Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with redness

My love for you is like a red, red nose...

Phalene — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 11:41:40 -0800

Rosacea management: care and hiding of a sometimes red face? Several questions all on one topic inside. I have moderate rosacea that afflicts only my nose. The antibiotics removed the surface damage, curing the bumps so I'm merely pink instead of red, inflamed and spotty, but discovering that I have an incurable tendency to flush in a disfiguring fashion means that I want to know the best ways to manage my condition on the other hand I don't want to live my life trying to avoid everything that could cause a rush of blood to prevent a flare up. So:

1) My dermatologist gave me a huge long list of things to avoid based on 'typical' rosacea suffers. Most of these (hot baths/showers/exertion/sun) certainly turn my feet red, but seem to improve my facial redness by fading it. Cold, allergens and surface bacteria seem to be my triggers. How to cope? I’m Canadian, so avoiding the whole winter thing is a non-option.

2) As a contact lense wearer, I find that eye irritation causes me to flush a little bit. How can I minimize this until I can get laser eye surgery (in another 2 or 3 years)? I would swap back to glasses, but the difference in vision between contacts and glasses is for me, considerable. How can I keep my eyes less inflamed, and thus my nose healthy?

3) As a female I want to wear makeup. What lines and brands of foundation/concealer/powder/etc should I look for, that I can use to cover the pink, when I don’t want to look cute and windblown, which have a good track record for sensitive skin? It’s no use hiding the pink only to turn it red with a flare up.

4) The ‘if left untreated’ pictures are ghastly and some things I’ve read say that getting worse is normal. Do I have a future of looking like boil covered raw meat, or do people generally do okay and this is those extreme pictures you typically find in medical texts? Similarly some sources say going into remission is possible (ie Wikipedia). How complete is that remission?

5) On the internet, rosacea seems to be a topic prone to voodoo cures and conflicting information. While interesting reading, what are the best rosacea resources? Non-flakey (ie actually has studies for their ‘emu-oil’ cure ideas) are best.

6) Socially speaking, how do I deal with nice people asking about my skin affliction (ie ‘You have a cold?’) or idiots humming ‘Rudolph’ in what they think is taking the mickey out of me, but is making my self esteem wither? I mean asides from screeching ‘Christ, what an asshole?’

7) I'm 22, and it seems to have started at 20. What gives? I thought this was a middle aged lady disease? Is this something to follow up on? Or is is just genetic luck of the draw, given that my mother has a pink nose too?

8) Anything else I should know about rosacea?

Our lcd tv suddenly shows red pixelation on dark colured areas. What gives?

jacalata — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 05:45:20 -0800

Our new digital television just started showing red highlights on dark colours. What's wrong? It's an LG HDTV flatscreen lcd of around 50 inches. My housemate bought it last week ex-display, and it's been beautiful until we started watching the football tonight. Now on some dark areas, red pixels appear as a sort of highlight mostly around the edges and in the centre. It still happens if we plug the antenna directly into the TV (so it's not the dvd player), and it also happens when we play dvds, so it's not the reception. The problem is reduced by turning up the brightness so that less dark colours appear, but not removed. The three of us agree that this problem is new as of today.

Red Blotches From Shaving. Help.

logovisual — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 07:35:40 -0800

I shaved my face last night in order to buy me some more time this morning, but it seems like I overdid it, and now there are giant red blotches of irritation all over my face and neck. I have a date tonight. Help me to not look like a chump? For the record, I'm now at the office, so I can't do anything too complicated that might invole showering or the such. There is a Duane Reade pharmacy right around the corner, though, so I can buy things if needed. What's your advice for making these disappear by 7PM Eastern? Will periodic splashing with cold water help, or hurt?

How to reduce redness after a skin abrasion heals?

obliquicity — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 11:34:09 -0800

I fell down while running and abraded my chin. Two weeks later, I have a red circle of healed skin on my chin. It looks silly, and I'd like it to go away faster (similar abrasions on my arms took over a year to disappear, and although I treated my chin better, I'm still worried). I tried to google solutions, but everything I came across was either about disguising it (makeup, etc, which I don't wear and am uncomfortable with because I'm fairly convinced it will look worse rather than better), or about getting rid of scar tissue (I'm not sure I'd consider the perfectly-ordinary-but-pink skin "scar tissue" -- an interpretation that is borne out by the descriptions of products and their effects that I've been reading). Is there a way to reduce the redness? Why is it still red, when it feels healed?

Racoon Eyes

awesomebrad — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 22:11:51 -0800

I've got a ridiculous looking sunburn... I've stupidly managed to get myself a uniquely ridiculous looking sunburn the day before a big date. How can I eliminate or at least lessen the redness of the sunburn before tomorrow night? I'm already moisturizing like crazy, applying a topical steroid, and taking ibuprofen.

Alternately, what's the best way to cover it up if I can't get rid of it by tomorrow night?

What relieves facial redness due to accumulated sun damage?

Sallysings — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 12:23:14 -0800

What relieves facial redness due to accumulated sun damage? My bf is in his late 30's. He spent a lot of time outdoors in his youth, and recently (in the past couple of years) his face started flushing. It's a permanent redness that just wouldn't go away.

I've nagged him into wearing sunscreen in the morning (sometimes) and if he's going to spend all day outdoors, but I told him that redness due to broken capillaries in his skin is irreversible; it's like drinking for most of your life and getting that ruddy face from it. BUT barring a fotofacial (which I'm not sure if it works, and it is quite expensive) are there topical creams that can reduce the redness over time?

We also live in TO, so aside from sun, we're also raging against dry, cold winter.