Three months ago I was riding an ornery, tall, Hanoverian mare on dirt. Everything seemed to be fine and we were trotting along and then she got scared because of a noise in the distance and decided to throw me off. I did a deep dive, face first into the dirt. Then I got up, climbed back on and finished riding.
After the adrenaline wore off I noticed that my skin burned, there was dirt and some gravel embedded inside, and was bleeding a bit. I also had a concussion.
I didn't get to a mirror until an hour later and I was able to see the extent of the injury to my skin. There was a silver-dollar sized wound on the left side of my face along the jaw line. It looked like a severe burn but didn't hurt very much.
The wound was bad, and I looked at my skin and was ready to admit that I may be permanently scarred from this incident. The skin around the jawline is thinner than skin around the cheeks, which means it takes longer to heal, and may never heal completely.
However, as of today the wound is completely gone, the skin is exactly the same as the uninjured skin on my face, and there is no evidence that any wound ever existed.
This is what I did to remove a large, deep and severe wound from my face.
Week 1
The first thing that I did was clean the area thoroughly. I used the Oil Dissolution Theory Cleanser for about 5 minutes because of all of the dirt and small rocks that were stuck inside my skin. Once everything was cleaned I put Neosporin on the wound to prevent infection, and then a bit of Vaseline to seal it in. I then covered everything with a bandage and left it overnight.
When I was studying the biology of wound healing, it was understood that the common finding among all research studies was that in order to heal, the wound must be kept wet. Oil and hydration are key to wound healing, and for the entire span of this healing process I made sure that the wound was never dry.
I followed the above and nothing else for 3 days.
Then I stopped using Neosporin and just cleansed and used Vaseline until the wound closed up a little bit. There was a lot of raw skin exposed and before using any skin care I wanted to make sure that there was a slight layer of skin that formed first.
Weeks 2-4
The wound closed up slightly at this point and I added a couple of products to the routine to aid in the wound healing process. I added UV-R and Serum Bioluminelle to my regimen to reduce inflammation, and to add hydration to the area. It is also important at this point to note that for two months, I avoided ALL exfoliation to the affected area. There was no skin here, and any exfoliating acids can cause damage.
During this time period my routine to the affected area was as follows:
AM Routine:
3. Sunscreen
PM Routine:
4. Vaseline over affected area
After 4 weeks, this is what my skin looked like:
At this point the wound started to raise a bit. When I ran my fingers over the wound, the skin was elevated compared to the neighboring uninjured skin. I was concerned about this because raised skin often means keloid scar formation, and when keloid scars form, they usually never go away.
Weeks 4-6
I kept up with the same skin care routine and this was how my skin healed
The skin was less red, but it became slightly bumpy and was itchy. Adding more serum alleviated the itchiness and redness.
I noticed that the healing was moving along well, but I wanted the wound to heal faster.
I started adding The Eye Serum to the affected area and this accelerated the healing process by a lot more than I was expecting.
Week 7
The wound is less red, and was now flat. I was relieved at this point that no keloid scar formed, and I believe this was due to using proper skin care.
Week 8-10
At this point I added in the Concentrates: UVR Concentrate and The Advancement Concentrate, which will be available for sale by the end of the year once the formula is finalized.
My routine was as follows:
AM Routine:
4. Sunscreen
PM Routine
3. UVR Concentrate
4. The Advancement Concentrate
And the result was the following:
The wound is just about gone at this point. You can see a faint red outline, but only if you look closely under intense lighting.
At this point the skin healed enough that it was safe to begin exfoliation again.
Week 12
My routine for the final week of healing was as follows:
AM Routine:
PM
3. UVR Concentrate
4. The Advancement Concentrate
And this is the final result
The wound is now completely gone. No scar, no redness, and no evidence that there was ever an injury to the area.
Wounds occur all the time, and the important thing is to understand how to heal them properly. With proper care you can either avoid a scar completely, or make it near invisible. The best way to do this is with proper skin care, and avoiding things that can inflame the skin.
Proper skin care includes:
Gentle, oil-based cleansing
Anti-inflammatory serums that are both oil and water-based.
Locking in the hydration
Things that inflame the skin and will make wounds worse include
Essential oils
Fragrance
Alcohols
Exfoliating acids too early in the healing process
Applying pure inflammatory oils to the skin, such as olive oil
It is also important to eat a healthy diet because your body needs nutrition to allow the biological healing mechanisms to function properly.
As a final note, if you get injured and there is a wound, do your best to not get upset. It was an unpleasant experience having a large gash on my face, but I didn't worry about it too much. I just went ahead with my skin care regimen and allowed that to work. And if someone commented on the wound, I took it as a compliment because it means that my skin must normally look very nice for people to notice any aberration.
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03/01/2020: Wound free, shown here with Sophomoric, a 3 year old Thoroughbred filly, future champion racehorse and the sweetest little girl in the barn.