Okay so this has officially gone too far. I am not talking theoretical skincare philosophy anymore, I am not talking about hypothetical sunburn, I currently have an active, real, visible rash on my body right now, and I am using a cream that has worked before, historically, with results, a track record, actual evidence that exists in the real world. And my friend, mid tube-based ideological crusade, looked at this rash, looked at the cream that has previously cured this exact rash, and said I should stop using it anyway.

I want to really sit with that for a second. This isn’t “don’t use sunscreen because maybe skin cancer is overblown.” This is “there is a problem happening on your body right now, you have the solution in your hand, it has worked before, but you should not use it,” which is possibly the least evidence-based piece of advice a human has ever given another human. At this point he’s not even reacting to new information. He’s not weighing pros and cons. He’s just pattern matching “cream” to “bad” and running with it regardless of what’s actually in front of him, rash and all.

I tried the obvious thing. I said, “hey, this isn’t theoretical, I’ve used this exact cream before, for this exact rash, and it went away.” And he just shrugged and said something like “yeah but creams are still bad for you,” as if my actual lived experience, my actual results, my actual rash clearing up in the past, somehow doesn’t count as evidence anymore because it conflicts with a belief he picked up from one guy, one time, in one conversation, about a completely different thing.

This is the part that really gets me. He’s not even citing anything specific about THIS cream. He’s not saying “well, that particular ingredient’s been linked to X.” He’s applying a blanket anti-cream policy, originally inspired by a 90-year-old stranger’s thoughts on sunscreen, to a completely unrelated rash cream, as if “cream” is one single monolithic substance instead of, you know, thousands of different products with different purposes, made by different companies, for different reasons. Hydrocortisone and sunscreen are not the same thing just because they both come in a tube. By that logic toothpaste and glue are the same thing because they’re both in similar packaging.

So at this point I’ve just started nodding and continuing to use my cream anyway, because here’s the thing, I have a rash, right now, and the thing that treats it is right there, previously proven to work, and I am not about to let a theory inspired by one leathery stranger’s lifelong grudge against lotion dictate my actual medical treatment. My great grandmother already taught me how this story ends if you skip the cream. I’m not doing round two.

Anyway the rash is already looking better since I started applying it again, so really, the science has spoken, it’s just that my friend has decided he’s not listening to it anymore.