“We have so many patients with severe acne now because they can’t wash their face regularly or apply treatments, because if you want to keep using your topical treatment, you must find a way to wash your face. We tell patients who want to continue to preserve water in bottles, get a camping gas heater, use micellar tissues, or find those water face mists from the pharmacy. But then there’s the stress. Patients are more tired than ever because every night we go to bed not knowing if we will sleep or not. Maybe there will be a rocket or a bomb and that waiting is stressful. In 2018, when I started as a dermatologist, we had patients with mild acne. Now we have patients who have had acne for 10 years and nothing works for them because they’re so stressed.
“Because people’s acne has gotten so bad, I’m prescribing more oral medication than ever. Many patients are taking doxycycline or Accutane. Acne is difficult already, but for our teenage patients, it’s even worse. We try to tell them to cut back on makeup and even stop using skin care entirely for a week. Body acne is also a big problem. Many people live on very high floors and have no elevator, sometimes going up and down the stairs three times a day. They’re wearing so many layers of clothes that they start sweating, which then causes body acne.
“Nearly every second patient also has problems with their scalp. This is because people are wearing hats all the time—sometimes wearing one to bed. But that’s not very good for your scalp, and we’re seeing many more cases of seborrheic dermatitis. Their scalp becomes flaky, oily, and itchy, so we’re prescribing shampoos with selenium and with zinc oxide. But the biggest change people need to make is to wash their hair more often, which is very difficult with no heat and hot water.
“Skin conditions like dermatitis, psoriasis, they don’t like the dryness and the cold so people with eczema, like my mother, always need to keep moisturizing cream near them. My mom applies cream every hour, almost 15 times a day. My four-year-old son also has atopic dermatitis and because it’s so cold in the house, I don’t undress him fully to wash him. It’s dangerous for children. He wears a sweater and I wash only part of his body at a time. He thinks it’s play time.” – Dr. Anastasiia Melnyk, Chernivtsi
The theater worker who can now do her eyeliner in the dark.
“Because I work in the evening, I have the luxury to shower during the day. Many women who need to get to work at 9am get up in the middle of the night sometimes to wash their hair.
I am retired and I work in a theater, so I feel I must look nice to greet the patrons. I keep a curling iron at work to touch up my hair and bought a mirror to do my makeup there.
