FaceTime Part 1: How it do
Peace.
As y'all know I'm super concerned about my weight. Who wouldn't be. But... I'm also concerned about my skin. These are the things that age you. I've hit my Culture Ciphers.... Women do not age distinctively. We get old. And like it or not that's the way it is. What a lot of women do is try to turn the clock back by ether mimicking what younger people are doing or reliving their glory decades. That looks ridiculous. We need to accept what life is handing us and make it look amazing. This Build is hella long so I'm going to give it out in sections....
For example, I used to have a coke bottle shape. Seriously. My waist has always been dead flat and tiny. Even when I weighed 300lbs, I still had an hourglass shape. Well that's gone now. I am a rectangle. The only way for me to get an hourglass is with a body shaper. And where I'll do that sometimes.... It won't be an everyday thing. So I have to adjust my dressing for a rectangle. So be it. There are lots of women... of all ages... shaped rectangular. So I'm not going to get all bent out of shape because my body has changed. It happens.
One of the places women age is in the face. Black women feel comfortable because “Black don't Crack.” Well..... It does. I've seen it. And for someone like me, who has excema/dry skin, it most definitely cracks. I guess this is my end for torment. Having dry skin meant I never had a problem with oily skin and acne as a teenager. Seriously, I only get 1 pimple when my period is due. Lasts about a day and goes away on it's own without scaring. It's sort of like a monthly postcard reminding me to purchase pads.
I'd see other teens with cruel acne and could only feel sorry for them. My routine wouldn't work for them because we didn't share the same problems. My poor mother had/has acne so bad, that her nickname was 'grader.' Her face was as bumpy as a potato grader. She is currently in her late 70's still getting pimples. SMH. She when she moved to the city she took advantage of all the services her money and insurance would cover. My big brother didn't have acne. So for some reason my mother just knew I would have it... as if it works like that. I never got acne and the scars (mental and physical) that go with it. My skin is incredibly even. But what my mother did give me was an appreciation for sane treatment of my skin.
I've NEVER washed my face with ordinary soap. Not ever. Mommie and I used products that were specially formulated for skin. There were different cloths for face and body. I learned as a really small child hat bathwater was NOT for faces. Faces were washed in sinks and bodies in tubs. When I would go to someone's house for sleepovers, bath time would be rough. Not everybody has my mother's gansta routines. Some folks actually wash their faces with the same rag they used to wash their asses. Or just washing everything with the same bar of soap If you're doing that... you nasty.
Black women hang on to the “Black don't crack” thing. It's true, we don't age like the non-melanated. But we do age. We shouldn't be comparing ourselves to them anyway. Black may not crack, but it does sag.. And if we don't watch out, we will look like hound dogs. I've noticed a lot of Black women don't really do anything special to their skin. They don't go through the work to treat their skin. Like we don't get facials... we don't do masks... we don't avoid the sun, but we don't worship it either... we don't were a lot of makeup; which is a good and bad thing. Bad because it can clog pores, especially if not removed. Though Good because it offers some spf and it shows that you care about your appearance. A lot of us just survive...
Since I have dry skin... and have had dry skin for a minute... my skin is aging quicker than my mothers did. I noticed mild wrinkling. Where my mother has NO wrinkles. This is what I mean by I'm getting it on this side. No problems while a teenager, but issues now that I'm getting older. It's caused me to tweak my regimen.
My regimen forever it seems is (1) cleanse, (2) tone and (3) moisturize. My cleanser is Noxema. My toner is witch hazel. My winter/fall moisturizer is Ambi and my spring/summer moisturizer is Oil of Olay. I will do masks weekly, depending on what I think my skin needs. I will get the occasional professional facial. But that is based what my money is doing. If I have the funds, I get facials monthly or every other month. Most of my problems stem from dryness, so I'm always trying to put moisture in my skin. I'm not satisfied with what my nose does either. It may collect black heads, or the pores may get full of white stuff or it peels. We fight. For years months and days it's been this routine. I did step it up and got a rotary brush. I like it. But I use it with my product lineup. It's always worked. I've tried other products, but always come back to this combination. This is what works for me up to this point. But since I've gotten into my 40's things are changing....
As y'all know I'm super concerned about my weight. Who wouldn't be. But... I'm also concerned about my skin. These are the things that age you. I've hit my Culture Ciphers.... Women do not age distinctively. We get old. And like it or not that's the way it is. What a lot of women do is try to turn the clock back by ether mimicking what younger people are doing or reliving their glory decades. That looks ridiculous. We need to accept what life is handing us and make it look amazing. This Build is hella long so I'm going to give it out in sections....
For example, I used to have a coke bottle shape. Seriously. My waist has always been dead flat and tiny. Even when I weighed 300lbs, I still had an hourglass shape. Well that's gone now. I am a rectangle. The only way for me to get an hourglass is with a body shaper. And where I'll do that sometimes.... It won't be an everyday thing. So I have to adjust my dressing for a rectangle. So be it. There are lots of women... of all ages... shaped rectangular. So I'm not going to get all bent out of shape because my body has changed. It happens.
One of the places women age is in the face. Black women feel comfortable because “Black don't Crack.” Well..... It does. I've seen it. And for someone like me, who has excema/dry skin, it most definitely cracks. I guess this is my end for torment. Having dry skin meant I never had a problem with oily skin and acne as a teenager. Seriously, I only get 1 pimple when my period is due. Lasts about a day and goes away on it's own without scaring. It's sort of like a monthly postcard reminding me to purchase pads.
I'd see other teens with cruel acne and could only feel sorry for them. My routine wouldn't work for them because we didn't share the same problems. My poor mother had/has acne so bad, that her nickname was 'grader.' Her face was as bumpy as a potato grader. She is currently in her late 70's still getting pimples. SMH. She when she moved to the city she took advantage of all the services her money and insurance would cover. My big brother didn't have acne. So for some reason my mother just knew I would have it... as if it works like that. I never got acne and the scars (mental and physical) that go with it. My skin is incredibly even. But what my mother did give me was an appreciation for sane treatment of my skin.
I've NEVER washed my face with ordinary soap. Not ever. Mommie and I used products that were specially formulated for skin. There were different cloths for face and body. I learned as a really small child hat bathwater was NOT for faces. Faces were washed in sinks and bodies in tubs. When I would go to someone's house for sleepovers, bath time would be rough. Not everybody has my mother's gansta routines. Some folks actually wash their faces with the same rag they used to wash their asses. Or just washing everything with the same bar of soap If you're doing that... you nasty.
Black women hang on to the “Black don't crack” thing. It's true, we don't age like the non-melanated. But we do age. We shouldn't be comparing ourselves to them anyway. Black may not crack, but it does sag.. And if we don't watch out, we will look like hound dogs. I've noticed a lot of Black women don't really do anything special to their skin. They don't go through the work to treat their skin. Like we don't get facials... we don't do masks... we don't avoid the sun, but we don't worship it either... we don't were a lot of makeup; which is a good and bad thing. Bad because it can clog pores, especially if not removed. Though Good because it offers some spf and it shows that you care about your appearance. A lot of us just survive...
Since I have dry skin... and have had dry skin for a minute... my skin is aging quicker than my mothers did. I noticed mild wrinkling. Where my mother has NO wrinkles. This is what I mean by I'm getting it on this side. No problems while a teenager, but issues now that I'm getting older. It's caused me to tweak my regimen.
My regimen forever it seems is (1) cleanse, (2) tone and (3) moisturize. My cleanser is Noxema. My toner is witch hazel. My winter/fall moisturizer is Ambi and my spring/summer moisturizer is Oil of Olay. I will do masks weekly, depending on what I think my skin needs. I will get the occasional professional facial. But that is based what my money is doing. If I have the funds, I get facials monthly or every other month. Most of my problems stem from dryness, so I'm always trying to put moisture in my skin. I'm not satisfied with what my nose does either. It may collect black heads, or the pores may get full of white stuff or it peels. We fight. For years months and days it's been this routine. I did step it up and got a rotary brush. I like it. But I use it with my product lineup. It's always worked. I've tried other products, but always come back to this combination. This is what works for me up to this point. But since I've gotten into my 40's things are changing....
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