When I first landed my job as a beauty editor, I said yes to just about every treatment that hit my inbox (I mean, can you blame me?). And for awhile, it was all fun and skincare games—in the name of research, of course—until I went to see a dermatologist for a Fraxel laser treatment. Fraxel is used to help improve skin tone and texture, and this particular doctor, who is white, assured me they knew how to use the powerful tool on my deep skin tone. You can probably guess what happened next:
I woke up the following morning to find my normally spot-free skin covered in patchy, dark marks. This happened despite the fact that I have access to the best dermatologists and experts in the country. It was a frustrating reminder that, like so many women of color, I need to vet my doctors extra thoroughly before I let them anywhere near my face, because the truth is that many don't know enough about deep skin tones to treat them properly.
The lack of awareness starts early: Most medical textbooks depict proportionally fewer skin conditions on people of color (these pics, btw, are critical for proper diagnosis, says Lynn McKinley-Grant, MD, former president of the Skin of Color Society). And because issues like eczema and melanoma look different or can be located in different places on various skin tones, doctors can misdiagnose or miss them entirely, which can have deadly outcomes.
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