{"id":5708,"date":"2019-09-29T07:00:22","date_gmt":"2019-09-29T06:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tilibeauty.co.uk\/?p=5708"},"modified":"2019-09-29T07:00:22","modified_gmt":"2019-09-29T06:00:22","slug":"anna-francis-normal-skin-conditions-are-the-next-beauty-taboo-to-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stories.qvcuk.com\/beauty-insider\/josie-e\/anna-francis-normal-skin-conditions-are-the-next-beauty-taboo-to-break\/","title":{"rendered":"Anna Francis: normal skin conditions are the next beauty taboo to break"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cWhy do you always have a rash on your legs?\u201d my friend asked as we sat on the bench ahead of swimming class. I was around 13 and had, as far as I recall, never given the skin on my thighs much thought before. I didn\u2019t know the answer to her question but I immediately assumed that this \u2018rash\u2019 wasn’t normal. I went from barely having noticed it to then spending many, many years afterwards trying to fix it.<\/p>\n
It turned out though that, like many things in life, what I feared was abnormal about myself was in fact quite natural. I have keratosis pilaris, otherwise attractively known to some as \u2018chicken skin\u2019. It is described by the NHS as \u2018a very common, harmless condition where small bumps appear on your skin\u2019, which can be dry, rough and itchy and tend to form on the arms, thighs or bum. The condition – which happens when a build-up of keratin blocks the hair follicles – can run in families and has a tendency to stick around for years. Always nice to have something to look forward to\u2026<\/p>\n
With age I became increasingly aware of this staggering difference between my \u2018rash\u2019 legs and those that I saw in the media<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So why, with this being such a common affliction, did it make me feel so strange and embarrassed? Perhaps it\u2019s because, as a teenage girl looking to the outside world for reassurance, I\u2019d realised that this was something we just don\u2019t tend to see out in the open. After all, those affected by KP probably aren\u2019t too keen on showing off their bumpy skin for all to see (which I can now attest to), and for me – with the condition particularly manifesting on my thighs – this has been made worse by the lack of \u2018normal\u2019 looking legs in the media. Take a look through a glossy magazine and you\u2019ll notice that adverts and photoshoots tend to depict blemish-free, silky-smooth and evenly tanned pins – no \u2018chicken skin\u2019 in sight. And don\u2019t even get me started on the alarming falseness of many Instagram and social media images.<\/p>\n