Deanna's Journey: The Solution
Deanna’s life path has been punctuated by her search for a solution to her skin issues, the eczema that has influenced her journey, and inspired the birth of dea.
At first, as most of us do, Deanna followed doctors orders, applying steroid creams and baking on sunbeds. These offered her no respite, merely adding secondary symptoms to her already painful condition. Only years later did she realise she had been suffering from Topical Steroid Withdrawal, a little understood collection of symptoms – physical, mental and emotional – triggered by cessation of conventional treatment. Motivated by misery, she began delving into the mechanism of her eczema.
Deanna’s skin was protesting, and so she realised she must come into a new relationship with her body, to learn to listen to what it was asking for. Her first unbearable flare up came after a change in diet. A retreat consisting of a ten day supervised fast alongside daily yoga and nutritional education gave her profound relief. Deanna discovered the quality and composition of what she put into her body was reflected in her skin. For her, gluten, dairy and caffeine were triggers. She experimented with natural methods of boosting her body’s defences – homoeopathy, healing herbs, medicinal mushrooms, tonic teas. Eating clean was one thing she could do to alleviate the awful, head to toe cracked dryness that plagued her.
Deanna noticed, too, in times of stress her condition worsened. She began consciously caring for her mind and body through simple living – sleep and sunlight; regular breath, movement and mindfulness practice. Deanna trained and qualified as a yoga teacher, so that she might not only heal herself, but could give others a toolkit for calmness. She has always been invested in spreading her learning and her healing beyond herself to her community, one of the founding principles of dea.
The final piece of the puzzle fell into place when Deanna discovered the impact her environment had on her condition. Pollens and sprays in the air caused flare ups, even when her diet was clean and she was caring for mind and body with yoga. Chlorinated drinking and washing water dries her skin out, while collected rain water serves her. Almost all skin products were a hindrance, but she discovered raw, unprocessed, unpasteurised manuka honey to be a balm.
More than this, the fabrics she wore next to her skin made a huge difference to its reactions. A student of textile science she knew the huge number of poisonous chemicals used in regular clothing most of us are ignorant of, or assume to be benign. She began experimenting with organic fabrics and natural dyes, educating herself on what her body was asking for in order to be well. Though these were an improvement, she realised the metal mordant powders used to set the dyes were an irritant. She discovered she could use soy milk to do the same job without damaging her skin, or the environment.
This is what makes dea an exceptional product. Deanna is a founder on a continual learning journey to create something that not only looks great and ticks the clean, green, ethical boxes, but is authentically healthy. She is utterly uncompromising in her quest to make something she is proud to wear next to her skin, an organ that has taught her so much about what it takes to be well in mind, body and spirit. And you can feel it. Wearing dea feels like wearing a hug. Its buttery softness holds you close, safe and secure in the knowledge you are doing no harm – to the environment, to garment workers, and to your skin.
