Over the last 15 years, my views on skin health and how to care for skin have drastically changed. 

I started out like most people, with the idea that skin holds some sort of morality where I used language describing skin as “good” or “bad”. I also held a lot of weight to how my skin impacted my personal and professional self-worth. I felt that I wasn’t worthy of being successful in the skincare industry if my skin wasn’t glowing and “flawless” which directly impacted my self-worth as a whole. It was an awful cycle that I am so incredibly grateful to have broken out of. 

I’m lightyears away from that mindset and to be fair, so are most people. As a collective, we have been able to shed a lot of that negative self-talk towards how we nurture our outermost organ. It’s refreshing to see and I’m really looking forward to the day that marketing companies stop eliciting impressionable people who have yet to discover the true comfort of having full acceptance of oneself in their skin. That will really be a good day - especially if they drop the greenwashing too. ESPECIALLY considering a VERY small population of people actually cared about true green beauty as early as a few years ago. Making this trendy does not make it actual education on skin health, self-acceptance, and even our environmental impact. 

That all being said, the industry is changing and there is a lot that needs to be highlighted now including racial discrimination within our industries and the appropriation of ancient cultures for short-sighted capitalistic gain. All gross topics to sit with once you really start to explore them - but what a privilege it is to just be un-comfy rather than living in the experience of the marginalized groups that have been underserved in this industry. 

I spent the majority of 2020 starting to dismantle my own white supremacy in order to even see these topics as important and broad as they are. To be clear, I’ve always seen them but I let my white privilege shield me from having to actively be a part of the solution on a larger scale. 

So I leave you with this - I’ve been ready to talk about these topics for a while. I know they are not fun for everyone, but just like the progression we have experienced with our old skin health mindsets, I really believe we are ready to have these conversations now. 

Now that I’m not in the treatment room (for a myriad of reasons), I’m FULLY here to use my platform, my voice, my experiences, and my knowledge to talk about what’s been on my heart for a long time. Are you ready for it? Great, please stick around, and hopefully, we can learn from each other. If you’re not, that’s okay - that’s what the mute button is for and I’d love to have you back when you are ready. 

It’s happening though - we can’t run from these conversations anymore so I’m done trying to make everyone comfortable on my own platform. 

I’m looking forward to diving in and turning the page with you soon. xo - Hayley