Hadiyah Daché is an esthetician from East Palo Alto, who recently relocated her Fairy Glow Mother business to Oakland.
Her skincare work covers everything from finding remedies for acne to waxing intimate areas, to so much more.
In this conversation, we touch on Hadiyah’s roots in EPA, her entrepreneurial drive and why skincare is deeper than just applying sunblock– which she suggests you do multiple times of day if you’re outside in the summer months.
Below are lightly edited excerpts of my conversation with Hadiyah Daché.
Pen: Why should you even care about skincare?
Hadiyah: The skin is the body’s first line of defense. So everything that you put on it acts, as a for lack of better words, as a way of armor, protecting the skin. So that harmful things aren’t getting into your body through your skin. Your skin care routine isn’t anything more than just like practicing good hygiene and just keeping yourself protected.
Pen: Alright, now for real I got questions, base level skincare stuff.
Hadiyah: Yes.
Pen: I wonder: is it really that important to have two different loofahs, one for my body and one for my face?
Hadiyah: Oh, my god, Yes! you gonna wash your face with the same thing you wash your ass with?
Pen: I mean, there’s soap on it?
Hadiyah: (Laughs) No. Also, most of the like loofahs we would use on our body are a little bit more abrasive. The skin on our face, it’s stretched a little thinner. We don’t have as much adipose tissue to support the skin. We can’t be as abrasive on the face as we are with the rest of the body. Your fingertips actually work amazing. So you can just use your hands. And cleanse. And pat dry. But yes, I would hope that anyone out there listening is not using the same thing they use on their body for their face.
Pen: Do you have any suggestions on how to like not make my hands so ashy?
Hadiyah: Yes! My grandmother would have us, when we got out of the bath, she would slather our hands in some Corn Huskers lotion. Today, the bottle looks old as hell. Like it still looks like the bottle from like 1940 or whatever. And then Vaseline. Every black grandmother’s favorite. And then she would put like these little white usher gloves on us and we had to put on some thick socks and then we’d go to bed. But when you wake up your hands be like smooth and you don’t be ashy at all.
Pen: I was told that I can put toothpaste on my pimples?
Hadiyah: You don’t want to put toothpaste on your pimples. It’s not doing much of anything. I think a lot of people like it for the cooling sensation. But you would be much better off applying a pimple patch over it. You can’t see them. You do a pimple patch or you can use a more specialized spot treatment, something with benzoyl peroxide, maybe like a 5 percent benzoyl peroxide or like a 2 percent salicylic acid. Those would work great with getting rid of your pimples. Sulfur also works amazing.
Pen: Straight sulfur?
Hadiyah: Yes, sulfur. It stinks. But it works.
Pen: As we move toward summertime, people are starting to come out of their caves. Do you have any advice for skincare for people who just haven’t been outside in a while?
Hadiyah: Wear sunscreen. Reapplying every two hours is important. And the best way to reapply is with a sunscreen miss or a spray. And I do have some tips for at home waxing or sugaring that I’ve posted on my Instagram. If you can avoid waxing yourself, then yes. But if you if you can’t. I have some tips for you as well.
Pen: So I’m like shaking my head over here, to hear you talk about it, it just looks so painful. On top of that, I was driving, I passed up like a strip mall the other day and there were some promotions for a Man-zilian.
Hadiyah: Yes.
Pen: Man-zilians are a thing?
Hadiyah: Yes, it is. At my spot it’s called a Bruh-zilian. But yes. Same thing. You should give it a try. I encourage all of the fellas. You know, be free.
Pen: Go get your Bruh-zilian.
CORRECTION: Hadiyah’s last name is spelled Daché.
Rightnowish is an arts and culture podcast produced at KQED. Listen to it wherever you get your podcasts or click the play button at the top of this page and subscribe to the show on NPR One, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.
