Acne Relief

Posts Tagged ‘face’

I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve spent looking in the mirror squeezing blackheads out of my nose, forehead and chin. I’ll never forget the first time I noticed those horrid blackheads! Not that it was so difficult to see them; my nose looked like the checkered black and white tiled floor in the Beverly Hillbillies. They were everywhere and I was in a panic. With my curious first squeeze these little cork screw white cream tarts with a black top hat released from their cradle. Oh my gosh, what a disgusting sight! I didn’t help matters any with my initial horror and shock!

Over time I learned that blackheads were simply the product of my skin pores not draining properly the sebum oil that’s naturally produced. Before you know it a blockage can occur. The bacteria start to do its thing and viola, the pore gets completely clogged and your new best friend on the tip of your nose is a whitehead or a blackhead.

I don’t care how beautiful your eyes are, it’s not going to distract anyone from noticing anything but the pimple that’s taken up residence on your face.

Now the question becomes how do you get rid of that blackhead? You want it gone, plain and simple.

Blackhead removal: Comedome (Blackhead) Extractors – These little handy devices are a much safer method for blackhead removal than squeezing with your fingers. There are any numbers of cosmetic companies that manufacture these blackhead removers and they can be quite inexpensive, around $5.00 or so. You simply apply a little circular pressure with the extractor over the affected area and that little bit of force will push the comedome to the surface. It’s best to do this after a warm shower or maybe apply warm water compresses to help soften the skin and the affected area. After the offending blackhead has squirted to freedom, use an antiseptic to disinfect the area as well as your new found best friend the black head extractor. A little alcohol and hot water should do the trick.

Now that the blackheads have been removed and are gone, we need to take a proactive approach so they don’t return. A little preventative action to keep the blackheads away goes a long way!

If you are using oil based make-up get rid of it. These products are going to make it a lot easier to clog your pores. They are non-comedogenic (wow listen to me getting all technical and all) what that boils down to is, it will clog your skin, and that’s what you’re trying to avoid! So use water based make-up. It’s that simple.

When washing your face, put down the harsh chemical washes and abrasive pads. They’re only irritating your skin and forcing your skin to produce more problems as it attempts to combat the harsh treatment. Gentle cleanser and warm water washing using your hands should be fine to get rid of and keep those blackheads away. A little Benzoyl Peroxide should be O. K. in helping keep your breakouts at bay. As the anti-bacterial properties should do their job. Blackheads like all types of acne require different methods for their prevention and removal. These all depend on the individual. The trick is to find what works for you and what gets rid of your blackheads.

Does stress cause acne? While some people seem to think there is no correlation between stress and acne. I prefer to take the Al Gore global warming, the discussion is closed approach, and believe there is such a thing as stress acne. Back in 2002, Stanford University did a study which showed that stressing over exams worsened acne. While it was a fairly small study, I am attracted to it like a moth to a flame.

I first recognized my stress acne while in college. Sure I had been fighting to get rid of my acne all through my high school years. But I was basically a happy go lucky kid in the stress department. Academically it wasn’t much of a problem and socially I was a typical well liked kid. So if being up tight or worrying has anything to do with any biological function, in high school I just wasn’t going to be affected by it.

Well, along comes college and yep you guessed it. Stress for me is everywhere. Whether it was being on my own for the first time not knowing what to expect, or just plain fearing that I was going to flunk out, whatever the reason, stress and I were formally introduced, I was under a great deal of It and It was starting to show its effects on my skin. I was getting a whole lot of new zits and pimples as well as a worsening of the acne I was always trying to get rid of. As if that weren’t enough. It wasn’t until my second semester that I realized what was happening and the relationship between my acne and stress was explained to me in an off chance conversation with my dorm advisor.

It was a Friday afternoon and I was going home for the weekend. I had a friend that was coming up to see a basketball game and was going to leave a key with my advisor Kit. Well when Kit opened the door it was obvious she had been picking at her face. She was complaining that the stress of school was driving her acne nuts and she was at her wits end. Well like the proverbial light bulb going off over your head in a cartoon. I had a moment of clarity and realized what was making my acne go nuts too. Of course Kit mistook the look on my face as a look of confusion and proceeded to explain to me how stress can affect your acne in two ways.

First, stress stimulates your adrenal glands to secrete male hormones which in turn stimulate the Sebaceous gland which produce more Sebum which causes acne pimples.

Second, stress reduces the capacity of your body to mend it’s self by weakening your immune system.

So, not only is stress going to cause acne, it’s going to make it harder for your body heal or get rid of acne you already have. And you didn’t think God had a sense of humor.

Anyway after leaving the key with Kit I am sure you know what was on my mind as a drove home for the weekend. Yep that’s right, what was I going to do to get rid of the stress in my life so I could get rid of my stress acne.

Last night a dear friend of mine called to thank me for helping her 15 year old get rid of her bacne. She had called about 3 weeks ago because her poor child was getting teased pretty well by the other kids and mom was at her wits end. For you guys that may not know, bacne is just a slang name for back acne or back zits, pimples or whatever you may want to call them. While it is really no different than any other type of body acne, it’s probably more severe and cystic in nature. This can make them especially difficult to get rid of. I know because I have firsthand experience with it.

You see, a great deal of my teen acne issues revolved around bacne. While I got a good dose of face acne I also had a good face treatment in my arsenals that actually keep my face blemishes to a minimum. But those back zits, well that was a different story.

None of the pills or potions that my dermatologist prescribed (today it’s most likely tetracycline or minocycline) and suggested offered any relief. And it was the same negative response with the topical ointments and washes (Retin-A, benzoyl peroxide etal.). So there I was left to fend for myself. It took me awhile, but sure enough after some trial and error with various acne fighting solutions I stumbled upon a bacne natural treatment that worked for me many years ago which I was more than happy to impart to my friends 15 year old and now I guess I’ll relay to you.

Because the back is difficult for most people to reach by themselves you should invest in a long handled very soft bristled brush. This brush is used to exfoliate your back once or twice a week with a sugar scrub. If you want or feel you need to get a tad more aggressive, you can do a salt scrub, but don’t go nuts. When you are not exfoliating to remove dead skin wrapping your face clothing around the brush and using castile soap or your favorite acne cleanser makes an excellent every day cleansing instrument for your back or your whole body for that matter.

Wear loose fitting cotton garments whenever possible. If you don’t believe that tight fitting clothing and sweating are a cause of bacne, talk to some football players and ask them about forehead acne from tight fitting helmets and chest and bacne from shoulder pads. I saw it first hand with my son when he played football. So lay off the spandex and other tight fitting clothing that don’t allow your skin to breath.

You guys know how I feel about pimple popping. Don’t do it. I almost didn’t bother to even bring this up because the back is that one place that’s just about impossible for someone to do any self zit popping. But with all the You Tube acne video’s that I’ve seen on the net there doesn’t seem to be any shortage of accomplices willing to have at those nasty pimples wherever they may be. Besides bacne has a nasty habit of leaving scars and while they may not be as noticeable to you like face acne scars would be. A pitted and scared back is not a pleasant sight.

Now, here’s the secret to my bacne remedy. In a spray bottle mix 2 ounces of vinegar to 6 ounces of water and approx 1/32 of an ounce of tea tree oil. And after every shower spray a light mist over your back. While I have no scientific explanation why this acne home remedy works, I can say. It worked wonders for me, my friend’s 15 year old and my own son. Everyone reported their bacne was gone in 2 weeks.

“Hum, olive oil acne?” The look of confusion was priceless, as he mustered up the courage to continue. “I’m sorry Ms. Tuesday. But, I just don’t see how adding more oil to my face is going to help me get rid of my blackheads? You just said oil was the cause of my acne.”

Yep, that was the response from my adorable anonymous high school teen acne author who “volunteered” for the previous post. Bless his heart. He’s the spitting image of Zac Efron only better looking. Bangs over his forehead, flawless complexion and an ever present skull cap under a hoodie that I guess makes a seventeen year old boy “fit in” nowadays. Anyway when he came by after school and dropped off my teen acne request. We made some small talk (I was dying to see what he had written. But it was sealed in an envelope so I left well enough alone figuring he would have been embarrassed by me to read it in front of him) and while I thanked him as we walked to the door, he drew back his hoodie, removed his skull cap and whispered “how do you get rid of a blackhead” as he brushed back his hair.

What stood before me was a child with a porcelain complexion from the temples down and a forehead that resembled a pair of dice rolled box cars on a Las Vegas craps felt, there were so many blackheads. Fortunately, the cause of his forehead acne was a classic example of self induced hair acne aggravated by a skin hugging skull cap. I explained to my young friend that he was walking around with a pimple Petri dish for a forehead. The bacteria, grease and oil from his hair was fermenting under the dark, unventilated cover of his form fitting cap.

But not to worry because there was a quick acne fix for his self induced environmental condition. First, he needed to always make sure his hair was squeaky clean. If it wasn’t, then get it off the forehead until it was. Next, he needs to stop sleeping in the skull cap. Like any other part of the body. The skin needs good old oxygen, air, it needs to breath. Trapping the toxins and holding them against the skin by way of a skull cap and hoodie was a zit train wreck in the making. The cause of his blackhead problem was really as simple as that. I didn’t need to spend 4 years at the University of Acne, Pimples and Blackheads to see the solution to his problem. And if he simply pays attention to these two factors he would virtually do away with the growth of any new blackheads. Now, all we need to do is to get rid of the blackheads that are there now.

Enter the olive oil acne face wash. Once my Zac Efron look-a-like heard those words in the same sentence he responded in the manner in which I opened this post, “hum, olive oil acne”. I have to admit, I was not totally surprised. I fully understand the stigma that is attached to using olive oil to get rid of acne. We have been conditioned to think that some things are just downright nutty. It seems perfectly logical to think that if one of the cause of acne is the over production of oil by your sebaceous glands, then how in the world is adding more oil to your face (and olive oil at that) going to help? Of course your natural response to an olive oil acne face wash is going to be “don’t be ridiculous! That’s almost as stoopid (sic) as using chocolate to get rid of acne“.

Yet open your eyes and look around. There are thousands of commercial skin care products that are made from and promoted because they contain the oil of olives. Everything from soaps to creams to facial regiments and they charge an outrageous price to boot. Why olive oil helps particularly with the removal of black heads is beyond me. I heard the theories that like most things in the natural world “like things attract”. When viewed in that light it makes perfect sense. This would also explain why the first time I ever used olive oil; my blackheads were literally drawn to the surface of my skin right before my eyes.

There are many ways to apply olive oil. But the one that has always worked best for me and the one I relayed to my young acne patient was simply this. Pour about a quarter sized portion of olive oil in the palm of one hand. Dip two fingers from the other and apply to the face in a circular motion. Don’t be afraid to use as much oil as you feel is necessary. It’s great at removing dirt, grime and even make up. If your face was fairly clean to start with you can leave it on for a half hour or so and enjoy the benefit of an olive oil acne face mask. Or simply rinse with plenty of warm water and pat dry with a clean towel. If your skin still feels oily repeat the rinse. That’s all there is to it. No need to spend big money on some fancy high priced commercial products. Chances are you have some olive oil in your kitchen right now. If you feel wrong using such an inexpensive acne product, splurge and buy (EVOO) Extra Virgin Olive Oil. It really won’t make a difference when it comes to your acne. But your salads and other dishes will taste better.

That’s pretty much my olive oil acne face wash. And that’s pretty much how I explained it to my teenage acne student.

That night my phone rang and low and behold before I could say hello, it was “Ms. T, Ms. T, that’s the best acne advice anyone has ever given me. When I was applying the olive oil to my forehead it felt gritty as the blackheads started pop n to the surface. Thank you, Thank you and oh yeah I am going to do the other things you told me about too”!

God, life sure is great when enthusiasm comes back at you like that.

Guess there is nothing else to say about that but – Tah-dah another acne problem solved, this time with a whole lot of common sense and the tried and true acne olive oil trick. Next!

I know that it is the hope of all acne scarred patients to find a good doctor who will perform their Fraxel laser treatment.  Obviously, I hope that the one who is going to perform mine knows what she is doing.  In all honesty, I haven’t really decided yet as I’m still going through research and plus I’m still trying to get my adult hormonal acne under control before I can even contemplate getting the laser treatment.

My cosmetic dermatologist was recommended by my family doctor who was always reluctant for me to go see a dermatologist.  She always thought it was unnecessary and gave me topical treatments that never really cleared my acne.  I’m in my 30s and I still have mild to moderate acne and I think this is totally unacceptable.  I was tired of being pushed around by doctors who said it was nothing while it has left my face scarred.  In any case, now I have a dermatologist who was reluctantly recommended.  Just great.

I looked up my dermatologist on the Internet to see if she had any patient ratings and it was mixed.  She got good reviews for port wine stains which is her specialty but no reviews on Fraxel laser treatments.  What reviews she did have left her with an average rating.  Some liked her and some didn’t and felt she was cold and only after the money.  That is something that I fear with cosmetic dermatologists – that they always want you to come back for the next treatment as they suck you dry of your money with promises of results that never materialize.

Looking at her very large office suite, you know she has done well for herself.  I don’t know if this is a good or bad sign.  Does this mean that she is doing well because she is gauging or she is doing well because of her reputation involved.  Some patients report that she is a cold doctor.  Personally I didn’t think so but then again, I’m not a chatty person to begin with.  I go in and I come out.  No chit chat.  And frankly, I don’t care if she’s mute.  As long as she does her job and can provide me with an acne scar treament.

In my previous posts about Fraxel laser side effects and Fraxel laser reviews, I pointed out some discrepancies on what I had read and what my doctor answered.  I hope she’s not pushing Fraxel on me to make a quick buck.  On my first consultation visit, I asked her what the side effects were and what is the worse case scenario.  She just shrugged it off and said your acne would come back and that’s it.  It was only during my second follow up appointment to review my acne medication progress that she said that acne might come back with Fraxel due to the aggravation.  Okay, finally what she said matched with what I read on the Internet.  Next, I asked her about the possibilities of hyper and hypopigmentation.  She said no but I wonder if she has any experience with olive skin or if her clientele are purely Caucasian people.  Does she have experience with people of Asian skin, African skin, Latino skin?  In the Fraxel laser literature, they say it is fine and the laser does not affect melanin in the skin.  However, when I read about the reality of Fraxel patient reviews online, I am getting that some darker skinned people have experienced complications.  Discoloration can be easily overcome if the issue is dealt with right away.  However, if my doctor is unaware or is denying the possibility of this then she can’t help me prepare if I am the unfortunate ones who experience this.

I am still torn whether or not if I want this doctor to perform the Fraxel treatment on me.  Hell, I don’t know if I’m going to get Fraxel treatment done at all.  I still have lots to research.  But if I do go through with it, my instincts tell me that I have to develop trust with the doctor.  If I let her go through with it and I have doubts, then it’s as much her fault as it is mine if something goes wrong.  I will say this though.  I would never go to a spa to get this done as I have seen some spas advertise for this and for a cheaper price too.  I don’t know if they have a doctor performing it or a technician/esthetician but I would feel much more comfortable if a doctor performed it.   Maybe it’s on the lightest setting but still, this is your face we’re talking about here.

So, for now, I’m content with my current cosmetic dermatologist treating my acne but later on, I might seek a second opinion about the Fraxel laser from a dermatologist solely so there is no bias to the cosmetic industry.  Just to play it safe.