3 replies to this topic

[Ixion]

Ok well to start off I am currently 19 years of age and I have been suffering from acne along with extremely oily skin since as long as I can remember, but if I must put an age on it I would have to say roughly around the age of 12 going on 13. In those 7 years I have had my ups and downs with numerous amount of creams, pads, toners, moisturizers, cleansers, antibiotics and even lights and laser treatments with no luck.

Recently I have been washing my face with only Dove white soap 3 times a day (when I wake up, mid day around 4pm, and at bed time) this is due to my over production of oil, I have also been using 100% Pure Australian Tea Tree Oil for 1 week and 3 days now (The first week I was applying it all over my face which really dried it out causing massive peeling which I'm still dealing with now, making my skin look like I have Hyper-pigmentation *But I Don't*) It completely cleared my skin until it peeled and out of no were I broke out with about 5 pimples on my forehead 5 on my right cheek/side-of-chin and 3 on the left side... For the other 3 days i have only been applying it directly to the pimples but for some reason the pimples dry up and go away but another ones grow directly next to the old existing pimples (This Is Around My Chin Area), lastly two days ago I went to the doctor and he prescribed me 500mg capsules of tetracycline to be taken 3 times a day for 3 months.

I recently learned about ACCUTANE and planned to go on it until I found out that it is extremely expensive without insurance, that plus the cost for the visits to the dermatologist and the cost to get my blood work done makes Accutane impossible to obtain at this point.


Now, I am giving up the tea tree oil and the dove soap but I will continue to take the tetracycline for 3 months. The reason I think that not washing my face will be beneficial to clear skin is because I read that facial skin has this thing called ACID MANTEL which form when SWEAT and SEBUM mix. ACID MANTEL has a particular level of acidity characterized by pH from about 4 to 5.5. A pH of 7 is considered neutral, above 7 is alkaline, and below is acidic. The pH of acid in the human stomach, for example, is usually from 1 to 2, which is highly acidic. The skin, on the other hand, is mildly acidic. In addition to helping protect skin from "the elements" (such as wind or pollutants), acid mantle also inhibits the growth of harmful bacteria and fungi. If acid mantle is disrupted or loses its acidity, the skin becomes more prone to damage and infection. The loss of acid mantle is one of the side-effects of washing the skin with soaps or detergents of moderate or high strength.

I like I'm sure most of yous have disrupted the pH level on our skin from years of chemicals usage so in order to regain the perfect pH level needed I plan on letting my skin heal it self and become normal once again.

When I was younger and I first started to break out I would always cry to my mother and ask her "WHY ME!?" "Why not my brother (who's older by 2 years) or anyone else in this house".
I was always the cleanest one from my 4 siblings and the cleanest person in my elementary school the teachers loved me, I had the whitest, teeth, I was the tallest one, the most athletic, best smelling, and the healthiest eater SO WHY ME!!!... My brother and sisters didn't always brush thier teeth they would go days without brushing their teeth and days without taking showers while I on the other hand brushed my teeth twice a day everyday and I would always take a shower everyday up to 2 times a day, 3 if I was bored so now 7 years later I finally realized that I have been robbing my skin of acid mantle as well as drying out my skin causing an over production of sebum since I was 12, and my brother who had bad eating habits and hated to shower had perfect skin no matter what!!!!!!!!!!!!!! .... SO I AM GOING TO NOT WASH MY FACE FOR A WHOLE MONTH TO MAKE UP FOR ALL THE YEARS I HAVE BEEN CAUSING DAMAGE TO MY NATURAL SKIN AND TO MY SKINS PH LEVEL. WISH ME LUCK! I WILL UP DATE EVERYDAY. LAST NIGHT WAS MY LAST TIME WASHING MY FACE FROM NOW ON I AM GOING ALL NATURAL BABY!

Edited by Ixion, 18 May 2010 - 04:20 AM.

[iWantBeHappy]

Good luck bro. But... I cant see anything wrong with ur skin, ur face is perfect.

[Ixion]

Thanks Man But Unfortunately my skin Is Far From Perfect.

And Now To Update...


DAY 1

Well today I woke up and did not wash my face not one time and to my surprise at the end of the day my face is a lot less oily then anticipated. I will have to say that my face is at a natural oil level if not just a tad bit higher. I am happy to report that not a single new pimple formed on my forehead and incredibly the 5 pimples that I previously had minimized drastically leaving only 3 miner specks on the left side of my forehead barely visible and actually blending in with the color of the surrounding skin. My forehead still has spots of dead skin waiting to peel making this the only problem on my forehead dust-far(DUE TO THE TEA TREE OIL BEING APPLIED LIKE CRAZY). As for the right side of my face I witness 5 very little white heads scattered around but seem to be drying up and vanishing(Fingers Crossed) and for the right side of my face I am seeing 10 very little bumps around my chin/cheek area which actually reduced in redness and seem to be the same color as the skin surrounding as well and are also drying up(Fingers Crossed Again). Now I know that this seems to be to good to be true from only one day of not touching/washing my face but keep in mine that im also taking 500mg of Tetracycline 3 times a day and today was officially my 3rd day. I think that the reason my skin is producing less oil is because its not being dried out by water and other chemicals so it doesn't have to produce more oil also because I am not worried about "OMG I'm getting greasy I need to go wash my face" therefore I am calm and stress free. Finally the last things im doing to help with this experiment is keeping a fan on pointing toward me at all time while I sleep and watch t.v so that my body and face stays cool, and I am also sleeping with a clean towel on my pillow so that excessive oil will get soaked up while I sleep and so that I don't keep introducing the same oil and bacteria to my face at night.

So Goodnight Fellow acne haters and wish me luck for day 2.

[AustinReed]

I've kinda been doing this too. I still lightly wash my face, hair, and body with cool\tepid water and end with cold. Hot water strips the natural oils from your skin. My face, back, scalp and chest have already improved in just one week. My scalp isnt as itchy anymore. I do still have some light flaking, but it may take up to 28 days for that to improve.