<\/p>\n
In Cynthea Corfah\u2019s junior year of high school, she won a pageant and moved on to the next level of competition: regionals. Though she was having an eczema flare, for her casual look, she wore a floral sundress that went a little past her knees but didn\u2019t hide the small patches of dryness on her legs. She didn\u2019t win.<\/p>\n
Contestants were allowed to ask the judges for feedback to improve future performances. When Corfah requested pointers, she got only one note. \u201cIt was something like, \u2018Needs to cover bruises better,\u2019\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt first I thought, \u2018What are they talking about?\u2019\u201d says Corfah. Looking back at it now, in her 30s, she says, \u201cThere was so much wrong with that judge\u2019s comment. If he really thought I had bruises, he probably should\u2019ve checked on my welfare.\u201d In any case, the fact remains that the patches he noticed weren\u2019t bruises, Corfah says, calling it \u201cheartbreaking\u201d to discover that her skin condition was the only reason she lost points. It felt like a \u201cslap in the face\u201d after she so vulnerably put herself out there, eczema and all.<\/p>\n
While that pageant experience made Corfah more self-conscious, she didn\u2019t let her eczema keep her out of the spotlight. After all, she has been navigating periodic eczema flares since infancy. One flare Corfah will never forget came in sixth grade, when the skin on her ankle got so inflamed that it started oozing liquid, which dried and caused her socks to stick to her legs by the end of the day. But she went to the doctor, got topical steroids that tamed her occasional flares, and moved on, she says.<\/p>\n
Years later she took to social media to chronicle her experience trying to heal her eczema naturally through dietary and lifestyle changes like ditching dairy, decreasing stress, and avoiding allergens. Through those posts she caught the attention of the National Eczema Association. After sharing her story on the organization\u2019s website, she began working with the group on larger projects, including creating marketing materials and moderating discussions for Black women at Eczema Expo, an annual gathering for people with the condition and their loved ones.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first Sister Circle I moderated was only slated for 30 minutes, but no one wanted to leave at the half-hour mark. We were so fired up talking to each other,\u201d she says. \u201cI realized I had to capture that energy more than once a year.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In Cynthea Corfah\u2019s junior year of high school, she won a pageant and moved on to the next level of competition: regionals. Though she was having an eczema flare, for her casual look, she wore a floral sundress that went a little past her knees but didn\u2019t hide the small patches of dryness on her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beauty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasgai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasgai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasgai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasgai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasgai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sasgai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasgai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasgai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasgai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasgai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}