Starting Your Regimen With Your Own Acne Product Line
A single acne product may solve one problem coinciding with the occurrence of acne but at some point one is not enough to give you the results you want. You should have several products that could help you get rid of your skin problem totally. It may be tight for the budget but it helps when you start your own regimen.
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Can anything be done to prevent it?
If you believe all the people who write advertising copy, curing acne could not be easier. All you have to do is to use this cleanser, rub in this topical cream and stick your finger in your ear. As if by magic, the spots will be gone overnight. Never since snakes were first turned into oil have so many promises been made by so many manufacturers to so many people. This is not to say that all the products on the market are useless. But it is to warn you that you have to see through the sales hype designed to part you from your money. There are a few simple things you can do. This does involve you buying “stuff”. But buy with your eyes open. The first step is to understand the reality of your “problem”. The fact that one batch of acne clears up does not mean there will be no more acne. You may have to continue taking some action over a period of a year and more. This will particularly apply if the trigger to your problem is the use of an oral contraceptive. You should liaise with your doctor to change the dosage and, if necessary, the brand of contraceptive you use until the right balance of hormones is achieved. The good thing about self-help is that it is the cheapest kind of help on the market. Wherever possible, prefer it to any over-the-counter products or prescription medications. So what should you do? 1. Wash the areas most affected only twice a day. What does washing do? It removes the dead skin and any excess of sebum oil that has reached the surface. It is best to use a non-perfumed, simple soap and wash gently. If you wash too often or you rub at the skin too violently, you can cause more damage than you prevent. 2. There are some reasonably effective gels and creams for removing excess sebum oil. The best use benzoyl peroxide as the active ingredient, but those with salicylic acid are also worth trying. 3. Once the skin is clean, avoid touching it. It is easy to transfer natural grease or oil from the fingers. The transfer is worse if you have been eating or using any product that will affect the skin on your face or neck. When the spots come, do not pick at them. Not only do you transfer contamination on to your face, you may also break the surface of the skin and allow more bacteria to enter the lesions. This means you should not “pop” the zits. Let them cycle through and drop off naturally. 4. Avoid using any heavy foundation makeup. There is a temptation to try to cover up skin problems. This is counterproductive. Choose a light powder rather than cream-based products. Keep your brushes and applicators clean. Always make sure you completely remove all makeup before you go to bed. If all self-help and OTC remedies have failed, you can fall back on accutane which is the final line of defense. Make sure you consult with your doctor. There are problems in the use of accutane. Always take the necessary precautions.
Where does it all go wrong?
If you are looking for something to blame, blame the sebum. Acne is a curse to many and, as is the way when your life is made a misery, it always helps to have something to blame. In this case, you do not have to look far. Your body is set up to grow hair, not just on the scalp, but on most of the upper body. In women, this hair will be very fine and almost invisible. Men sprout hair more obviously. Each hair is rooted in a follicle and every follicle has glands that produce an oil called sebum. This oil helps to keep the skin waterproof and also gives the hair that lustre or sheen. This all works fine so long as your body produces the right amount, but if anything disturbs the natural cycle, an overproduction starts you down the slippery slope (sorry, pun intended). Too much oil creates a pool at the base of the follicle. You are shedding dead skin cells all the time. If some fall into the follicle, they stick in the pool and this slowly blocks it up. There are also colonies of bacteria on the surface of the skin and in the follicles. So long as there is a free movement of air, the growth is limited. But if some are lucky enough to trapped in a pleasingly warm environment with lots of dead skin cells and oil mixed together, they grow. This produces inflammation and off we go to acne. For the record, the pores in your skin are not involved. They are not guilty. Why does your body suddenly start to produce too much sebum? This is where we come back to hormones as a chief suspect. No-one knows exactly what triggers it. There is some evidence that acne runs in families so heredity is one factor. Some medications can produce skin problems as a side effect. It may be that the presence of certain bacteria affect the sebaceous glands. Whatever the reason, once there is too much sebum, you get acne. This leaves us with two issues which are clear. The first is a simple reassurance. There is no connection between cleanliness and acne. In fact, the reverse is true. If people scrub their faces too fiercely, this can make the acne worse. There are also no links with food. Changing your diet does not help cure the acne. The second reassurance is that there is an ultimately successful drug for the treatment of acne. It is called accutane. But because there are problems with its use, you should not try it first. You should come to it only after trying all the other products and medications on the market. The strong recommendation is that people should take accutane under the supervision of a dermatologist. This ensures that all the necessary precautions are put in place and maintained while taking the drug. That said, it is worth following all the rules because this drug almost always clears the problem.
Acne Medications – Getting Your Way Out of the Problem
When an individual has acne problems, he thinks of the various possibilities of getting rid of them. It is sometimes a hindrance that when one has acne, he does not want to go for consultation and opts to stay with the home remedies.
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How is Dry Skin related to Acne?
If you thought only people with oily skin get acne, you are one among several million people who do so. However, the sad truth is that those with dry skin get acne too, though the attacks are relatively rare. I have lost count of the number of acne sufferers I have met who seem to think that just because there is a link between excess oil and acne, they should keep their skin as dry as possible.
The case that springs most readily to mind is that of Ramona, the girlfriend of one of my closest friends, who used to obsessively wash her face because she imagined that it would make her acne better. As night follows day, however, not only did her acne NOT get better, it actually got worse. By the time she managed to dump her obsession, Ramona had acquired pustules that have left permanent scars, though she no longer has acne. Read more on How is Dry Skin related to Acne?…