Hello again...

Shame to see that the community is moving away from the "do less" ideas, and being led away by Dan.

I do disagree with the Caveman regimen, because I see nothing wrong with water hitting the face. I think purposely putting your skin through an oily dirty phase is not necessary. People just need to stop directly washing their face and putting on creams, acids, and whatever else you put on your face.

I cured my severe acne by just not caring. Stop obsessing and it WILL get better.

It was really kind of Dan to start this forum, yet you must be aware of the fact that he makes money off of this site. He does have an agenda, and people not buying things for acne is not a part of that.

People must also be aware that these sorts of regimens will only work for regular acne that teens get. These regimens will do nothing for people with an actual genetic skin disorder.

Also be aware that the chances that YOU have a skin disorder are very low, especially if your parents do not.

You have nothing to lose by simply attempting to quit trying on products. However, Dan's advice of two weeks of trying this regimen is not something to follow either. Do you give two weeks trial for any other acne regimen? No.

Stop washing your face, stop applying anything, and just leave your face alone. Just go about your life as if you DO NOT have any acne. Walk in public and think like you do not have acne. Talk to people and act like you have no acne. Live like this for at least a month before you pass judgment on this type of regimen.

It has been quite some time since I last posted here, and quite a long time since before that. Why? Because I have moved on from acne. It does not plague me anymore, because I do not allow it to. I have received a ton of messages on AIM from people eager to learn more about my regimen. It is not complicated. There is no "trick," just stop doing anything for acne.

I remember my "life" when I let acne run it, and it was not much of a life. Move on people.

Haircut!

So I was going to post a picture, but you can just see my avatar. I would like to get a much shorter haircut. I am sick of my long hair. People tell me how lucky I am to have such strait and healthy hair, but I am just getting tired of it! It is in the way any time I am running, working out, or just plain outside. I am always wearing a hat to keep it tamed in the wind.

So anyways, I am wanting to get it cut. Since it is blond, I do not think it would be best to get it too short (like a buzz) because I would just look bald from a distance, but otherwise I am open to any suggestions. I have a somewhat high forehead, definitely not a short one anyways. I would like a hairstyle like edward norton. More like his hair in fight club though, not american history x haha. I think me and him have a similar forehead, but aside from that I am clueless on what else to pay attention to in regards to facial shape and haircut. I have been to websites in the past to look, but I always confuse myself between atleast 2 facial shapes.

If anyone has some ideas for a type of hairstyle and preferably a picture to go along with it, that would be great.

Or if you think I should just stick with it the way it is. I think it looks great when I am doing nothing, but if I am outside running or if I am working out it is just annoying and gets in my way.

I can post a picture if we get some sort of expert in here that absolutely needs one.

Thanks,
Snow

Let go...

I have seen enough people picking up and supporting similar theories to mine, so I see no reason to keep beating a dead horse right now.

I am going to leave the forums now with one simple message. Let go. Stop going crazy over acne. Know you are not alone. I would guess 60-70% of you are here suffering from teen acne. You just have to go through it like 90% of the rest of people. There is not any trick or secret to the method I used to get clear. All I did was act like I did not have acne any more, and it worked wonders on more than just my skin.

Continue eating healthy, but do not go so crazy about specific types of foods and what "affects" acne and not. Just eat to be healthy. Don't let acne control the way you eat. Just avoid the sugars and fatty foods. Drop cokes and fast food. No fried junk. Common sense.

Be thankful for the skin you have, it does so much for you that you are unaware of.

Stop taking crazy amounts of supplements because some other person who still suffers from acne suggested it.

There is no "cure all" for acne. There is no pill (no really... there is not) you can take to rid yourself of acne forever.

I believe all of you want to rid yourselves of acne to look better to other people. If you lived alone in this world, I hardly believe acne would be any concern of yours. I am going to tell you the #1 factor in the way people treat you is your confidence and personality. If you let acne affect these things, acne will. If you don't let acne affect these things, it wont. Smile more.

I was mostly sticking around to keep the caveman regimen thread bumped up. Now there are plenty of people posting on it. Anyway, I'll check back in a month or so to make sure there are still people advocating these types of ideas. If not, I'll be back to push them back into focus.

It has been a great experience being a part of these forums. I wish I had more to offer, but I really do not. I have said all I have to say so many times I am tired of repeating myself.

Enjoy life,

SnoW

I would like to see how many of you...

...have had success with doing nothing.

I have not used anything on my face for a while now and the results are wonderful. I do not even wash my face with water. I do shower, but the water that touches my face, I just let run off.

I believe I was irritating my skin more than anything by using all these products. Now, when I step out of the shower, my skin is not tight, I do not flake, it has been an REAL instant cure for me. I have stopped worrying about acne and stopped all of it. It has been a very freeing experience for me.

I have not been on lately because I have defeated my acne, but I think I should stick around and still offer advice from time to time to give back to this place. This forum is a wonderful place where anyone can come to get all the advice they would ever need for acne. I do not think doing nothing will help everyone, mostly just people who really should not be having acne (over 20, does not run in the family).

I am not over 20 (coming up on 19), but acne does not run in my family at all. Had I never been on these forums, I do not think I would have learned so much about my body, mind, and acne. I would never have actually thought doing nothing would help me either.

This is my acne story and, if you can relate to this, I urge you to quit trying to fight your skin:
http://www.acne.org/messageboard/Mind-Acne...60#entry2457160

It seems that most people that have success with this disappear from the forums, so I would like to start a list of people who have had success with this.

-SnoW

Mind over Acne

Since getting acne, I have come a long way in my maturity and understanding of my body. Both have a very long way to go, however I think some people may find some use in what I have found.

When I first started getting acne, I was in 5th grade and would get maybe one pimple every few months.

Then just did not get acne until I was about 17. I started getting 2 or 3 at a time. Once again, I did not really care because I just thought it was normal. My parents felt bad and my mom started suggesting things I could to "control" my acne. Naturally, "mom is right," I did it. I started using Stridex Pads. Of course, I did not use the sensitive ones, I wanted MAXIMUM! You know, get rid of that acne fast and hardcore! These pads seemed to help a little bit, if anything they made my skin feel chilly when I put it on, so it must be doing something. Over time though, they had no effect on my acne, and it just gradually got worse. Then my mother, bless her heart, decided to suggest a dermatologist. The dermatologist suggested using facial washers before showering. So of course the doctor is right so I did just that. My skin felt cleaner, yet the acne still kept coming, seemingly worse too.

Anyone feel similar yet?

So next the dermatologist suggested Benzaclin, which is benzoyl peroxide basically. I started using this and it only made a small dent in my acne at first, but almost not noticeable. So now I was getting frustrated! I wanted some serious stuff.

My thinking was the harder my acne fought, the harder I should fight back.

So then my dermatologist prescribes me Tazorak! The bottle of Tazorak suggested a "pea" sized amount be applied to the whole face. How you spread a pea sized amount of ointment all over the face without getting a whole lot more in one area than the other, I do not know. Anyways, my face broke out with not just acne, but a horrible facial rash mostly on my chin. I did not go to school for the next few days. It was disgusting.

So now I go to the doctor and she suggests Accutane. I research it and supposedly it is just this "miracle cure" for acne. However, I am an anti pill-for-problem person, so I just was not sure about it and ended up turning it down.

I gave up my fight on acne. I threw in the towel and just said whatever.

After I just stopped doing everything, my acne disappeared in three days. I was completely acne free for about 11 months (usually one pimple a week, but I consider this a success for an 18 year old)

My mother noticed my success and commented on it and asked what I was doing. I told her I had stopped the Tazorak and she deduced it had aggravated my skin too much. Then she warned me that I had better start doing at least SOMETHING to my skin so I did not get acne again.

So I started washing my face 3 times a day with soap. I started getting more pimples, so then I figured I should start semi-treating them with Stridex again. Needless to say, I traveled a similar path again... No Tazorak again or anything, but still treating my skin.

I have seen a lot of people around here advocating the idea of "doing nothing." The only person I can name is Adam08, so you could start by looking him up and seeing the threads he is active in.

I think many people could get relief by giving their skin a break from the beating they give it.
I also think many people could get relief by giving themselves a break from beating up themselves over acne. The most useful tool I have found in the battle against acne is to just quit worrying about it.

All you people applying your multiple solutions daily looking at your dried out, red, inflamed skin multiple times a day are spending so much time in front of the mirror criticizing yourself and your skin.

Another realization I came to is that confidence is the final factor in how men and women will treat you. In the beginning of my junior year, before I even had acne, I started to figure this out. Then when I got acne, I let myself forget about that, and became very self conscious. It wasn't until I cleared up for my first time that my confidence shot up again. Then I realized that people treated me no different when I had acne or when I didn't. They treated me different because I was treating them differently when I was worried about my face. I was acting shy and sort of scared when I had bad acne, so they would treat me like a shy, scared, person. This past time when I had a horrible acne outbreak, I tried to act as confident as I could. I had no close friends because I just started college, so all the people I was talking to was usually for the first time. I found that acting confident was all I needed for friends or respect.

In Karma89's signature, he encourages anyone to show him a person who has actually cured their acne with the use of topical medication. I further implore anyone here to show me, and him, someone who has actually had permanent success with topicals.

I agree with Adam's stand point in just thinking that letting your acid mantle come back will help your skin. However, I would also like to go deeper into this method and why it may work. You may think you are stress free, yet every time you go outside, look at yourself in the mirror, talk to someone new, talk to a friend, you are constantly thinking about your acne. It at least enters your head some of the time.

As soon as you quit checking out your facial status every time you pass a reflective object, you forget how good or bad your face is. You lose any reason to worry. You lose acne.
Even if you do not lose your acne, you still feel better. It does not matter how bad your acne is, your goal is to ultimately feel good about yourself. Your goal is to be happy. You can achieve this whether or not you actually beat acne.

Achieving this can also help you beat acne.

-SnoW