Sandra Lee - Put Your Best Face Forward: The Ultimate Guide to Skincare from Acne to Anti-Aging

Contents

Contents

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This book contains advice and information relating to health care. It should be used to supplement rather than replace the advice of your doctor or another trained health professional. If you know or suspect you have a health problem, it is recommended that you seek your physicians advice before embarking on any medical program or treatment. All efforts have been made to assure the accuracy of the information contained in this book as of the date of publication. This publisher and the author disclaim liability for any medical outcomes that may occur as a result of applying the methods suggested in this book.

PUT YOUR BEST FACE FORWARD. Copyright 2018 by Sandra Lee. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Cover design by Ploy Siripant

Cover photograph by Theo & Juliet

All photographs are courtesy of the author.

All illustrations are courtesy of SkinPhysicians and Surgeons.

FIRST EDITION

Digital Edition JANUARY 2019 ISBN: 978-0-06-269213-9

Version 12072018

Print ISBN: 978-0-06-287229-6

This book is dedicated to those Im most dedicated to:

my two boys, Chance and Stratton,

and my husband, Jeff.

Love you three to the moon and back.

YOU KNOW THOSE TIMES WHENBING!YOUR EYES JUST POP OPEN WITH some profound realization you had overlooked before? For me, it was just past three oclock in the morning when I felt a wave of anxiety wash over me. What did I do yesterday? I thought to myself. Did I really just start a GoFundMe page for one of my patients, whom I affectionately call Pops, without asking his permission? The day before, I had posted a video on my YouTube channel, Dr. Sandra Lee (also known as Dr. Pimple Popper), of some amazing blackhead extractions I had done on Pops. Blackheads, which are open comedones, are like snowflakes: each one is an individual; they are so satisfyingly unpredictable. Sometimes you squeeze one and get the most amazing pop: you never know if it will sputter out with a little light pressure from my comedone extractor or if it will slide out smoothly. Popss blackheads were no different, and removing them had been an ongoing journey for us, since he had so many of them.

I have to back up a bit here for those of you who are not avid popaholics, as I like to call them. The story of how I came to be Dr. Pimple Popper was unexpectedkind of a happy accident that I noticed and seized upon, and Pops has a lot to do with it. I have been a board-certified dermatologist in private practice for more than a decade, specializing in skin cancer and cosmetic surgery and reconstruction and laser surgery. You may wonder, arent extractions something a dermatologist does regularly? Isnt this what a dermatologist is supposed to do? Its not that dermatologists arent capable of pimple poppingthat is, extracting blackheads, whiteheads, and milia, and surgically excising cysts. Its that this is such a small part of what our profession is about. We are experts who deal with all medical conditions of the skin, hair, and nails. And believe you me, there are so many!

In 2014 I had started an Instagram account, @DrSandraLee, intending to showcase my life as a dermatologistto educate people on the many facets of my profession. Instagram is flush with gorgeous filtered images: mouthwatering pictures of food, exotic places traveled, and beautiful do-it-yourself makeup, hair coloring, and styling tutorials. I saw a quickly increasing popularity among makeup and hair gurus, as well as a growing interest in spa treatments and cosmetic treatments. Would these same people, and others, be interested to see what I do day-to-day, as well? Hmm...

One day Pops came in for a regular appointment, but something was different. For years, I had seen him as one half of a whole, or what I lovingly call a package deal, meaning that he and his wife came together. Always. Except this time, his wife wasnt with him. I knew she had been ill; recently, she had taken to waiting in the car during his appointments, not feeling up to coming into the office. I couldnt help but ask how she was doing, and instantly regretted doing so.

Shes gone. Pops choked back tears and looked down at his hands. Shed been his whole life. She ran the show. And now he was lost without her. I noticed that his clothes werent as neatly pressed as they usually were, he had a stain on his slacks, and his hair appeared a little more disheveled. Nothing I do can take away a persons emotional anguish, but I wish I could have waved a magic wand and made some of that pain and sadness disappear. Opening a GoFundMe page in his name was an impulse movea result of my learning about his economic hardships and overwhelming grief since his wife had passed away. People who watched my videos from around the world sent the kindest messages of hope and love to Pops and donated money to help someone whose face theyd never seen! Theyd just heard his story and knew every blackhead extracted from him by heart! My popaholic fans are amazing: we ended up exceeding the $5,000 goal and raised more than $14,000 for Pops!

Pops and his wife had been my patients for many years, but in all that time, I was examining his skin and mainly treating and controlling his precancerous skin lesions and skin cancers (non-life-threatening but locally destructive squamous cell carcinomas and basal cell carcinomas). It actually took the unfortunate passing of his dear wife for me to bring up the fact that those bumps on his nose were benign blackheads and whiteheads. It wasnt until this point that he confided that he knew they werent dangerous, but he absolutely detested them. Not because he could see them; his eyesight was failing and he couldnt. But because he could feel them, and he couldnt get rid of them himself, and they made him feel ugly and ashamed.

Pops after he was surprised with more than $14,000 from his fans around the world.

So I asked him, Would you like me to extract as many of these as I can? This is a procedure I cant bill to insurance, but if you allow me to film the procedure for others to watch, I wont charge you. He immediately agreed, very happy that I was going to take care of them. This surprised me. I had never offered this service to my patients in the past because, as a dermatologist, I avoid extractions that arent medically necessary, as health insurance doesnt cover them. Patients normally have to pay out of pocket for these cosmetic procedures, and they can be very expensive because they are time consuming.