Acne Prevention And Treatment

There are 2 simple things you need to do to clear up your acne and prevent it in the future.

1. Don't touch your face! This is the most important part. Even if you have oily skin, that alone will not cause acne. Acne is a small staph infection in the pore of your skin. Almost all bacteria transmitted to your face comes from your hands, particularly from under the fingernails.
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2. Gently wash your face (or other affected area) twice daily with a mild shampoo for normal or oily hair. That's it!

When I was a teenager, I started to get really bad acne. It made me self conscious and was, frankly, embarrassing. I tried every acne cream, facial scrub and mask I could find. Some were effective in not making it worse, but that was about it. Nothing "cured" my acne.

Then one day, I noticed that if some shampoo suds got on my forehead, it made my skin feel dry and tight there. Just like some of the nicer mud masks I "borrowed" from my mom, it help dry up the oily parts of my skin. So I started to experiment.

I discovered that if I put the shampoo directly on my skin and let it sit for a minute, it was VERY effective at drying out my skin, almost too effective. It was great for putting a breakout in check but my skin was so dry and tight that I could hardly talk to anyone before 3rd period, for fear of cracking my skin. Once my natural skin oils kicked in and my face loosened up, it actually felt great. The several hours of my face being uncomfortably dry though was not pleasant.

Next, I tried just using the suds from the top of my head after I washed my hair. This work perfect! I would gently massage the suds onto my face and let them sit for about a minute before rinsing my head and face. After about 2 weeks of doing this, my face was completely cleared up. I have done this everyday for over 20 years now, and never had a serious acne breakout since.

I can't stress enough how important it is to be gentle with your skin, particularly in the middle of a breakout. I still have small scars and pock marks in some places on my face from before I discovered this method of getting rid of acne. As I said, I tried many methods prior and facial exfoliant scrubs were among them. It is tempting to think that you can scrub away the acne but you can't. When your skin is red and inflamed from an infection or has even come to a head, it is important not to scrub it too hard.

Remember, while the acne may be irritating and ugly, a scar will be just as ugly and be there forever. Let your body heal naturally after you have neutralized the infection, and your skin will go back to normal.

Lastly, an anecdote. A couple months after I started using shampoo to wash my face, I was starting to feel more self confident and decided to share my "secret" with a couple friends of mine. My female friend, predictably, laughed and said, "that's just silly". However, my male friend said, "You know, I did the exact same thing. Remember how I used to have zits all over my face a few months ago and now I don't? I used shampoo, too!"

By Jess from Hillsboro, OR