Summer Style Confidence with Psoriasis

One thing I have been trying to teach myself this summer is to not be afraid to reveal my psoriasis spots with clothing that is slightly more revealing, but more weather appropriate. During the winter time, it is easy to hide my psoriasis as it is essential to keep warm and cover up nearly all areas of skin. But during the summer, insecurities associated with the appearance of my psoriasis begin to cloud my judgement on what to wear. On one side, I want to be confident and wear open back tops and dresses, or slightly cropped tops, or t-shirts that reveal my elbows. My stomach, elbow, and back psoriasis are my biggest insecurities. Especially my stomach. I don't remember the last time I went to a public pool with friends. It is quite intimidating to see girls with their clear skin, and constantly think of how my entire stomach is covered with psoriasis. When it comes to wearing a two piece bikini, I hesitate all the time. My last experience with wearing a two piece bikini in public was on my trip to the Dominican Republic two summers ago (August 2015). I was eager to clear my psoriasis naturally by relaxing, sunbathing and swimming in the clear ocean water for 7 consecutive days. Luckily, everything cleared within a week and I was happy for a short period of time with my clear skin. Unfortunately, once school began in September again, I slowly started getting more and more spots. Although the new spots were in different locations, they did not appear different in texture or color than my previous spots, so I was sure it was the same type of outbreak. Wearing a t-shirt always reminds me that my elbows are exposed an that is also an insecurity of mine. But over this summer (May-August 2017) I have slowly regained my confidence to expose my arms completely and not worry too much about the psoriasis on my elbows. Below is a photo of my psoriasis on my stomach and elbows, as I am posing lying down in my jeans and bralette.

July 3, 2017

The psoriasis on my elbows may seem blotchy, but it is much better than before. The spots have lightened in color and are peeling less. Same goes for my stomach, where you can see clear spots in the center of what used to be a large pink scaled spot. 

Here is a photo of my psoriasis on my elbows before, when it used to be a lot itchier and had more skin scales. This photo was taken 7 months before the previous photo. Although the breakout is bigger now, the spots do feel a lot less painful. 

January 30, 2017

Although it is not as big of an insecurity of mine, my psoriasis on my legs also become a slight insecurity for me in the summer time. Since shorts and skirts are much more weather appropriate during this time of year, I begin to question whether I can pull off wearing bottoms that reveal my legs completely. I still remember 3 years ago, during the summer of 2014 when I was working at a restaurant as a hostess, and it was part of uniform to wear a pencil skirt that revealed our legs from the knee down. This was an issue for me as I had psoriasis spots on my legs and a coworker once asked me if my psoriasis was contagious! I was surprised by his comment, and quickly became embarrassed. With that said, I do not wear skirts out as often ever since, and when I do decide to reveal my legs I choose to do so with ripped jeans. The trick with ripped jeans is that they only reveal your skin in certain areas which might not be covered in spots. Tada, problem fixed! But unfortunately this trick only works when the weather is not extremely hot and I can get away with going outdoors in a pair of ripped jeans. Here is a photo of my ripped jeans that I have worn this summer. 

July 27, 2017

As you can see, I had to pull down the denim fabric in order to see the psoriasis spot, which appears to be fading in color!

Here is another photo of the same denim ripped jeans. They also expose a large area of my thigh, particularly an area that I previously burned with boiling water (by accident), and then discovered a psoriasis spot in the center of the scar of the burn. The spot is very small and not very noticeable in person. But this is a good example of taking pants that are only revealing in areas that you want to show off! 

July 27, 2017