Dr. Susan Taylor's Brown Skin Review

In case you haven't heard of Susan Taylor, you better educate yourself. She's one of the leading black dermatologists in the country.

I met her some time last year with my mother and she suggested we use her product line (it worked for my mom, but did nothing for me). She also suggested I see Dr. Blackburn, my current dermo (whom my mom has been seeing for years. He's good at everything except he made my mom's skin problem worse... he couldn't help her, but eventually my mother helped herself! :D). And she suggested I get laser hair removal.



So, in my quest to get my mom to follow MY hair regime ideas for MY head, I am reading Dr. Taylor's book. There are a few things in the book that I want to tell my mother.

A) If you're gonna do chemicals, texturiser is a better option
B) Use chemicals 4 to 5 times a year to reduce damage
C) Weekly hot oil, then wash, then deep conditionings (will make new growth manage-able). "You must wash your hair"
D) Loose braids less than shoulder length and re-do braids every ten weeks. Re-tighten weave every six to eight weeks and the weave can last for 4 months. Wash your hair, even in these styles.

I'm reading a section that is quite relevant to me right now. Hyperpigmentation. The "case study" in the book has a problem exactly similar to mine. Bumps and ingrown hairs on her chin. Apparently, the patient got hair removal (like me) which made the bumps stop coming. Now, she has to get rid of the dark marks. She used "lustra cream" day and night and the marks faded after 3 months. Hmm... It contains hydroquinone which made my mom's spots DARKER. Since I am her daughter, I do not want to go anywhere NEAR that. However, Dr. Taylor says if you use it for more than 6 months, then your skin will turn dark and there is no cure for the darkening (however, my mom found one!). She also suggests glycolic acid which is an AHA (too lazy to spell out that acid for you). She suggests a chemical peel (which I do plan on getting after laser treatment if my spots do not fade) which is an AHA or salicylic acid peel. She mentions retinols (which can be drying so be careful), Topical steroids for severe cases, and sunscreen.

Final Verdict:
Okay, wow... I'm not going to completely read this book. This book is a manual. I suggested this for those who are not nerdy enough to research this themselves. No, I suggest it as a beauty bible for any woman with darker skin tone. It has information from alopecia to pregnancy to acne to plastic surgery. I want to buy this book for m mother! If you are suffering problems that you do not know the solution to, I recommend you look up this book in your library or buy it for your own reference whenever problems occur because this book gives you a good STARTING POINT to figuring out how to fix your specific problems. The down size is you need to kind of skim the whole book because good information for your problem (which may be a combination of problems) is scattered all over the book. Its all good information and a good place to start educating about how to keep yourself beautiful. A good reference book. I think I will buy this, actually, on ebay.

Another interesting thing Dr. Taylor says is that our hair has less bonds connecting the hair to the scalp, so they shed easier! Wow, boy am I glad I bought GARLIC pills today.