Mariah Perkins has finally embraced her vitiligo after years of spending hundreds of dollars monthly on thick make-up to cover it.
Mariah, a criminology student from Timonium, Maryland, got so skilled at masking it that if you didn’t look at her white hands, it was impossible to tell she had vitiligo.
Mariah would rely on heavy-duty foundations, which she blended herself to get the perfect skin match and setting powders.
When she got into college, Mariah slept with her make-up on. Until she got tired of masking her face in foundation.
The student posted pictures showing her natural beauty on social media and was amazed by the positive comments she received. Mariah is now happy to go out in public bare-faced.
“I don’t cover it up because at the end of the day I really can’t do much about it to change it. I have to live with it so I guess everybody else does too,” Mariah said. “I think what helped me realize the beauty in my skin condition is just taking the time to look at it and its uniqueness and seeing how it looks with an open mind, rather than looking at it as ‘this is a skin condition.'”
“I tell myself every day that I look beautiful, and plus it didn’t hurt that people told me as well.”
While vitiligo doesn’t physically hurt those who have it, the white patches can grow and spread onto the skin over time. In her case, her vitiligo started as a tiny dot on her finger when she was in seventh grade.
“It was like a really small spot on my hand and it kind of gradually spread to spots on my nose and my eyes, and that’s when I first started to notice it,” Mariah said. “It wasn’t a super concern until it took up about 90 percent of my face.”
She then consulted it with four dermatologists before the diagnosis of vitiligo was confirmed.
“We went to [the] doctors’, me and my mom, and they told us what it was,’ the student said. ‘At first we really kind of had no idea.,’” Mariah said.
She started covering up the light patches on her face, thinking she would be bullied due to her vitiligo.
“I was already shy, I think it just made me more self-conscious and overly concerned about my make-up,” Mariah said. “I think that was another big reason I wore the make-up cause I didn’t want to be known as the girl with the skin condition.”
However, the amount of money, time, and worry she was spending on covering her vitiligo started to take its toll on her.
“It was easier to wear make-up than to constantly have to explain what the condition was to people at that young age.
But wearing that much make-up all the time was time-consuming and expensive,” she said. “I would go through setting powder in two weeks, so I was buying $25-30 setting powder every two weeks, and I was buying foundations every month, so I was going through hundreds of dollars of make-up”.
“You don’t realize how many times of the day you touch your face or don’t realize how many times you lay your head on somebody’s shoulders, hug somebody and they have a lighter colored shirt or just as simple as going swimming or sleeping at other people’s houses,” Mariah said.
“I always had to have my make-up with me, whenever I left the house I had my make-up on, if I ever stayed at someone’s house I slept with it on.”
“Growing up I felt like I had to wear make-up every day to get through the day or to not be looked at a certain way,” she said. “And then as I got older I started to wear less and less, it became more of my choice and that is where the empowerment came for me.”
“People started to see me on social media, and it made it easier for the transition,” Mariah added. “I do not wear make-up anymore to cover up my condition, in about a month or two it would be about a year since I have stopped wearing it officially.”
The cause of vitiligo is still unknown and although laser treatment can reduce the loss of pigmentation, there is no cure for the condition.
“I think I was meant to go through it for a reason so I can help others go through it and make it easier,” she said. “I am a strong person and it made me stronger so definitely I am thankful for the experience it has given me.”
“I definitely wouldn’t have taken it away because I would not have been the person I am today without it.”