Tragedy Of A Bad Complexion

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 189, 12 August 1939, Page 4 (Supplement)

Tragedy Of A Bad Complexion

Health & Beauty

THE tragedy of a bad complexion during adolescence is very real. Ask the psychologist. Or the beauty editor, whose daily mail reveals heartaches that parents do not even dream their sons and daughters suffer.

The 'teens are a self-conscious period anyway. But the schooldays which should and could be very liappv are ruined for some daughters because they develop an "all-wrong" complex. Maybe it's the complexion, maybe, it's just the gawkiness that all growing. children have at one stage. Maybe, it's just not being groomed properly, and not knowing how to start.

In a great many girls' schools in France, there are classes in grooming, and even in styling, hairdress, clothes and make-up individually. It's a splendid idea, and it would lie a good thing if every school would offer such courses. Apart from this, the girls are taught bridge, dancing, cooking, sewing, while riding often forms part of the problem.

But let us back to the subject of the bad complexion. In a great many cases, all the child needs is an intensive programme of hygiene. She must learn how to keep clean—exquisitely, not casually, clean. It is amazing how many adolescents follow the "lick-and-promise" methods. School teachers could tell you plenty about this.

The majority of pimples and blackheads that disfigure youthful complexions will vanish if the right cleansing programme is followed. Good soaps, complexion brushes, daily baths and frequent hands and face washings often do the trick. A little supervision of diet is essential. The diet should be a balanced one; the youngster should drink plenty of water and pet plenty of exercise.

If the pimples and blackheads do not disappear once a simple programme <>f hygiene is established, parents should not happily rest assured that the youngster "will grow out of it." Thet can be an erroneous assumption—tisuallv is. Acne is not to be trifled with and cannot be treated by home liit-or-iniss methods.

If your child has acne, a doctor is the person to prescribe for it. It is a. medical, not a beauty problem. "One visit to your own doctor or to a skin specialist might, avert or correct a skin condition that scars more than the skin. The bad complexion during adolescence is not a normal phase of growing up. Neglected, it leads to discomfort, expense and unhappiness that both boys and girls find

By~ A Specialist soul-searing. It is astonishing how much dirt one's complexion picks up in a day. \\ e have only to wash our faces—and this especially if we dwell in cities—to realise by water and towel the amount of sheer grime which has rested upon them. Now. this casual washing, is the tiling 1 want to utter a warning about. It is detrimental to the strongest skin at any time, and always brings prompt Nemesis to the more fragile and delicate. When the experience coincides with sudden changes of temperature from outdoors to heated rooms it is simply suicidal. Moreover, all such methods of "getting clean" establish a vicious circle, by roughening the outer surface of the skin, which picks up grime much ■'more

quickly than when it is smooth, and satiny, just as a rough woollen material gets dirtier ever so much sooner than a slippery silk one. Horns Oi A Dilemma We are, therefore, on the horns of a dilemma. Unless the skin is kept perfectly clean, we know that it cannot be healthy and. as a natural consequent, beautiful according to the standards of to-day. The very steps we take to ensure this condition may be harmful in another direction. I think I can safely j-o lurther and say that they will be, unless directed by knowledge. Now. there are two avenues of danger in ordinary washing. First, some factor in the soap or water may be directlv harmful; secondly, the very action may - —almost always does—extract some of the natural nutriment from the skin. The result of impoverishment, as in every analogous case, so that the way to shrivelling, to sallowness and the unwelcome appearance of lines is laid open.

You will see for yourselves that, in tlie first place, should you use soap for your face, the greatest care must ue taken in the choosing of it while, -') addition, the water used must be rendered soft, if it lacks this quality in its natural condition. In regard to extraction of nourishment, the solution is not so obvious. It bars use of hot water, for this has the immediate effect of opening the pores and extracting the nouri>hment from them. Soap And Water One thing is clear—repeated applicitions of soap and water lie avoided. Xo self-respecting skin will stand the strain. With the exception of the oily skin, soap and water should be lett severely alone. A cleansing cream answers the purpose of soap and water, and keeps the skin softer and younger than any other method. A cream has a great deal to recommend it all round, for all creams have a soothing effect, upon the surface of the skin, and this is just what it calls out for, almost pitifully, in many cases.

Way To Use Cream The best way to use a cream is to put a thin layer all over the face, working upwards according to the invariable rule, leaving it there for five minutes or so, then removing it thoroughly with a soft, clean towel. Work the cream with the tip of the little finger well into the crevices at the base of the nostrils and, with the tip of a third, into the cleft of the chin, for these are the great danger spots. If they are deeply indented or if the fascinating dimple tails similarly for care, wrap in. cotton wool one of the little orange sticks usually dedicated to the hands, and apply it gently to the placcs, to ensure that the cream is absolutely removed later.