DOWN & DIRTY: Does Dirt Cause Acne?

“You know why Alex has acne? ‘Cos she only bathes once a month.” That and similar pearls of wisdom were generously distributed around my high school corridors, targeting a poor girl who truly had a horrific case of acne. That fact that she was rude to everyone in sight had, of course, nothing to do with it, and it is only now that I realise how terribly insecure she must have been to be so badly behaved.

The point is that dirt does not cause acne, but might aggravate it. As is so often the case with us, we miss the wood for the trees when we say dirt causes acne. You think dirt clogs the pores of the skin and gives rise to blackheads. You’re dead wrong. Blackheads are not caused by dirt, but by the melanin present in sebum that turns black in contact with open air.

So why do people with acne keep washing themselves? Well, by washing yourself (with MILD soap and LUKEWARM water), what you are actually doing is removing the excess oils from the surface of the skin so your pores are no longer clogged. And of course, you are also removing dirt, which can infect the pores if it accumulates on the skin, along with sweat.

For best results, and I speak from personal experience, use facial cleansers that contain benzoyl peroxide and salicyclic acid. This drains out the excess sebum, and is in fact an excellent long-term control for acne.