Recent Question: I'm getting a rash under my mask. What should I do since I really need to wear when I'm out.
In the meantime, those of us in densely populated urban areas or those of us working in healthcare clinics are wearing them all the time to protect patients and other staff members. Here are some of the problems we’ve seen so far.
Flares of acne or rosacea under the mask.
This is often related to the excess moisture, and heat (more for rosacea). And the stress of all this doesn’t help. Be sure to stay on and keep using your prescription medication for acne or rosacea. This isn’t the time to run out or quit using it. If you need refills, a telehealth like Teldoc or First Stop will be a choose. If after several weeks of consistent medication use it’s still a problem, go see your doctor/dermatologist. It may be a staph infection. For home over the counter remedies, use product to calm irritated skin, use a good collagen serums to maintain oil and moisture balance. Organic rosehip oil and organic jojoba oil are two of the calming oil that is good for acne skin and rosacea skin. Medical grade collagen is a good choice for adding extra hydrating. For acne spot treatment, look for fragrance free , parabens free gentle formula. Calming hydrating facial wash mask is great when your skin needs extra care. Gelmersea Ceuticals' Hydrating Recovery Mask is an excellent choice, it is a very calming mask great for inflamed skin and post procedure skin.
Aura Cacia Rosehip Facial Serum
Hoba Care Organic Jojoba Oil
Gelmersea Ceuticals Hydrating Recovery Mask (Cool & Calm Gel)
Other Allergic reactions from the mask
Some fabric dyes, detergents and fabric softeners. Disperse blue is commonly used for denim and may cause reactions. Also, think of your mask like underwear for your face. You probably wouldn’t keep wearing the same underwear day after day without washing it, would you? Hopefully not. So it’s good to have multiple masks and wash them frequently in gentle detergent like Seventh Generation, Biokleen or the Laundress. All fabric softeners can leave tiny irritant fibers on fabrics, so please avoid also.
Staph infection under the mask.
About 10-20% of people in the U.S. are staph carriers up in their noses. Usually there are no symptoms from this. With the warm, moist environment under the mask, the staph creeps out onto the skin, causing a rash. If you’re not sure, you need a culture at your doctor’s office. If the culture is positive, it is sometimes possible to use an ointment antibiotic instead of an oral one. The key thing is the culture, which is just a Q-tip type swab swirled up in the nose. This is just at the entrance to the nose, and is NOT like doing a Covid culture, which goes way up in the nose. This one doesn’t hurt.
