WHY ARE YOUNG WOMEN’S BODIES FALLING APART?
Sana* sits in the magnolia-walled office of a dermatologist’s office. Angry red bumps line her chin, climbing all the way up to her cheek on the right-hand side of her face. She twirls her chestnut-brown hair anxiously. There used to be a lot more of it there. Now, there is dry flaking scalp where baby hair used to sprout.
Someone at the front desk calls her name. A woman in a white coat with a clipboard says that the psychodermatologist will see her now.
As you probably already know, there’s something strange going on with India’s Bright Young Things—those twenty-and thirty-somethings speed-walking alongside us through the city streets. Hair loss, breakouts, cystic acne, dermatitis, or eczematic eruptions on their bodies or faces have gone from unlucky fluke to uncomfortable norm in just a few short years. And not only can we barely keep up with the raft of new products supposedly designed to help stem the problem (that’s those grown-up spot serums, redness-soothing cleansers and follicle-stimulating scalp scrubs)—and a growing number of private and government clinics around the world are adding psychodermatologists to their roster of experts. Specialising in treating the
