witty_name (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
witty_name) wrote2020-06-29 06:06 pm
witty_name) wrote2020-06-29 06:06 pm
Entry tags:
- face,
- oil,
- saving money,
- skin
How I Cleared My Acne and What You Can Do, Too
To begin, I had the worst acne you have ever seen. I can say that without knowing anything about you because it was really that bad.
At times the acne went from my chest up my neck, across my face into my ears and nose, onto my scalp and then down my neck and upper back. Giant, painfull purple welts.
Most times the acne was more of the whitehead and tender red bump variety with at least a dozen eruptions at any time. Started age 12 and continued daily until my early 30's.
In my early 30's I had a good job and decided to do a round of spa facials and skin care products. I had tried many products before this (department store, pharmacy, doctor's advice, hippie stuff). Nothing had helped and many made it worse. The spa promised that their products and treatment would clear up my acne.
I did everything as directed: facials on time, products used daily, and completed the entire course. The result was obvious and two fold.
1) I had just as much acne as I did before, and
2) The spa treatments and products had thinned the skin on my face.
The thinning was most pronounced on my nose, cheekbones, and brown line. My skin was thin as paper. The texture was smoother, but the overall effect was not healthy and gave me a sallow and sunken look.
Done. I have not had a spa treatment or used any commercial face cleanser or moisturiser in eight years. The skin on my face grew back after a few months, thank goodness, and is healthy again.
So how did I clear my acne? A combination of A. home made and very basic cleansers + B. removing excess bacteria from my sleeping environment + C. eliminating inflammatory foods from my diet.
A. The skin on your face regenerates quickly and is perfectly capable, for most people, of hydrating and moisturising itself. If you do not wear face-covering product then the only thing you need to clean with is water and a soft washcloth. Use cold water (the best temperature) if you have no product on your face. Use warm water (never hot) if you need to remove light sunscreen. Always wipe clean in a downward motion, like smoothing the feathers on a bird.
Make up or heavy sunscreen? Mix 2 parts olive oil to 1 part castor oil, gently apply a small amount to your face and then gently wipe away downwards with a warm wet washer. I sometimes rinse the washer and wipe a second time.
That's it. Healthy skin does not need a moisturiser. There will be a transition period, similar to if you go off shampoo, where your face learns to balance its own oils for about a month. Then you have normal skin - not "oily" or "dry" or "combination".
B. Is about bacteria awareness. Change your pillowcase twice a week if you suffer from constant acne and this will remove an unseen irritant. Launder your blankets and other bedding more often and use a light or fragrance-free product in your wash (irritant awareness).
C. Yes, I know that there are scientific studies that say food does not cause acne. I have over a decade of empirical evidence to the contrary. Right now I have three pimples that I got for my birthday because I ate chocolate and refined sugar for a week. For me, length and combinations are the dose that make the poison. If I eat one bit of good-quality chocolate every few months no acne will apear. But if I keep eating it, or eat the cheap stuff, the acne will start in earnest. Combining chocolate with other sugary foods makes it worse, and adding alcohol (another inflammatory) will make the acne erupt everywhere. If you can learn how your diet affects your acne, you can control both.
FAQ
Q. What if my skin is still dry after a month?
A. Then you have an irritant to manage. Look for cold winds, chemical burn from a sunscreen (yes, even "face" sunscreens), dehydration caused by low water consumption, make up, the products you wash your hair or bedding with. If you're washing your face with water only, try the oil wash while managing irritants.
Q. What if my skin is still oily after a month?
A. Wash it more often, but stay gentle. If you're using the oil wash, do a water-only wash before bed or in the morning before you apply your make up or heavy sunscreen.
Q. Will the water or oil wash reverse the signs of ageing?
A. Nothing reverses the signs of ageing. NOTHING. You can prevent the signs of ageing by wearing sunscreen, eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, drinking plenty of clean water, and not wearing make up as the removal pulls on your face and tests its elasticity. Commercial products that claim to reverse the signs of ageing are actually thinning your skin to reduce lines, but this weakens the skin tissue and the long-term effects of these products are unknown.
Q. WIll this work for teenagers?
A. Depends. Because your hormones are shifting into reproduction mode your skin (and other body parts) will be more sensetive to stimulation. If you can keep your face calm and protected then this care regime should help, if not completely cure, your acne.
Combine this face care regimine with the hair care regimine in my first post and you can save yourself quite a bit of money every year.
Thank you for reading! Please let me know how you go and if you have any questions.
At times the acne went from my chest up my neck, across my face into my ears and nose, onto my scalp and then down my neck and upper back. Giant, painfull purple welts.
Most times the acne was more of the whitehead and tender red bump variety with at least a dozen eruptions at any time. Started age 12 and continued daily until my early 30's.
In my early 30's I had a good job and decided to do a round of spa facials and skin care products. I had tried many products before this (department store, pharmacy, doctor's advice, hippie stuff). Nothing had helped and many made it worse. The spa promised that their products and treatment would clear up my acne.
I did everything as directed: facials on time, products used daily, and completed the entire course. The result was obvious and two fold.
1) I had just as much acne as I did before, and
2) The spa treatments and products had thinned the skin on my face.
The thinning was most pronounced on my nose, cheekbones, and brown line. My skin was thin as paper. The texture was smoother, but the overall effect was not healthy and gave me a sallow and sunken look.
Done. I have not had a spa treatment or used any commercial face cleanser or moisturiser in eight years. The skin on my face grew back after a few months, thank goodness, and is healthy again.
So how did I clear my acne? A combination of A. home made and very basic cleansers + B. removing excess bacteria from my sleeping environment + C. eliminating inflammatory foods from my diet.
A. The skin on your face regenerates quickly and is perfectly capable, for most people, of hydrating and moisturising itself. If you do not wear face-covering product then the only thing you need to clean with is water and a soft washcloth. Use cold water (the best temperature) if you have no product on your face. Use warm water (never hot) if you need to remove light sunscreen. Always wipe clean in a downward motion, like smoothing the feathers on a bird.
Make up or heavy sunscreen? Mix 2 parts olive oil to 1 part castor oil, gently apply a small amount to your face and then gently wipe away downwards with a warm wet washer. I sometimes rinse the washer and wipe a second time.
That's it. Healthy skin does not need a moisturiser. There will be a transition period, similar to if you go off shampoo, where your face learns to balance its own oils for about a month. Then you have normal skin - not "oily" or "dry" or "combination".
B. Is about bacteria awareness. Change your pillowcase twice a week if you suffer from constant acne and this will remove an unseen irritant. Launder your blankets and other bedding more often and use a light or fragrance-free product in your wash (irritant awareness).
C. Yes, I know that there are scientific studies that say food does not cause acne. I have over a decade of empirical evidence to the contrary. Right now I have three pimples that I got for my birthday because I ate chocolate and refined sugar for a week. For me, length and combinations are the dose that make the poison. If I eat one bit of good-quality chocolate every few months no acne will apear. But if I keep eating it, or eat the cheap stuff, the acne will start in earnest. Combining chocolate with other sugary foods makes it worse, and adding alcohol (another inflammatory) will make the acne erupt everywhere. If you can learn how your diet affects your acne, you can control both.
FAQ
Q. What if my skin is still dry after a month?
A. Then you have an irritant to manage. Look for cold winds, chemical burn from a sunscreen (yes, even "face" sunscreens), dehydration caused by low water consumption, make up, the products you wash your hair or bedding with. If you're washing your face with water only, try the oil wash while managing irritants.
Q. What if my skin is still oily after a month?
A. Wash it more often, but stay gentle. If you're using the oil wash, do a water-only wash before bed or in the morning before you apply your make up or heavy sunscreen.
Q. Will the water or oil wash reverse the signs of ageing?
A. Nothing reverses the signs of ageing. NOTHING. You can prevent the signs of ageing by wearing sunscreen, eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, drinking plenty of clean water, and not wearing make up as the removal pulls on your face and tests its elasticity. Commercial products that claim to reverse the signs of ageing are actually thinning your skin to reduce lines, but this weakens the skin tissue and the long-term effects of these products are unknown.
Q. WIll this work for teenagers?
A. Depends. Because your hormones are shifting into reproduction mode your skin (and other body parts) will be more sensetive to stimulation. If you can keep your face calm and protected then this care regime should help, if not completely cure, your acne.
Combine this face care regimine with the hair care regimine in my first post and you can save yourself quite a bit of money every year.
Thank you for reading! Please let me know how you go and if you have any questions.
no subject
I've already been thinking of late of adjusting my diet. But it's not an easy plunge to take. I've done a sugar fast before, just to see what it was like. When I quit drinking alcohol, it really wasn't a huge deal for me for some reason. Sugar, on the other hand-- that was one of the hardest weeks of my life.
I'll let this one percolate for a bit, but I may be ready to give something new a try.
no subject
I use lanolin for many of my family's skin aliments. Have you ever tried the pure stuff? It cured my life-long dermatitis (bleeding dermatitis) in a few days.
no subject
About an hour or so ago, I just took a shower and spread lanolin on everything red or itchy, except for my face (just in case I end up having some kind of reaction -- I probably should have just tried a small spot, but I guess I was a little too enthusiastic).
At the moment, I feel fairly itchy, but no itchier than I would normally feel without applying anything.
Now that I've jumped the gun and started applying already... I suppose I should ask, in your own case, when you use lanolin on yourself or your family, what have you found to be the best method in your own case?
Re: the oil wash for eczema, how did you mean? For the face? For other parts? And isn't it just an oil wash if one is washing off sunscreen or makeup? I do use soap on my body and shampoo/condition my hair about twice a week, but I don't wash my face with soap any more (except for rare cases such as getting grimy with actual grease or something). I do have dry skin problems around me eyes fairly regularly, but I've noticed it's linked to the eczema elsewhere, as is the eczema that sometimes appears on my hands; when I use topical steroids to treat my legs, it disappears all over my body, including from my eyes.
I must remember to change my pillowcase more often-- I'd already identified that as one possible source of problems and stocked up on more pillowcases, but I haven't actually been changing it enough.
Dietary restrictions to the level you're talking about (one piece of chocolate every few months???) would be a huge change. I am not completely against the notion, but it will take a fair amount of psyching myself up for it before going that route. I'd like to explore the other possible treatment actions further before taking that route. (Which, given how these things tend to work, probably means that it will be the one that ends up mattering the most at the end of the day! Oh well...)
no subject
You are brave! I use a cotton tip to spread a thin but total cover over the affected area. For a larger area, a foam make-up applicator would be easier.
The oil wash does two things: It gently removes loose material (loose skin cells, make-up, other skin products, dirt, etc.), and it leaves a light oil coating behind to protect the skin from environmental factors (similar to the lanolin, but thinner). If your skin wants to be cleansed but at the same time wants to keep it's natural oils, then the oil wash can help. At the same time, oil has a warm nature, so if you skin needs to cool down then I would apply light cooling (fan, or wrapped ice pack) after the oil treatment to balance the temperature.
Same for the lanolin, as it is also warming.
Fascinating case, if you try it please let me know how you go!
no subject