Acne Treatments Archives – Skin Care For Acne

Do You Break Out At The Same Place? Here’s Why.

Have you ever wondered why it is that you break out at the same place?

Maybe it’s happened once or more than that.

Here’s the scenario. You get a big pimple on your chin. 2 weeks pass and it still seems to be hanging around your chin. Then one day you finally see that it is starting to heal. You’re thrilled. Until of course you see or maybe feel another one coming up pretty close to it. Or worse still just under it. I feel your pain. I really do. Trying to heal acne feels like taking one step forward and then you slide back down. 4-5 steps.

When you suffer from acne, this is very real and it is frustrating to say the least. This cycle may continue and you may get acne again and again in the same spot. Eventually you’ll be left with an indented scar at that place on your skin.

So why does this happen?

One of the main reasons you get acne under healing acne is that you probably have touched it, tried to pop it or picked at it.
The acne upon acne scene typically happens when you have cystic acne. These cysts are so deep within your skin that if you mess with them the infection goes deeper. What happens in this case is that the infection at the surface may heal. While it is healing the infection that is deep within your skin comes to the surface and you get more acne at the same place.
Once a pimple has been popped or picked or manipulated in some way, the walls of the pore that is infected or in the areas around it tend to get weaker. Once they are weaker the cells lining the pore do not shed well. When they do not shed well, they block the pores and the whole cycle starts again.

What can you do about it?

The main thing you can do is leave your face alone. No touching, popping, picking or squeezing your pimples. Hands off your face. Cysts that are manipulated or touched and felt countless times a day are more likely to occur again and again in the same place or near it.

Sometimes by accident it so happens that you may accidentally scratch a pimple or it gets rubbed on your towel and breaks. In this case best thing is to splash cold water on it and apply an ice cube wrapped in a clean tissue. Do not press it or touch it. Just dab it will the ice cube.

If the cyst is really bad and keeps happening again and again, you might consider going to a doctor to get a shot of cortisone to calm the inflammation. This can make the cyst smaller within a few hours. But do keep this as your last option.

In the meantime just keep your hands off your face.

5 Home Remedies for Acne You Should Never Try!

Doesn’t everyone have an opinion on your acne? Whether it’s a cure they got from somewhere in their tiny brains. Or something they just made up on the spot while talking to you. People certainly have their version of home remedies for acne.

I once had a very unkempt man come up to me in a book store and tell me to apply a paste of soap on my face at night. And leave the paste overnight while I slept. He even told me where I could get the soap, bless him. How nice! Free advice that I did not ask. Let me rephrase that – free dumb advice that I did not ask for!!! I would probably wake up the next day with a disaster on my hands were I to try that.

Another thing that really annoys the hell out of me, is the beauty blogger who shares her cures for acne. Flawless skin with just one spot and she thinks she has the answer for someone who has every inch on their face covered with acne. Having one spot just once a month and having 20 plus spots, every freaking day, are very, very different things.

So here are 5 home remedies for acne, which are better avoided if you want clear and healthy skin.

1. Toothpaste

Toothpaste used to contain a controversial ingredient called Triclosan which was used to kill bacteria in your mouth. The reasoning behind using it for acne was that it could kill the bacteria that caused acne. Triclosan was linked to hormone disruption so it is now avoided in toothpastes.

Toothpaste could also help acne by drying it out, but it would also dry out your skin as well. Using something for brushing your teeth for 2-3 minutes and for teeth that are made from enamel, is very different when using it on delicate facial skin as a spot treatment.

Toothpaste is not a permanent remedy for acne. It may work if you have one spot once in a while. If you have acne on a regular basis toothpaste will not work for you.

2. Baking Soda

Baking soda has anti-inflammatory and antiseptic properties. This is why many home remedies for acne say that baking soda is good for acne.

However, baking soda can mess up healthy skin’s pH level.

The pH scale ranges from 0 to 17. A pH level of 7 is neutral. Anything above 7 is alkaline and below 7 is acidic. The pH level of healthy skin is 4.5 to 5.5. Baking soda has a pH level of 9. Using baking soda on your skin can disrupt the pH level of the skin, strip it of its natural oils and make it sensitive.

Used often it can dry out skin, make your acne worse, cause skin irritation and give you wrinkles.

So think twice next time you hear about using baking soda for your acne.

3. Lemon Juice

Lemon juice has astringent and antiseptic properties. The reasoning behind trying to use it for acne, is that it may help kill the acne causing bacteria and reduce the oil on your skin.

Used on your face when you have a lot of acne, will irritate your acne, make your skin sting like crazy and even make your acne bleed. Nothing good will come out of it. Your skin will be worse than it was before.

Would you use lemon juice on a cut? No you wouldn’t. It would burn like crazy.

Really want to use lemon juice? Squeeze the juice into a glass,top up with water, add a few mint leaves and drink it. You’ll get much more benefit this way.

4. Washing Your Face Frequently

Acne is not dirt that you can wash off. Neither is it caused by dirt. Wash your face more than twice a day and you will be left with dry skin and acne that are even worse.

The oils that cause acne are within your pores and not on the surface of your skin. So even if you wash your face 10 times a day, the blocked pores and the oil within them will not be affected.

5. Popping or Squeezing Your Pimples

I still need to put this one here because although it is not a remedy as such, I still get questions from people asking me if they should squeeze their pimples.

The idea behind this one is that you squeeze out the infection and the pimple will heal.

Instead of healing, what you do when you squeeze your pimple is you push the infection deeper into the skin, which may cause cystic acne and spread the infection. You also traumatize the delicate skin on your face.

Also the acne that heal after you squeeze them will leave a indented scar. The only way to get rid of such a scar is through a medical procedure called subcision, which involves cutting the tissue that causes the indentation. Not worth the trouble of squeezing now is it?

The problem I have with all these remedies for acne is that they are not cures. They are best used as maybe a band-aid cure when you have 1-2 acne in a month. They are not and cannot be used for the rest of your life. This is not a permanent cure for acne.

The bigger problem is that they may cause more harm to your skin which is already not in great shape. Repairing your skin which may be damaged after using any of these remedies, may take years. It did for me. Do you really want that?

The best thing you can do when you have bad acne is nothing.

Here are 3 rules to follow when your acne is particularly bad

Do not touch your face
Do not irritate it
And please do not apply things on it that will make it go crazy!

It is very natural when you have severe acne to try and fight with it. However remember that acne are on your face. Treat your face like a war zone and you are also setting up your skin for permanent damage. It is like bombing your house when your house is infested with termites.

I get it, when you have acne you feel you should be doing something otherwise the acne might not go away. And you’re absolutely right. You should be doing something. Just not with your face though!

You should be drinking green tea or drinking lots of water, or eating a lot of green leafy vegetables, and avoiding sugar and dairy in your diet. Doing this everyday for a week will get you much better results than any of the remedies mentioned above. I know, I have actually done this and do this when I get a bad breakout.

I have written a few blog posts that may help you know what to do next. Just so you do not have to go around my blog searching here they are

How to Calm Your Skin when you have a Cystic Acne Flare Up

If you have acne you may have been in this situation many times. Your face suddenly takes a turn for the worse. It looks red, feels inflamed and feels like it is on fire. Normal activities like washing your face, brushing your teeth and going out suddenly become these huge hurdles, you just can’t get past. Your face actually hurts because the acne are deep within the skin and cause pain. Even sleeping becomes a problem as the rubbing can cause further irritation.

So what do you do when you have a cystic acne flare up?

1. No applying products and hands off your face

Yes, you read that right. No applying any products or any ointment. I’ve been down this road more often than I wanted to and I know that nothing works. Nothing you apply to your face at this point is going to help you. Also no touching to feel your face. It’s a common temptation when you have acne, to touch your acne to see how big they are. This does not help and only irritates your skin further.

2. No makeup

Cystic acne

As tempting as it might be to try and cover up, all you will be doing is irritating your skin even further. It will be worse when you have to wash it off and irritate your face all over again. Makeup at this point is just not worth it. You probably will not be able to cover it up. Plus your skin does not need an added irritant at this time. If you do use makeup not only will you irritate your skin applying it, you will irritate it much more when taking it off.

3. Take a Vitamin C supplement

You need to stimulate your immune system to fight this. The best way is to take a Vitamin C supplement. You can try to increase your intake of it through diet but for your skin to calm down you need a much larger dose, more than you can eat in a day. 1000 mg a day will be fine.

4. Have a Green smoothie or eat lots of green vegetables

The best foods for acne are vegetables. More specifically green leafy vegetables which is the best food you can eat when your skin is acting up. Drink it in the form of a smoothie or add them to your diet, any way is perfectly fine. Green leafy vegetables include spinach, fenugreek leaves (methi), broccoli, kale, cabbage, swiss chard, lettuce, watercress, mustard greens.

5. Drink a lot of water

There is a myth out there that drinking water will get rid of your acne by flushing toxins. I have no idea what these toxins are and I also know that drinking water will not cure acne. But what drinking water does is keep your skin hydrated and bring down the redness on your face.

6. No stimulants

Till your skin settles down avoid alcohol and extremely spicy foods. I am not going to ask you to cut out tea and coffee completely but do restrict the amount you drink to 2-3 cups a day.

7. Skip sugar and dairy for a few days.

Sugar and dairy tend to cause inflammation in some people. Cut them out of your diet for a few days till your face settles down. Little milk and sugar in your tea or coffee is fine but no more than that.

8. Calm your skin with cold water

Your face may feel hot and irritated. Splash cold water on your face whenever needed. Avoid excessive heat and hot showers till your skin settles down. Avoid drying your face and let it dry naturally.

9. Relax and Remember that your skin will Heal

Acne does tend to make us lose perspective of things and we feel really down and depressed. With a few changes your skin can heal properly. When you have acne you feel that life is unfair to you. This is completely normal. While completely understandable you do not have to give in to these feelings. Try and find something that makes you happy and do that. Give meditation a try. It can be beneficial for your life in general.

7 Pieces of Advice You Can Safely Ignore When You have Acne

Don’t get me started on the advice I have got for my acne. From family members to random strangers on the street they all know what cures acne. Except of course dumb old me, who just loves having acne. Even one of my old neighbors told everyone who would listen to him to tell the girl with pimples to put toothpaste on them. Just unbelievable!!! It was as if my having acne magically gave people around me a medical degree.

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Why Your Acne Treatments are Not Working

How many times have acne treatments let you down?

Let’s say you have this friend and let’s call this friend Sue. You complain to Sue about your stubborn acne which refuses to leave you, no matter what you do. Now Sue says she knows someone who went to this dermatologist and got cured of some skin disease when no other doctor could. This dermatologist with magical skills certainly seems very interesting. If he can cure this problem when no one else could, maybe he can cure your acne too.

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