Give up on old skin care myths
Between old wives tales and really good marketing, it's easy to buy into skin treatments that don't actually work, so we went to Dermatologist Tracy Katz at Suzanne Bruce and Associates to debunk some of these myths.
First up, does cocoa butter work to remove stretch marks? Dr. Katz says to save your money. The only solution to stretch marks is a laser treatment.
Next, are you worried that fried food or chocolate might be causing your breakouts? Well, Dr. Katz says that's a total myth.
"The only food that's shown to have an association with acne is skim milk. Unless we're sitting there drinking gallons of skim milk, don't worry about it," says Katz.
SEE MORE: Too many beauty products don't live up to the hype
Trying to heal a wound?
"I often hear patients tell me that I got this wound or cut and left it open to the air to heal. That's exactly what you don't want to do. What we want to do to heal our wounds is to cover them and keep them moist and hydrated. This is going to promote cell growth and help heal our wounds faster and better," explains Katz.
And if you use an antibiotic ointment like Neosporin to heal your wounds, Dr. Katz says it's rarely needed.
"Neopsorin is a topical antibiotic and often, in 10 percent of patients, it causes a reaction, so when we think it's doing us good, it's often doing nothing for us. Vaseline is what most dermatologists use to promote wound healing in cuts or minor surgical defects," adds Katz.
If you're having breakouts on your thighs or behind, it could be from your spandex workout gear.
"What these clothes are doing, especially if we're sweating in them, is clogging our pores and causing us to break out on our bottoms. I'll recommend face washes that they use on their bottoms in the shower and sometimes topical medicines, too," explains Katz.
Finally, Dr. Katz says for patients suffering from hair loss, don't waste your money on shampoos for this issue because they don't penetrate into the hair follicle.
"The things that I recommend are Rogaine, Finasteride for males. We have a new treatment we do for hair loss with PRP - platelet rich plasma, where we draw the patient's blood, spin it down, and inject the platelets into the scalp to promote hair growth, and we're seeing amazing results with that," says Katz.
