21–30 of 64 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not permanent but once you are over with it the age of acne has "gone through" (though yeah some pop up eventually)
How long it takes? I'm 30 now and I would have breakouts if I didn't apply benzoyl peroxide twice a day.
Whilst living in hotels a few years back, I experimented with the provided moisturiser as aftershave. I soon noticed that rubbing any excess on my face reduced the number of spots I had, and now I apply it daily and get no spots. Not applying it for a single day has a >50% chance of having spots appear. My hypothesis is it adds a mechanical barrier to my pores. The paper suggests various environmental factors might b…
Another thing I've been trying is after shaving, put a first layer of high quality Aloe Vera gel. Then once it starts drying out and stretch the skin (usually 60-120 seconds), then put the moisturizing lotion. Good results so far.
Why? No idea, just felt right.
I think the microbiome on the skin and face is a large factor. Controlling it is not as straightforward as a 'quick-fix', as it literally has a life of its own. For me, the fix was wiping my face only with cotton face-wipes and water, and avoiding soap. (To be clear, I use soap everywhere else, but just use face-wipes on my face). I actually came across this quite accidentally whilst camping. At the time, I thought i…
The biggest win was to stop using ordinary soap to clean my face. Once I switched to just rinsing it with plain water, 70% of my acne disappeared.
Some acne persisted around my nose and "T-zone" (the upper middle part of the face). I tried using a number of facial cleansers daily in the shower on just this area, and eventually found one that was far more effective than any other -- the brand is Aveeno and it has microbeads in it (which I heard are now illegal in the US).
I'm now typically acne free, but to this day if I binge eat greasy foods for a couple days (the biggest culprit is pizza, followed by burgers), my face will start to get oily and pimples will start to form around my nose/T-zone. Also if I'm out in the heat sweating a lot, a bit of acne forms after a few days. Aside from these extreme situations I have very little acne.
This all suggests to me that the face's microbiome plays a big role--too much soap or too much sweat are both capable of interfering with it, and too much oiliness probably blocks the pores. TL;DR more limited application of a milder cleanser seemed to be the biggest win for me.
This experience led me to be judicious with soaps and other cleansers on the rest of my body as well--the stinky bits like armpits get soaped up and cleaned daily, but I pretty much just rinse the rest of my body in the shower unless I've been doing hard physical labor or something. My skin's very healthy and people say I smell good so it seems to be working.
I read lots of research papers about acne and I tried many things including diets, removing dairy, removing sweets, changing pillow sheet daily, many kinds of anti acne treatments. The only thing that worked was roaccutane. After the treatment it slowly comes back so I beat it permanently with low-dosing (a 10 or 20mg pill every now and then) I realize there must be a reason deep down that caused it. Typically dermat…
+1 for Roaccutane/ Isotretinoin - worked really well for me with a one-time 3-month treatment and I wish I had tried it earlier.
I've had acne since I was a teen. I've tried every face cream and acne soap on the market. After 30 years of acne, I've finally found something that works - adapelene gel. It's a retinoid, a type of chemical related to vitamin A. My acne is a vitamin deficiency, but no amount of supplements would have fixed it as it's genetic deficiency in my skin. Benzoyl peroxide works well on red, inflamed acne but not on deep cys…
Just to add another +1 to the anecdata points here, I had pretty bad acne well into my 20s, and experimented with a variety of measures for controlling it. The biggest win was to stop using ordinary soap to clean my face. Once I switched to just rinsing it with plain water, 70% of my acne disappeared. Some acne persisted around my nose and "T-zone" (the upper middle part of the face). I tried using a number of facial…
A solution I found that almost always prevents the greasy food acne effect, is l-lysine. I'll take ~1,000mg or so if I eg eat a bunch of pizza. No idea why it works exactly, there's speculation that it aids the skin's defense against acne. Another option that also works but is more potent, is a low dose of vitamin A, which reduces oil production for some people.