pipimarbo

I have been reading on the net about bikram practitioners’ experiences on the long term effect of the heat on the skin. There was one thread on females in China concerning about the adverse effect of the heat on their faces. I could not locate that thread again but I am interested to hear more about others’ experiences or guru’s advice on this.

I am also a female of Chinese origin and have been practising Bikram for a year in Perth. I do between 5-6 classes a week and have done a few consecutive stretches of practises (some referred them as challenges but I see it as a daily healing routine, such as over 100 days straight or 30 days straight). Normally I do 7 to 10 days straight then have a rest day.

As a female I sweat profusely during the class. I am usually drenched by the end of the second set of breathing and the two large bath towels I used, one on top of the other are usually fully soaked after the class. I only weight myself once before and after class and there was an over 2kg difference of the water weight on that occasion. Then I commence my rehydrating then the next day the whole drink-sweat cycle starts again.

I do not mind the heat or the sweat, but what bothers me is all my pores have been significantly enlarged due to this daily heat sensitised routine. My facial skin becomes significantly rougher and sagged more. I thought that might be the result of the entire 90 minutes drenching in the sweat. I clean my face totally before the class. I do not touch my face or wipe the sweat unless I could not see (usually once towards the end), and I keep the face bit of the towel folded until we come down to the floor, so it was never stood on. My headband is usually totally soaked and dripping by the end of the standing series so I remove it when we lie down.

I use dermalogica ultra calming (spread and cleanser) range afterwards and recently I started putting on a mask containing cucumber and aloe vera right after the shower to calm the sensitised skin. Perth’s dry heat in summer did not help with the situation.

I have been observing the long term and frequent females practitioners of my age group here (approaching 40) and some have aged skin and some have rather nice complexion. I also enquired with the teachers and they said the long term effect should be detoxing on the skin. A few of more senior practitioners here do have very ageless look (I am sure they are much older then how they look).

I had bikram rash also in the beginning of my practise by it all cleared itself nicely. I have no issue on skin of any other part of my body. They have become more youthful, in fact.

I would like to continue the bikram practise if I can manage the issue of my face being overly heat-sensitised.

Appreciate any input or comment. Thank you.