Last Updated on 18th February 2020 by Caroline Haye
Five years on
I’ve always been a massive fan of Dragons’ Den and loved seeing founder of Vitiliglow® Polly Gotschi appear back in 2015. Polly was successful in the Den (check out my blog about the show.) And, almost five years on, Vitiliglow® has changed hugely. I’m delighted that Polly has agreed to guest blog on The Vit Pro. So, read on to find out what’s been happening since we first saw Polly on our screens in 2015.
Thanks for featuring on The Vit Pro Polly. Can you tell us how having vitiligo impacted you?
For me personally, having vitiligo has a huge psychological impact on me. And raising awareness helps me feel better about it. Although I choose to cover up every day, I think it’s great that others are happy and confident in their own skin. I wanted to make sure people had a CHOICE with a reliable and quality product so that they could cover up quickly and easily every day if that was what made them feel better. I’ve been overwhelmed with support from the vitiligo community and I’m proud that people talk about this now.
What do you think about vitiligo and mental health?
I actually work full-time in a mental healthcare charity so I’m really passionate about this. In the last five years, I’ve seen more people talking about body confidence, mental health issues and vitiligo in general. So anything that Vitiliglow® has done to support that conversation and help people feel better about themselves is a great step forward.
Your sons have vitiligo. How does that impact them?
Luckily, both my boys – who are in their early 20s – are completely fine with having vitiligo. They’ve obviously seen me struggle with it for years. But as they are both very happy and confident in themselves, it doesn’t bother them too much. My eldest son covers his patches on certain occasions as he feels that it stops people asking him too many questions. But generally, he’ll just live his life and it doesn’t bother him.
As a mother, I do feel guilty that they have inherited this from me. But then it’s a mum’s role to feel guilty about something isn’t it? I’m just pleased that they are happy and it doesn’t bother them much.
Do you think that society’s views on vitiligo are changing?
I feel that awareness of the condition has increased a lot. High profile people including model Winnie Harlow, celebrity chef Dean Edwards and TOWIE star Demi Sims have all done a great job at raising awareness of the condition and encouraged people to talk about vitiligo and how it makes them feel.
There are over 350K posts for #vitiligo on Instagram. And I’ve seen more and more Instagram accounts that share people’s vitiligo stories. Of course there are trolls out there who will say dreadful things. But I think that there is so much love and support for this wonderful community… So overall, social media is a positive thing and can help people to feel that there is support out there.
There’s also more awareness amongst children too, such as campaigns in schools, dolls with vitiligo and Primark also ran a children’s clothing campaign with a young model who had vitiligo.
When my vitiligo started over 20 years ago, we didn’t have all the support and information available that is out there now. The more we can educate and raise awareness of the condition, the better.
How has Vitiliglow® changed since you appeared on Dragons’ Den?
It’s incredible to think about how much progress we’ve made since the show first aired. We’ve changed manufacturer, so the product is exactly as I hoped it would be. My vision was always to create an all-in-one product that could last people the whole day, so that they could cover their patches if they wanted to in about ten minutes. I’m so pleased that we’ve achieved that! In fact, Vitiliglow® is built to last… You can actually have a ‘light’ shower and get up to 48 hours use from it. In the last year, we’ve extended the range of shades from five to 11 which now suit people with either a cool or warm skin tone.
You’ve also developed some new products in the Vitiliglow® range too?
Yes, we’ve created the Vitiliglow® Prep/Remover. This helps you to get the best foundation for the product. And it’s brilliant at getting the product off your skin too.
If people want to adjust their shade of Vitililglow® they can make it slightly lighter or slightly darker to suit with the Vitiliglow® Glow Light and Glow Dark drops. I think that it will always take people a bit of time to play around with the shades to get the exact match and people’s skin tone will change depending on whether their pigmented skin tans or not.
What are your plans for 2020?
It’s really busy and the team are already under-way with lots of campaigns. We want to reach out more across the world and make sure Vitiliglow® is available to anybody who needs it. We’re launching a new distribution network in France and the Vitiliglow® website is being translated into different languages.
The product team are also working hard to make get Vitiliglow® available on prescription on the NHS in the UK. This is a dream come true for me. If the NHS recognises the impact that vitiligo has on people’s lives and it’s available on prescription for anybody that needs it, then I’ll be incredibly happy with what we’ve achieved.
To find out more about Vitililglow® and Polly’s story, visit www.vitiliglow.co.uk or follow Vitiliglow on Facebook and Twitter.
