Friday, January 1, 2016

RENEWED: 99.999999999% healed!

I'm renewed in the year 2016! After a long journey since May 2013, I can finally say my topical steroid withdrawal journey is behind me!

Not only is my skin no longer a daily issue, but I can do my nails, diet, exercise, use products, pretty much without considering the repercussions.

Since my last post, I have:
  • grown nails
  • started a diet/exercise routine
  • worn lotion on occasion
  • worn makeup 
  • gone on dates
  • switched jobs
  • lost 10 lbs
  • accepted myself with good or bad skin 
I can't believe how far I've come, looking back at even just the most recent post (6 months ago). And I'm really happy to be where I am, and look at the new year with optimism for a new beginning. In my 30th year, I'm feeling energized to pursue all the things I never did before TSW and I'm pretty grateful that I went through this because it has truly been transformative both inside and out.

I want to thank all the TSW bloggers for their support and suggestions, especially Dan for urging me to go moisturizer free and trying dead sea salt baths. They were truly the ticket when it came to improving my quality of life as my skin layers restored.

My current routine is still very much similar to the one covered here: http://steroidfreeskin.blogspot.com/2014/04/update-dead-sea-salt-baths-for-dry-skin.html

Here is my current skin routine:
  • I take a dead sea salt bath every 3ish days, and shampoo with any shampoo. My skin is strong enough for me to rub off flakes now, even on my fingers pictured below.
  • My face doesn't need moisturizer.
  • I wear eye/eyebrow makeup but rarely use foundation. I remove eye makeup with witch hazel.
  • I use Jergen's bronzing glow on my legs when I want them to look nice, as there's still residual flakes, but typically this is every 3-4 days.




As my skin got better, I just realized I was living life again and thus became terrible at updating my blog, but I wanted to let you all out there know where I stand, in case you also need hope that the end of TSW is around the corner, so close you won't even realize it when you're there! Happy new year to all, and stay dry!

Megan