in the pores so that the skin has no life in it,” says Ilona Neszaros, founder of Ilona of Hungary skin salons. Neszaros recently flew in from Denver to offer free skin analysis at her salon in South Coast Plaza’s Crystal Court, Costa Mesa.

“In the 1990s the air is very filthy, and people don’t have the extra time for skin care,” she says. “With the damage we inflict on the ozone layer, skin is very vulnerable.”

Holmes compares skin care to a physical workout. Cleaning the skin is the warm-up, exfoliating the peak aerobics and moisturizing the muscle conditioning, she says.

“Skin can be trained,” says Holmes, whose brush with skin cancer led to a new career as a skin-care specialist. She treats clients at the Four Seasons hotel’s Health Club in Newport Beach.

For consumers, though, finding the right workout can be difficult. There’s an abundance of conflicting information about skin and myriad products being touted by cosmetics and pharmaceutical companies.

“You have to tailor the individual’s skin-care program to skin type and history of skin problems,” says Richard Klimkowski, a dermatologist who practices in Laguna Niguel and San Juan Capistrano. A visit to a dermatologist’s office before embarking on a new skin-care routine can maximize benefits and minimize potential problems, as well as introduce patients to more powerful skin treatments like Retin-A.

While skin-care professionals in Orange County offer different programs for giving skin a sound workout, most agree on several key principles:

First, skin must have a proper cleaning, morning and night. If you reach for a bar of soap to do the job, however, you’re already in trouble. Soap can be drying, unbalance the skin and leave a residue, says Rhita Buirski, owner of the Facial Institute in Laguna Beach.

Most skin-care specialists have their own mild cleansers to peddle, but some over-the-counter liquid cleansers for sensitive skin such as Cetaphil can also do the job. For deep cleansing, there are masks, facials and peels all designed to pull pollution from the pores.

Salons offer facials to augment the daily cleansings at home. At Ilona of Hungary, patrons relax to classical music in private treatment rooms while skin undergoes intensive cleansings, masks and moisturizing.

Facialists can be more adept at extracting impurities and exfoliating the skin; most recommend a treatment every two to four weeks.

Exfoliation, which literally means “take the leaves away,” can also enhance the complexion. Dead skin cells can collect on the skin and clog pores, Buirski says.

“There’s so much buildup, makeup looks blotchy and uneven,” she says.

Exfoliating or removing the dead skin cells can be accomplished through numerous scrubs, masks and sponges. Most over-the-counter exfoliating products have nearly the same result: They remove only the superficial layer of skin, Klimkowski says.

A more powerful skin treatment involves applying alpha hydroxy or fruit acids that can diminish minor lines and sun spots, according to Klimkowski. They’re available in weaker concentrations through mail-order companies and cosmetics counters, and stronger concentrations through dermatologists. Some of the milder formulas can be applied regularly by people at home. Stronger formulas are administered in a dermatologist’s office.

“The acids peel the skin, while the dermatologist can gage the depth of the peel,” Klimkowski says.

Alpha hydroxy acids can even help control acne, and “patients can tolerate this who can’t tolerate Retin-A.”

Moisturizing is another daily ritual recommended by professionals, but even this basic step can be botched.

“I’ve seen people who have used Vaseline on their skin as a moisturizer. It clogs the pores so badly,” Buirski says.

More suitable moisturizers can be had in drugstores and cosmetics departments. Klimkowski suggests they be applied immediately after the skin is washed and “patted damp.”

“Water dries the skin. The idea is to trap moisture before it evaporates,” he says.

Any skin product can be tested by applying a small amount to the neck or forearm and observing the test area for several days, he says. That will tell if the substance triggers any allergies or irritants.

Finally, sun block should be used daily to keep ultra violet rays (UVA and UVB) from further damaging the skin.

“You don’t want more pigmentation,” Buirski says.

To have healthy skin, one also has to monitor what goes on inside the body, according to skin-care specialists. Smoking, stress, fatigue and a poor, high-fat diet can all exacerbate skin problems.

“Skin is like a window to what’s going on inside your body,” Holmes says.

Good nutrition and lots of water--eight to 10 glasses a day are recommended--”cleanses all of your organs and hydrates the skin,” she says.

The benefits of a skin-care program are as clear as Madame Ilona’s skin:

“Skin goes from feeling like sandpaper to a baby’s skin,” says Neszaros, a grandmother whose translucent ivory skin is her best advertisement. “Skin is clear, the color is beautiful, the elasticity lasts a long time.”