I wouldn’t roll my 35-week-pregnant belly to chat with just any celebrity, but as a huge Girls fan, I was eager to meet Allison Williams, and she exceeded the hype. Before I even sat down, we got to chatting like old friends about all things C-sections, men leering at pregnant bodies and the third-trimester acid reflux.
Mere hours after I left Williams’ side, the Girls revival was announced. Much of the regular cast is returning to film a five-episode limited run this summer, but Williams is relieved that, this time, her eczema won’t be joining them. During our chat, she recalled the discomfort she was in while accepting a Golden Globe for the show in 2014 because of scratches, rashes and hives hidden beneath her gown. Luckily, a couple of years ago Williams found a solution that keeps her eczema at bay.
Ahead, Williams shares what her skin-care routine looks like now, how motherhood changed her definition of self-care and what her dream day off looks like.
When did you first start dealing with eczema?
“For forever, I've had it for as long as I can remember, which is really weird because I don't know if you have experienced this before, where you have something in your life that you just sort of adjust to having, such that you kind of forget that it's there, but then once you're treating it, you realize what a pain it was.
So I spent my whole life basically having flareups on my calves. That was kind of my main location. I know a lot of people have it on their elbows or hands, but mine was on my calves. It was so bad that when I was little, sometimes I would wear gloves to sleep so that I couldn't itch, but then in my sleep I would take them off and itch anyway, and there would be blood on the sheets when I woke up, like really intense. But again, I just adjusted to it. I just thought, I don't know, this is how it is.
I had been to dermatologists. I'd tried prescription topicals. They had not been working, and then for some reason, when it went to my scalp, I think there was something about it showing up in a different place; I was like, ‘Okay, I have to deal with this now.’ So then I talked to my dermatologist, and knowing that the prescription topicals had not been working, she recommended Dupixent or Dupilumab, if you're being technical about it. What was revelatory about it was realizing that there was something else out there that I had not tried, and that there was a version of having this thing that I had always had that was going to be different. Once I had adjusted to it, I just wasn't sure it was ever going to change. And obviously, like any medication, there are benefits and risks, and she talked me through all of them.
The biggest reservation I had is that it's an injection and I'm really scared of injections. So for me to decide to give myself an injection every two weeks, for who knows how long, the bar was high for the efficacy. I really wanted to feel less itch and have it all be working, and then when I started to realize that I was less itchy and having fewer flareups and stuff, it became worth it. Now here I am, almost two years later. I have a whole ritual around it. I don't dread it. I kind of look forward to it. It's like a little meditation. I watch Housewives after. It's a little reward situation.
Now, so many people in my life know that I'm on this medication because I'm obsessed with it and so into it that I'm partnered with Sanofi and Regeneron to talk about it, and when people in my life are talking to me about their eczema, they often also realize that they've had it and have just tolerated it. So I'm always just encouraging them to talk to their doctor and see if it might work.
I'm so into talking about it because in the scheme of things in the world, there are worse things to have to confront. However, anything on a day to day basis that impacts your self esteem or what you're going to wear or the choices you make is worth looking at, and if there's something you can do about it, I'm a proponent of look into it, see if it's see if it's going to work. If not, you know, whatever, keep it moving.”
Has there been a memorable time you had to hide or work around a flare for a role or a red carpet?
“It literally got to the point where one year at the Golden Globes, when Girls won best comedy, I was up there on stage in a long gown, and if you'd had X-ray vision, you would have been able to see that my calves were a disaster, covered in scratches, rashes, hives, like insanity, and it still didn't rise to the occasion [of getting help]. I didn't look at that and think I should try something new about it, and it took it moving somewhere else.”
Do you have any triggers?
“I used to think that it was pretty seasonal, and that the drier weather makes it worse. There are also certain materials like wool that can sometimes bring it out, but then it can also just be random, like it's just a slippery one, and that's why it's nice to just have my whole system calmer now.”
What does your current skin-care routine look like? Do you focus on gentle formulas because of your eczema?
“I am cautious about what I put on my skin. What's crazy is knowing that the routine kind of starts inside because it's an injectable prescription medication, so I picture the calm starting there. For the stuff that I put on top of my skin, I use tiny patch testing for a long time before I determine if I can tolerate a product, so yeah, it's mostly pretty gentle. But I'm starting to be able to introduce retinoids again, but very slowly.”
How has your definition of self-care changed since becoming a mom? Are there any non-negotiable routines you try never to skip?
“Well, okay, you're on the precipice. I'm not going to lie to you. In the beginning, the self-care gets very little time. It should stay the same. It would be a really good idea, if I could do it again, to try to maintain as much of my routine as possible because it's humanizing, it’s grounding, it's regulating for me. But what's tempting is you hear the baby crying, and you're like, ‘Am I really going to put on the second serum, or am I going to go get the baby?’ And that choice is obvious, and I wish it weren't set up like that, but now that our guy is almost five, I'm back to being able to give myself that time, and he sometimes will join me for it. Sometimes he'll just hang out with me while it's happening.
I'm totally dysregulated if I don't have at least a little bit of time in the morning to get myself together, and that was every morning for a while, because when you're waking up because someone's crying and then you're feeding them, you skip the part of your morning where you come online and get into your body and get grounded. It would be interesting; we don't know if we're going to have another kid, but if we did, it would be really interesting to see how I would handle that.”
What does your dream day off look like?
“Nothing. Just being at home with nothing on the schedule is so dreamy. Getting to just exist, maybe read a little bit, catch up on stuff, sleep in, be with my guys, and take care of my plants. That’s kind of the best day. Maybe throw a massage in there.”
