Skin health, according to Dr. Zein Obagi

Dr. Zein Obagi may be the frankest dermatologist you will ever meet. His passion for skin health is obvious, his contempt for doctors promising quick fixes for skin problems is even bigger, and his appetite for innovation leads him to seek new solutions for age-old skin problems and diseases.

But, first, he wants to make something clear. His line of skincare Zein Obagi (ZO Skin Health) is not the same as those distributed by the House of Obagi, which he calls “obsolete.” He says he has left that company years ago even though it still bears his name. “They own the name, it’s a trademark. I don’t endorse them anymore because these are from decades ago, the golden age at the time. I have nothing to do with them and I’m not competing. Business doesn’t die quickly but doctors and patients who will switch to the new products will force the old one to die.” 

Dr. Obagi was in Manila last week to conduct a symposium as part of his Asian “tour,” which included Singapore, Seoul and Hong Kong.  That he is described as a “rock star” is neither strange nor silly because he does have a strong following among women around the world. He has treated and studied Asian skin for decades and counts Filipinos among his most loyal patients, here and in his LA clinic. 

The symposium he conducted here was attended by more than 300 Filipino dermatologists and his newly launched products are distributed by ZO Skin Health, which is managed by Hayden Kho, and used by dermatologists and clinics around the country including the Belo Medical Group.

The ZO Skin Health medical line is prescribed by dermatologists who design a program based on what you need, including cleansers, oil control, advanced anti aging (containing retinol), bleaching and blending, Glycogent (exfoliation accelerator) Hydrafirm (eye brightening cream), and Melamix (pigmentation repair cream).

Excerpts:

PHILIPPINE STAR: What brings you to the Philippines this time?

DR. ZEIN OBAGI: I am a Filipino (laughs). I love this place. We are trying to expand Skin Health, which I created more than 25 years ago. Technology and knowledge have changed. If you are using Nu-Derm, you are using 25-year-old technology. We have learned many things since, when to do peels, when to do laser, how to use creams in a more effective way and how to get the best results after each treatment.

A big part is teaching doctors how to do prevention. We don’t want to wait for people to get problems, we want to prevent problems. Prevention and medical treatment, we can put those in a continuous cycle. It’s a well-rounded scientific approach. We improve skin on the cellular level. The skin is not a wall that you paint over. That doesn’t work. The skin is a living organ, you have to activate every cell to maintain baby skin.

Can you? Up to what age?

Any age. We can prevent aging if you start below 25 or 30, we can prevent diseases if you start as a teenager, and we can prevent and treat aging above 30. I am trying to teach doctors that procedures play a good role in improving skin. Lasers and peels are absolutely useless if you don’t strengthen the skin before doing the procedures.

What is the right way then?

Creams first to strengthen and improve skin — and maybe that’s all you need. If there is a stubborn problem then you do procedures. When you finish the procedure you go back to the creams because nothing lasts forever. All these are things that have changed.

I have seen patients using the old creams for years and they don’t change. That’s stupid because skin builds resistance. So we are creating alternatives, a much more expanded approach.

Think of my treatment program as building a house. If you build a house without foundation the house will collapse. But if you put a foundation, strengthen the skin with creams, improve cell function, and then you can do certain procedures.

Some doctors do procedures just to make money. Women are crazy, they want solutions overnight, and doctors want to make money. Within four to five months I can fix any skin problem.

Does the problem come back after six months?

Nothing is permanent. If the problem is related to genetics and hormones, if you stop using treatments, your problem will come back. But now we have learned how to avoid that if you follow a maintenance and prevention program.

Since you have a lot of Filipino patients, what have you noticed about Filipino skin?

Asian skin tends to react more negatively to sun, it has a higher tendency to pigmentation, so you have to make it healthy and strong for it to react normally and prepare it for procedures, put a good preventive program.

I’ve always been under the impression that it was Caucasian skin that reacts more negatively to the sun.

Caucasian skin, yes, it reacts negatively by forming skin cancer and other more advanced damage. In terms of pigmentation, Asian skin creates more problems and here 90 percent of the pigmentation treatment is wrong. Don’t depend on laser and IPL and other procedures, you have to treat skin at the cellular level.

So you use the creams, the machines and then the creams again?

Many times, you don’t need the machines anymore but there are persistent skin problems that benefit from it. You start with the least invasive, the least expensive and you add things as you move along.

DR. VICKI BELO: In the Philippines everybody wants to do peeling, every beauty parlor offers it. So they look beautiful for three weeks and then become worse because you’re just peeling off the surface of the skin, you’re not conditioning inside up. And now your skin is bare and the sun is harsh.  Dr. Obagi has a sunscreen that’s so amazing; it has (false) melanin so the sun hits it instead of your own skin. It’s tinted to our skin color and matte so some people use it as a BB cream and they don’t bother to put on makeup anymore. You are protected for 10 hours, which is what you need.

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For inquiries on ZO Skin Health, ask your dermatologist or call 887-6385; e-mail info@zoskinhealth.com.ph, log on to http://www.zoskinhealth.com.ph.