Guide for Treating Acne

10-Step Guide for Treating Acne

A 10-step plan for clear skin and when to seek help | Comments (48)

Successfully treating acne is one of the hardest things to figure out. For me, finding out how to keep my skin clear is right up there with rocket science. Why is it so hard?

Because not only is everyone's skin different, there are also so many products out there that it's difficult to know what will work and where to start! Everyone's skin is also so different that what works for one person may or may not work for you. Additionally, acne can be as much internal as it is external, so finding your way to clear skin can get very overwhelming,very fast.

Whatever your skin situation, treating active acne only treats the symptom and not the cause. To truly clear your skin, you must figure out why you are breaking outand learn how to prevent that from happening. The purpose of this 10-step guide is to help you do just that.

Keep in mind that this 10-step guide is not a comprehensive step-by-step plan that will guarantee clear skin. Instead, it's simply an outline for how to approach treating your acne and how to customize acne treatments to your skin's individual needs. It's for people who are fed up with their acne and feeling lost about what to do.

This acne treatment guide starts off by explaining how acne treatments work before delving into the 10 step process you should take to start treating acne. It ends with some information about when you should stop trying to treat acne on your own and when you should seek professional help.

How Do Acne Treatments Work?

Acne treatment products help control your breakouts by doing some or all of the following things:

1. Helping your skin shed faster and at a more normal rate - ex. Exfoliants, BHAs, retinoids


2. Killing bacteria - ex. Antibiotics, benzoyl peroxide, tea tree oil


3. Reducing inflammation - ex. Azelaic acid, antibiotics, diet


4. Drying out the pimple - ex. Sulfur


5. Balancing your hormones - ex. Birth control pills, anti-androgens, lifestyle changes


6. Eliminating oil - ex. Accutane

Many of the above acne treatments can be pretty harsh, but you don't have to be aggressive with the rest of your skin care routine to get clear skin. Please understand that you can't scrub or wash away pimples.

If you think about it, acne treatments are trying to kill off your existing pimples and help your skin change for the better, but if you start using cleansers that are too drying or over-scrub your face every day, you aren't giving your skin time to react and heal from all the treatment products. This is why many people see their skin clear up when they stop using products (ex. "caveman routine") and use only water.

It can be really frustrating to be nice to your skin when your skin isn't being nice to you, but it helps to think of it as a separate living organism. You need to nourish, love, and be gentle to it so it can thrive, be happy, and love you back. Understanding how an acne fighting active works will help you select the most suitable product for your skin.

Skinacea's 10 Step Guide to Clearing Your Skin

Figuring out which acne treatments will work for you is a long trial-and-error process that takes a lot of patience and willpower. You pretty much have to go through all sorts of products, test drive them, and weed out the bad apples until you find the things that actually work.

Most dermatologists and skin specialists recommend a three-pronged attack for initial acne treatment: 1) kill bacteria, 2) exfoliate pores, and 3) eliminate oil. While this slash-and-burn technique (i.e. prescribe a retinoid and antibiotic) may work for some people, it is hard to say whether this plan of attack has a high success rate because everyone's skin responds so differently.

I tend to agree with 1) and 2), but have a hard time understanding how you can eliminate oil from your skin. You do have to control bacterial growth (either with antibiotics, benzoyl peroxide, topicals, or just being gentle with your skin so your don't ruin your natural acid mantle) and exfoliating your pores will help keep them clear (with retinoids, BHAs, etc.) but to eliminate oil, you'll need more drastic measures such as Roaccutane (Accutane), which not everyone with acne needs. Your skin also needs oils to function properly and to form a protective skin barrier, so completely eliminating oil doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Instead of following such a rigid plan, here's a general outline of the steps you should take to help you figure out how to start treating your acne and clear up your skin:

2. Find out about what sort of skin you have got. This will assist you pick appropriate merchandise to apply in your face. Your skin adjustments with weather and age, so continually pay attention to what it tries to inform you. For example, in case your pores and skin gets too dry, backtrack on any remedy products and/or use greater moisturizer (especially if it is cold and windy).
3. Have a gentle, simple pores and skin care routine. This indicates the usage of skin care products that do not overly dry or irritate your skin. Even when you have pimples, it doesn't imply your pores and skin can't be healthful and non-indignant, so that you ought to continually intention to your skin to feel as "regular" or "neutral" as possible. As an instance, a purifier must now not make your skin sense tight once you wash your face. If it does, it is not mild sufficient on your pores and skin. On the subject of pores and skin care, the simpler the better!
4. Understand the reasons of acne and what is inflicting youracne. If you recognise why your pores and skin is breaking out, it'll provide you with a higher concept of how to start treating it and what treatment to apply. Go through the list of pimples reasons and narrow down potential acne culprits. First, tackle topical merchandise - ensure what you are the usage of for your skin (and this may be something from shampoo to moisturizer to laundry detergent) isn't breaking you out. Test product elements to keep away from using something pore-clogging. Once you rule out topical elements, you could then check internal reasons (i.E. Food plan, hormones, and so forth.) on your pimples. It can be tough to inform what is inflicting your acne and it can take a long term, but in case you check out an pimples perpetrator and your skin gets better, probabilities are the perpetrator you tested is what is making you break out.
5. Familiarize yourself with all of the different to be had pimples treatments (each topical and inner). Study approximately how they paintings, have a look at the both active and inactive product ingredients, read product critiques, and do as an awful lot research as you could before you buy or use anything. Take a look at out new products on a small a part of your skin before the usage of it throughout your face. This will assist you find out how lots and the way regularly you have to follow a sure product. Additionally, if one zits remedy failed to work for you, it does not imply that no pimples remedies will paintings. Look at the active component within the remedy that failed to work and attempt every other acne remedy with a distinctive lively. As an example, if benzoyl peroxide did nothing for your pimples, investigate the use of an AHA next. You can additionally want to try a different product with the same energetic aspect because some actives are greater powerful in certain formulations. For instance, i will strive 2-three one of a kind BHA products earlier than I rule out BHA as an ineffective pimples fighter for my pores and skin.
6. Use one zits remedy at a time. It is tempting to blast your skin with the whole lot within the e-book (ex. BHA in the morning with benzoyl peroxide on top and then an AHA at night time with a retinoid on pinnacle) to try and get it to clean faster, but if you use more than one new remedy to your pores and skin at a time, you won't understand which one is working or which one is making your skin worse. Treating acne is like accomplishing a science experiment along with your pores and skin. Testing one variable at a time will allow you to come to a clear conclusion approximately whether a certain product it works or no longer. Too many variables at the same time muddles the realization.
7. Deal with one skin trouble at a time. It is tempting to want to deal with energetic acne, pink marks, and pimples scars all on the same time. However, doing so will simplest complicate the procedure of clearing your pores and skin. What if an pimples scar remedy breaks you out even extra? And what in case you use something that enables together with your pimples marks but you hold getting pimples? The new zits you get will give you new marks, so you'll ought to preserve treating the marks besides. It's first-class to deal with zits first to prevent them from forming and then treat pimples marks and scars after your pores and skin is obvious.


9. Don't over-use pimples remedies. Washing your face 5 times an afternoon and setting on pimple cream every unmarried hour might not make an zits treatment paintings any higher or quicker. In reality, when you over-use pimples treatments, you emerge as drying out your pores and skin and anxious it, making it extra at risk of getting future zits. Being overly aggressive with acne remedies is in reality one of the most important approaches you could self-result in pimples! How a good deal and how regularly you have to use a treatment product relies upon to your skin. If it is getting sensitive, lessen the product application. If you could use greater without experiencing aspect outcomes, then use more. There absolutely is no absolute way to apply a product, so all treatments have to be custom designed to your pores and skin's private needs.
10. Don't pick at your skin. Whilst you pop and squeeze your pimples, you spread bacteria and boom the percentages that you may get extra future breakouts. Even though a zit looks as if it is approximately to pop, maintain your fingers away from your face always. It may no longer appear to be it does an awful lot in the quick run, but now not picking at your face will help clear your pores and skin quicker ultimately. In case you actually can't help it, as a substitute of squeezing, try placing a heat compresson the spot rather.
11. Deliver zits treatments time to paintings and supply zits time to heal. Be affected person! It typically takes two weeks for a pimple to form, so you have to deliver a product as a minimum 2-3 weeks (a month or extra is better) to look if it's going to paintings. Zits doesn't canvass your face overnight (if it does, it is probably an allergy in place of real pimples), so it takes time for it to leave your skin too. Use one treatment product for as a minimum 2-3 weeks to see if it's going to work before attempting a new treatment product.
12. Continue to be positive! If one treatment product doesn't paintings, that simply means you are one step towards locating the acne remedy with a view to. Consider, you're stunning both inside and out! In my revel in with pimples, the greater you consider pimples and the more you try to do to your pores and skin, the more serious it gets and the longer it takes to clear. However after you stop fixating on it a lot, it starts offevolved to head away. "thoughts over matter" may not have any proper tangible effects on zits, however it virtually makes the emotional a part of treating acne simpler to handle. So, don't let pimples take over your life! Shift all of the terrible strength you've got about pimples to something high-quality in your existence.
13. As you may see, the procedure for treating pimples can be very difficult and frustrating. It's riddled with "what ifs." there's also the complete "it receives worse before it gets better" kind of mentality, so lots of human beings will stick with a product that is making their skin worse within the hopes that there may be a light at the give up of the tunnel. Occasionally this threat will pay off and sticking it through does come up with clear pores and skin. Different times it does not and in reality does end up making your skin worse.
14. As perplexing as it is able to be, never give up to your skin! Arm your self with as tons facts as possible. Google the whole lot and look up opinions for new skin care merchandise you're considering using. That is your skin we're speaking approximately right here and no person will care greater approximately your skin than your self.

When to are seeking professional help

when most of the people start getting zits, they generally turn to drugstore options first. (A word of advice: earlier than you placed whatever for your pores and skin, appearance over the skin care segment to get an excellent concept of ways to attend to your pores and skin and pick right merchandise. You want in an effort to take care of your skin's simple wishes before tackling skin issues like zits, wrinkles, and many others).

If over the counter zits treatments aren't slicing it for you, then it's time to are seeking expert help. It is also time to peer a dermatologist while your zits escalates from mild to mild or extreme. I recognise some humans assume that dermatologist visits are too steeply-priced (and that they certainly can be) however now and again it's greater really worth it to get professional recommendation in place of meting out lots of cash for over-the-counter remedies that grow to be now not working besides. Also, dermatologists and doctors are the simplest manner to get prescription merchandise and if you need extra competitive remedies for your zits, you might not have get entry to to them without a physician.

But, do not expect a visit to the dermatologist to be a ticket to clean skin. Just due to the fact you go to a skin care professional doesn’t mean you'll get to skip the trial-and-errors process of treating pimples. Like over-the-counter treatments, prescription merchandise nonetheless require a check using length. Dermatologists might also provide accurate guidance to shorten your trial-and-error undertaking, but you'll nevertheless ought to parent out what works nice to your skin in your very own.

Be selective about selecting your dermatologist due to the fact many of them don't care. I have been to four special ones earlier than finding one which simply takes time to speak me through everything. I've also been to numerous dermatologists who prescribe merchandise with out even telling me the way to use them earlier than sending me out the door. But accurate dermatologists do exist! Ask your friends or take a look at out physician reviews to discover the higher dermatologists to your area.

Additionally, for whatever products or treatments (facials, laser, and so forth) your medical doctor recommends, ensure you do your personal homework. Don't rely upon the dermatologist to tell you the whole thing due to the fact you're in the long run chargeable for your pores and skin and what you do to it.

In the end these years, i've discovered one thing though: there's no zits therapy. No tablet or cream can remedy zits and make it so you will never ever get another pimple to your life. It is also important to now not get too fixated on locating that one product that will dispose of your pimples due to the fact it could be a number of of factors that become clearing your pores and skin.

Having zits sucks, but grasp in there! The human body is an terrific recuperation organism or even in case your pores and skin is within the pits now, there is always a silver lining. For me, having acne was an awful enjoy, but my silver lining was mastering greater about pores and skin and being able to take top care of my skin (and proportion the data too!) for the rest of my existence.

For a comprehensive listing of over-the-counter, prescription, and at-home acne remedies, take a look at right here.