How Skin Irritation Affects Families

When reactive skin compromised Terrence’s quality of life, it affected our entire family. Together we did all we could to care for him. Our quest to relieve his discomfort inspired the creation of 7 Fathom’s Seawise Extra Strength Repair Cream. 

Many families have an all too familiar story. After endless searching for solutions to their skin issues, ineffective products discourage them.

Those with loved ones working in trades and heavy industries, sometimes stationed in remote areas with extreme weather conditions, are especially familiar with this feeling. The worker returns home to hug their husband, wife, or child, only for the severity of their cracked, dry, bleeding hands to confront their family member.

Environmental Stress on the Job Site

This was the reality for customers Rhonda and Chris. A compromised skin barrier is part and parcel of most jobs in the trades and Chris’s career as a miner on Baffin Island was no different. His hands-on job requires the dexterity to perform fine mechanical work outdoors without any gloves, leaving his hands exposed to the dry, cool, arctic air. Rhonda recalls how Chris would return home with hands “like sandpaper.” Exposed to extreme temperatures, weather, and oxidative stress, seaweed produces a range of bioactive compounds, including marine polyphenols and antioxidants, to withstand the environmental stress many trades workers experience on the job.

How Seawise Extra Strength Repair Cream Restores Skin and Confidence

Through companionship Rhonda and Chris overcame apathy and uncertainty, discovering their shared belief in Seawise Extra Strength Repair Cream. It was Rhonda who “bought [Chris] so many medicated creams, organic creams, locally made creams, and not locally made creams to try to encourage him to use something.” Time and again she would find disposed bottles, evidence of his frustration, of someone perceiving their skin condition as a lost cause. Her relentless search to help her husband led her to discover the Seawise Extra Strength Repair Cream. As she had already done many times before, she gave him some samples that she found in a natural health store, the question “I wonder if it’ll work this time” a lingering hope in the back of her mind. On their next visit Chris approached her holding two bottles of the cream, causing Rhonda to realize that he had finished the samples. Confident in the effectiveness of our cream, for the first time “he took the initiative to replenish his own supply.”

The blend of Laminaria Digitata and Bladderwrack extracts in our cream is often effective at soothing itchiness, reducing dryness, and replenishing the skin’s moisture barrier. That occurred to Rhonda immediately as she held her husband’s hands. Much to her amazement “they actually felt like a human hand.” Normally dirt and grit appeared on Chris’s hands from the depletion of his skin barrier. After his short trial using the cream, his hands were visibly rejuvenated, by all appearances the skin barrier more resilient than it’s been in years. 

“My hands aren't itchy anymore, and they aren't dried out. I've also noticed that the iron ore doesn't get buried into my skin the way it used to. It helps keep it from getting embedded.” 

How Skin Stories Support Friends and Family to Overcome Chronic Skin Conditions and Stigma

At work the improvement of his skin did not go unnoticed. The visible improvement of Chris’s hands made his colleagues curious. Not before long Chris was telling them how Rhonda had put him onto the Seawise Extra Strength Repair Cream, encouraging them to give it a shot. The gender neutral packaging and fragrance-free product were also noteworthy for Rhonda. Its simplicity and approachability are gateways to comfort for those self-conscious about the potential stigmas of purchasing skincare products. 

Her husband’s clean, smooth skin encouraged Rhonda to ask herself again, “I wonder if…”, thinking of a patch of psoriasis on his back. It was a stubborn case, persisting for fifteen years, but with new resolve she applied the barrier cream to the spot. The next day she checked the effectiveness of the cream on his psoriasis, but she “couldn’t find it.” The fifteen year bout of inflammation “just wasn’t there.” Since then she’s “recommended [the cream] to everybody who tells me they have a skin problem. I just tell them: try it.” 

A friend of hers, a naturopath whose husband had dealt with psoriasis for years, quickly came to mind. She distinctly remembers how she “dragged her to the same natural health store where I buy it. She bought one too. About a week later, she texted me and said her husband Warren's skin was almost totally healed after just one week.” 

Sharing Is a Stepping Stone for Supporting

Stories like Rhonda and Chris, about care, encouragement, trust, helping friends and family who then feel empowered to share their story, reinforces how our work supports more than just the skin. It also encourages us to keep researching and developing new products, to celebrate the power of seaweed and the narratives of our clients. For these reasons we like to say “care is our first ingredient.”