Exfoliation after inflammatory acne is cleared

Thanks to Dan's regimen, my inflammatory acne has been cleared completely on my cheeks, chin, and nose, and only about five inflamed bumps remain on my forehead. But my question isn't about the regimen, it's actually about exfoliating after the inflamed bumps have cleared. I have no inflammatory acne on my face except my forehead as stated, but I have nice grouping of post-hyperpigmentation red/darkish marks on my left cheek and white/blackheads. I am aware that Dan dislikes manual/physical exfoliation because it's irritating, but does it really matter when inflammatory acne isn't present anymore?

My skin is extremely oily. I can literally soak up three Clean&Clear oil-blotting sheets to the point where the lipids in the oil completely make the sheets translucent. I think my oily skin is the problem of black/white heads and comedonal on my entire face, so I'm driven to exfoliate somehow and try to clear dead skin cells before my oily face traps them in my pores. I have used a home-made recipe of a sugar scrub on my face before that didn't break my face out, and of course I didn't use it on my inflamed bumps, but that was only once. I also have 2% salicylic acid and a toner with 3.5% glycolic acid, but I read that below 4% glycolic acid was pretty ineffective, and even with daily usage of a 4% glycolic acid it would help with red marks after acne.

I know this post contains many references that are specific to other topics on the board, but my main question centers around moderate inflammatory acne. Will manual exfoliation still irritate areas cleared of previous inflammatory acne and provoke another onset of an inflammatory breakout? Or should I just try the salicylic acid or AHA? I'm really kind of set on some kind of manual exfoliation with natural, non-irritating ingredients because I don't want to add anything extra to the regimen, and I want to exfoliation as soon as possible, and I can't use AHA on the regimen for another week. I just want to keep my face clear of dead skin cells since my oily skin (I think) is prone to trapping dead skin cells that most likely lead to my current problem.

Hopefully this long and drawn out post is clear about my question centering on what happens when you exfoliate areas (and the best way to exfoliate these areas) that were previously infected with inflammatory acne. I just tried to give as much info as possible.

Any info on the best ways to exfoliate after being cleared of moderate inflammatory acne would be awesome. Thanks!