Bianca Lawrence, a beautiful woman in her 20’s speaks out about hiding her skin condition and finding love within herself after years of trauma.
Being a make-up artist for Fenty Beauty involves providing an experience of feeling beautiful and enhancing confidence. 25-year-old Bianca Lawrence does exactly that and helps people reach their full potential every day.
Whilst hiding other people's imperfections, Bianca has done so with herself too, up until more recently when she revealed her true self to the British public.
Making her debut on channel 4 First Dates, no one could tell Bianca had keloid scars as she hid them under her braided blond and brown locks.
What are keloid scars, you may ask?
Keloid scars are a part of the skin that has raised after a cut, injury or acne, instead of healing. However, sometimes they do appear randomly for no particular reason. Keloid scars, which affect around 10-15% of all wounds, occur when there is an over production of collegan in the body. They may appear to look lumpy and can also be painful.
Bianca, mixed-raced, first realised she had keloid skin at the age of just thirteen. “I wanted it gone as soon as possible,” said Bianca, who’s keloids first started off as small as a ‘little pimple.’ Her keloid scarring was caused by her acne and soon begun to grow progressively.
The NHS stated that ‘people feel embarrassed or upset if they think the scar is disfiguring them.’
Bianca’s scars lead her into a spiral of depression. “My moods became really low to the point where I felt I didn’t want to exist. My depression & anxiety took over me. I told myself I couldn’t live like this anymore. I was basically missing out on my life and who I really was by hiding away.”
Whilst growing up, Bianca developed an attitude in school as a way to project confidence to the outside world. “I believe this was a cover up for the problems I was going through mentally in my head,” she explained.
After years of withholding herself and creating a false persona, Bianca took the plunge to post a picture of her keloids on Instagram.
With a history of negativity, Bianca tried to prepare herself for the worst but was surprised to see a string of positive comments beneath her picture. This was only the start of Bianca’s new journey, with the comments under her picture allowing her to have a new outlook on life.
Following her first post, Bianca has gained a large amount of following on her Instagram in which she now documents her journey through videos and the use of IGTV.
Bianca documents her highs and lows and expresses the concerns she had with her keloids and pushes her followers who also suffer with the scar tissue to embrace them a little more ‘day-by-day’.
Since posting her first picture with her keloids, Bianca has been able to go on holidays, to concerts and out with her friends without hiding them. As well as finding the confidence to go on Channel 4 First Dates in which she revealed her keloids to her date, Teza, revealing to him that she has been told to die. Teza responded “I love shapes and patterns, to me it is just another shape and pattern.”
Being a make-up consultant, Bianca has found creative techniques to highlight her scarring and making her scarring a work of art on her better days. She does this by using bronzer on her scars to make them shimmer, instead of having to wear high necks in summer and metal necklaces (which can actually burn her keloids and cause them to itch).
Bianca’s scars appear in a number of areas such as behind her ears and on her chest, sometimes developing into a size of a golf ball.
There are a variety of treatments and techniques to try and stop keloids from growing aggressively, such as the application of steroid tape, silicone gel sheeting, laser treatment and even surgery.
Bianca is currently undergoing treatment that consists of 3ml of steroid being injected into her scars on her face and then at least 70-85 shots of laser. This treatment will be in aid to prevent her scars from growing and to break down the overgrowth of her scar tissue.
“Be considerate and choose your words wisely. You might be able to see something physical but you don’t know how it truly affects someone mentally," she says.
Bianca plans to create awareness for people who suffer with keloid scaring as well as other skin conditions. “I would love to become a brand ambassador to help anyone who is scared of being their true self.”
“I truly believe you should be able to be yourself without being judged or criticised.”
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