Understanding Eczema So You Can Better Serve Your Aesthetic Clients

It is important for an aesthetician to understand eczema, a disease of the skin that comes from the Greek work meaning boiling over. Skin normally serves as barrier, preventing water loss and stopping irritants from penetrating the skin. When a person has eczema the skin does not do this as well as it should. This leads to a dryness, cracking, itchiness and scaling of the skin. It lets in allergens and bacteria and causes reactions while not contagious it is an allergic condition and can be uncomfortable.

Eczema is also called dermatitis, but people are usually referring to atopic dermatitis when they say dermatitis. This is a lifelong tendency towards allergic reaction including asthma and allergic rhinitis, or hay fever. Eczema is a heteregenous group of several non contagious and nonnvesctious skin disease which can be caused by both irritative and immune mechanisms and may lead to pathological conditions in the epidermis and the upper dermis.  As the most common category of skin diseases eczematous disorders can also be  occupational diseases. Eczema may manifest with erythema, papules, vesicles, crusts, weeping and oedema in the  acute phase and with thickening of the skin, lichenification, and scaling in the chronic phase with itching being a common symptom. Eczema can be triggered by almost anything that comes into  contact with the skin. It is seen in those who are   extra sensitive to skin irritation, having dry, flaky skin which appears  red, has inflamed areas and intense itching and burning.

A very common condition, eczema  affects all races and ages, including children and infants. About two percent of adults have eczema and as many as twenty percent of children may have it. Most individuals have their first episode before they are five years of age. For some the disease will improve over  time. For others eczema is a chronic or recurrent disorder they will deal with for years or a lifetime though for some it will only occur sporadically or perhaps just once. It can be a difficult, frustrating condition. Since our natural tendency is  to scratch or rub an itchy rash sufferers often make the condition worse and treatments are slow and not always as effective as we would hope. Eczema is a common enough skin condition that an aesthetician should have as much knowledge of it as possible and be able to advice clients, and make available lotions and creams that can help relieve the symptoms.