Flaring Fashion Disaster

Flares are never fun. In my experience, they tend to come out of nowhere and they always happen when it’s most inconvenient. Nothing’s more disappointing than waking up one day and realizing you’re flaring, especially if you’ve been taking good care of your skin. I used to get depressed over a flare. I’d think “I’m not eating healthy enough.” Or “I did not use enough of my balms” I’d stress over it so much, that the stress became more of a problem than the flare itself.

Summer flare

When I had my first big flare, it was the middle of summer and it was incredibly hot. My outfits pretty much exclusively consisted of tank tops and shorts that summer. I was extremely nervous when my flare hit though, since tank tops and shorts were the only comfortable things I could wear, due to both the awful heat and my eczema making most of my clothing uncomfortable,

Stigma of a skin condition

I was worried that people would be grossed out by my flare or worse, I would get a sunburn on top of my eczema. Luckily I found an eczema friendly sunscreen and surprisingly, no one mentioned my flare, which for once, was really nice.

Going out

I woke up one morning extremely excited to go and hang out with my friends later that night, but to my surprise, I was flaring! I had an extremely cute outfit planned for that night, but I couldn’t wear it because of how uncomfortable it was due to my flare. I was deeply upset.

Compromising with eczema

Instead of my cute dress and boots, I wore a t-shirt and jogger pants. At first, I was pissed off, I had been eating so well, I had been applying my meds to it day and night, and I haven’t had a flare in such a long while, why couldn’t it have waited just another day or two?

Comfort over fashion

Later that day, I eventually accepted that I wouldn’t be wearing the adorable outfit I had planned and instead I was content to wear my T-shirt and jogger pants. They were comfortable and I looked just as good as I would’ve with the dress on. Yeah, I was still a bit disappointed, but I was much happier than I would’ve been if I had worn the dress. I’d much rather be comfy than to wear a dress that would’ve bothered me all night.

Accepting it

I used to get so upset over a flare, but now I’ve slowly learned that flares are okay. I mean, they still suck, but you shouldn’t beat yourself up over a flare, especially if it is just a random one. It's a normal thing. Yeah, it’s inconvenient a lot of the time and it can be uncomfortable at times, but it’s not the worst thing that can happen to me.

Now I’m always prepared for when a flare hits. I have a stock of natural medicine, skin care items, and comfy clothes, so when a flare hits, I’ll be good to go.