10 replies to this topic

[stupidskin]

I never post anything online but I figured if I can relate to a single person that reads this thread and decides to do something about their skin, its worth it.

First a quick backstory.

I've had some form of acne since I was 14 and am now in my late 20s, over the years it has had its ups and downs. As most of you can relate to, i've tried most of the OTC stuff including the proactiv and variants. I also had been on antibiotics for quite a long time, but then worried about long term health risks on taking them and I never felt like they did much for me, at least not anymore. I think the proactiv did help a bit, but since i'm stubborn and felt embarrassed to be in their 20's and still buying expensive acne products I felt I should find other ways....I've seen a doctor on a couple occasions, which is always incredibly embarrassing for me, I really try to avoid letting on that I have these internal demons and I try to be very closed lipped about it. I find it funny how strikingly similar I am in social behavior to the typical acne sufferer.

I kept thinking I was over medicating myself and about 6 months ago I decided I would go simple and just improve my diet as much as possible, take supplements (zinc/ fish oil/ vitamin d/ etc) and then just use a mild cleanser annd in the evenings dab on tea tree oil and other goofy things along those lines. Sounded pretty good but really didn't seem effective for me. I'm not sure that i'd say I have oily skin but I always felt like I didn't need to use moisturizer to prevent flakiness, but my skin would be tight during the day and seemed to then start producing its own natural oils to keep my skin from getting terribly dry. My goal was always to have my skin as dry as possible without flaking and felt adding a lotion would defeat that. I usually did a cleanse cycle after work since I felt I was overly oily especially around my nose, it drove me nuts having any oil on my face. My biggest concern has always been the cystic acne, I never got a ton of it but it always was devastating having a big lump under my skin and checking the mirror all the time to see if the thing would go back under or decide to flare up into a month long scabby nightmare. Of course I get some regular variety zits here and there and recently have been getting more whiteheads then I am accustomed to, blackheads haven't been a problem since I was a teenager. My problem spot is definitely the beard area as well as around my nose, although i've noticed a few more random spots now getting them on occasion. I even had a bout of bacne last year and i've NEVER had that before to that degree, I now think it was irritation induced and possibly started from using laundry sheets or something. I got that under control and now my backs been clear, I never scrub my skin anymore in the shower.

So recently I was on my honeymoon and started to get a breakout, what really upset me is that I let it pretty much ruin my state of mind for a day or two - I felt really ashamed that I was on my honeymoon but all I could think about was how unfortunate I am to be having a bout of acne. My wife thinks I have a bit of dysmorphia since she doesn't think my acne is that bad at all, but I do a pretty good job of hiding it so I don't think she has a real appreciation for how I feel. Although I would categorize my acne as 'mild' it feels 'severe' when I wake up to a couple cysts. I am realizing that the state of my face affects me in so many ways and even has been affecting my performance at work when it is at its worst. I absolutely hate leaving the house somedays and since my wife has been in the picture she has been pretty bummed out when I make excuses to not go out - I can understand her frustration especially since I'm not being entirely honest with her sometimes. I have decided that I can't just wait until I 'get older' for it to go away since I fear it could be just crappy genetics and i'll have it until my 40s....

After browsing through this website I determined that I had been violating a number of the irritation guidelines with regards to shaving and lack of moisturizing and many others. I decided what the hell i'll just follow dan's regimen and see what happens, this website is truly pretty inspirational.

So I ordered all of Dan's stuff but unfortunately it has not arrived, so I picked up some Cetaphil cleanser and lotion and then the on-the-spot 2.5% bp from the store to get me started while I wait. I'm on day 3 so far.

Overall, i feel like there are no major adverse side effects for me yet. The first day I put on a thin layer of BP to avoid BP shock and having my skin fall off. At this time I actually didn't have the cetaphil lotion so I used some face lotion laying around that unfortunately had a slight fragrance, my wife liked the smell but damn did it make my eyes burn during the day, I don't think fragrances do much to me skin wise but they make my eyes get freakin' sore. On day 2 I switched to the cetaphil and upped the BP a smidge. I can definately now feel the BP working, and I did get some mild burning sensation which doesn't bother me much and seems to feel worse than it looks in the mirror, my skin had some very mild flakes which were easy to remedy and a slight reddening but nothing that couldn't be explained by a little sun exposure - overall i'm having no issues with the regimen. I am willing to pretty much walk through hot coals if its required to rid me of this stupid affliction. I found that the burning or redness subsides after a couple hours or so and then maybe a little itchiness lasts but its again very mild...however I am not at full BP yet and don't intend to for a while especially since I don't have dan's stuff yet. It's now day 3 and i'm feeling very hopeful, I know a lot of people claim they get a 'purging' effect even a month or so in, so far though my skin feels like it is on the mend, the cysts and pimples I had are for the most part on their way out although the marks and bumps are very much still present. I did notice after the first day that I had remnants of a cyst that decided to pop up into a regular zit and then one next to it that was more of a whitehead decided to pop up a bit as well, I think many others on these boards have noticed this effect shortly after the start of the BP treatment, so I wasn't concerned, and now they seem to have stabilized and are heading in the other direction potentially. I am crossing my fingers that I'm one of the lucky ones that don't have the big upsurge of acne after the start of the treatment and that things are going to turn around. I think my face is fairly rugged since i've used so many chemicals on it in the past, so the BP isn't hitting me as hard as some others.

Anyways, i'll try to post a couple updates at least weekly....I'd prefer to be anonymous so I won't be posting pics, but i'll try to describe things in enough detail.

[stupidskin]

Quick update here:

DAY 5

I'm really surprised I don't have the extreme peeling and irritation that so many have seemed to report when starting out. I had a few flakes a couple days but it was quite mild and they came off with virtually no effort. I use plenty of moisturizer and recently threw the jojobo in there as well, maybe some people are just very sensitive to BP and some are not. I do have a little red tone to my face like a small sunburn and I notice that for quite a long time my face feels a tiny bit itchy occasionally and a tiny bit hot like I got some sun. Overall the side effects seem very benign. I've already been upping the quantity but still am using the neutrogena on-the-spot since my package still hasn't arrived. I use a couple squiggly lined fingers worth of it, and I think I really only have another finger or so to go to be considered on the full amount - but the gel stuff may have a bigger kick to it so i'll need to not get too cocky. As for acne, well I haven't seen the big upsurge of acne (thankfully), and many spots are on the mend and overall my skin looks better than it did before starting in my opinion, but there are still red marks and i've had a few very minor zits pop up but they are not an eyesore and not the big painful variety. I attribute a bit of this to luck and not the regimen but overall i've been in great spirit about this program. I know there are a lot of posts on the forum from people who have had pretty nasty reactions to the BP, but i'd like to report that not EVERYONE experiences these major side effects....I hope my good luck continues, and I hope some others get the courage to try this program out.

[psych0sis]

I just wanted to say that since you are earlier on in using the regimen, Good Luck!

[stupidskin]

Nostradamus : thanks for the encouragement

Updates for DAY 7 (technically 6.5 but lets just say 7)

I got Dan's cleanser/BP/moisturizer yesterday in the mail, so that was good news. My overall impression is very good so far...i'll just make a few quick comments on each of them.

Cleanser : slightly tackier than the stuff I was using, meaning it seems like it doesn't come off quite as easy with 10 seconds of washing, but it lathers pretty nicely and I overall really like it.

BP : heck of a lot better than the neutrogina OTS stuff I had been using.... goes on so smoothly and really easy to distribute.

Moisturizer : love everything about it so far, but noticed that it is not as powerful as the cetaphil I was using. I had a couple flaky spots in areas this morning that didn't get gooped up as much by the moisturizer, with the cetaphil you pretty much didn't have to try to get good coverage.

Skin conditions: a little dryer this morning but the redness seems to be subsiding a bit unless I'm mistaken...I attribute the dryness to the new moisturizer and I will have to be careful and adjust the quantity and mix of jojoba that I add to maintain a good level of moisture. I want it to work because I feel like it is so much lighter than the cetaphil, it does not feel like I have anything on my face after it absorbs which is great, and it doesn't feel greasy - there is still a small amount of shine but that is easily lessened by a dabbing of a paper towel on my face or something just to get the superficial sheen off....that is no different than the cetaphil though. I have noticed my face feels a bit tighter this morning especially at the edges of where the moisturizer reaches, meaning it didn't go on as thick in those places, I need to be very careful to not skimp anywhere. I should also mention that I am using one full pump of BP (actually did 1.5 last night and 1 this morning). This seems like enough for a few days to make sure my skin doesn't freak out.

I believe my BP pumper is of the 'old' variety that he switched back to so I think 2 full pumps is the recommended full dose in that case. I think it is a bit confusing since the cleanser/lotion has the 'new' one and the BP had the 'old' one, and the flyer in the box said to use 3 pumps...luckily I had done enough snooping on this site to understand the pump difference but this is a bit confusing.

I noticed this morning that my forehead which used to have a swarm of very tiny almost imperceptable (except in just the right light) white-heads is getting almost cleared up, I didn't expect that to happen this fast. It was never my problem area but I had hoped those little bumps would go away, and I do get real zits on the hairline sometimes and those have been pretty good lately too. The lower part of my face which is the problem zone is still healing from the last break-out, and I had a few small zits that went to a head very fast and were quite minor, this is really the only new acne activity I have had since I started, I keep thinking I'm going to get this nasty upsurge but so far I haven't. The red spots do take a while to go away, I think a bit longer then prior to the regimen, but I believe this is due to the slight redness of the face when you start out, and so any amount of red just gets a bit accentuated, but other than a few red spots I have almost no active acne, which is pretty amazing. I find it very hard for those little white-heads not to pop them, but i'm trying to go by the rule if they are small enough where I think you would not notice them if you weren't staring in a mirror to just leave them alone. Overall very pleased and also very happy with Dan's products. I hope next week is even better!

[stupidskin]

Day 8 update

I just had a few comments, some good some bad.

Good :
The burning/redness has greatly subsided ... I attribute at least a good portion of this relief to the new moisturizer from Dan. My face just doesn't feel heated like it did every day before, which is really amazing!

Bad:
Although the new moisturizer does a great job reducing irritation, I can't help but worry about the level of moisture, my skin does not appear to be flaking off, but it feels much tighter....now it's possible that even with the old lotion this would occur as maybe it takes a few days for the BP's drying effects to really build up....however, I think the Cetaphil was much more powerful. I am going to try to mix about a half a pump of cetaphil into Dan's lotion this evening and see how that goes...if it can reduce irritation and give just a little extra kick to the moisture (doesn't need too much more) then I think i'd be less worried. I don't mind the tight feeling much I just worry it will result in more flakiness if left unattended. The lotion just takes a lot of patience, I used 4 pumps this morning and it felt like forever until it had absorbed fully. Some people had said it left their skin yellow because the lotion does have a yellow coloring, I found this to be true as well but as soon as it was fully absorbed that went away, so i dont' think that is a very big complaint but it does mean that you really can't look normal until about 30 mins after you are done with the regimen since you end up having to use very large amounts of lotion to really get enough effect. I should also mention that i've been adding about 3 drops of Jojoba to the lotion, I guess I could use more but I really don't think I should have to.

Last night I used 1.5 pumps, which is quite a bit....my skin was very minorly flaky in certain areas this morning, didn't bother me. I did have a weird dry patch like at the bridge of my nose and between my eyebrows...I think this area of my face is more sensitive or has just never had BP on it before, it looked very dry so I put some jojoba on it directly right before doing the lotion step....seems pretty good now.

Overall still doing great and my skin is improving every day!

[stupidskin]

Day 10 update

Quick update here. The dryness has definitely picked up a bit as there are some spots I am getting flakes of skin. The good news is that the irritation or redness effects are pretty much gone, or at least almost imperceptible....my face looks less red then it did too. I had to work outside yesterday so I was a little concerned about sun exposure so I put on some of the Olay sun screen that Dan recommended, seemed to be pretty good but required a fair amount of it to properly moisturise...I think next time I will mix it with another moisturiser before applying. I am currently using 1 pump of BP (with the older style ones that need only 2 for full amount) during the day and then about 1.5 pumps at night. Soon I will probably go to 2 at night and then stick with 1 during the day. The lotion is still the toughest part of the regimen for me to get used to, mainly because i'm still trying to gauge how much to use to properly moisturise without over-doing. Lately i've been doing 3 pumps of Dan's lotion and then adding a half pump of cetaphil and then about 3 drops of jojoba. Takes quite a while to absorb in which is kind of annoying but seems to be working quite well, I feel very comfortable through the day with this combination as far as tightness of the skin and not overly greasy. After cleansing in the morning, if I have some flaky skin I put some jojoba on my fingertip and lightly exfoliate the area ... but I don't shoot for perfect just the most loose looking spots....and this is most easily seen after cleansing and letting your skin dry for a while. I am hoping that the flaky skin will subside as time goes on and I get more used to the treatment....but it really isn't bad at all.

My skin is healing up....I get an occasional white-head on my cheek, but very minor, the rest of my face really has no active acne, so that's pretty amazing, it seemed like before I was always waking up to something painful under the skin and I haven't had that feeling in quite a few days, of course I don't expect to be out of the woods yet....The red marks seem a little better today but they are still quite noticeable. It's great to feel like your face isn't growing something under the skin, actually I do have a more painful one under my eyebrow hair! That's kind of annoying since obviously I don't get much BP there, so recently i've been trying to get some BP and lotion on that eyebrow but hopefully it won't bleach my hair out very much ( I have very dark hair)....not a big deal though since you can't actually see anything, its just noticeable when I touch it or move my eyebrow.

[stupidskin]

Day 12

Well a little frustrated today, I have a new one on my right chin that kind of came out of nowhere and progressed really fast, came to a head quickly and I got the 'stuff' out. Got an under the skin thing on the left that is I suppose going to turn into something big, guess I'll see. Overall feel like I took a step back, but I guess that is par for the course with the regimen - take a step forward then back and slowly make progress especially after the first month. I will definitely not be stopping as I believe things will keep getting better over time, just frustrating because I was crossing my fingers that things would just keep getting better. I hope by week three everything is in the heal mode....I miss the feeling of everything just healing and nothing new forming of any substantial size. I ordered the AHA+ plus so I can give that a go too. Other than that, some dryness and flakes but no red really.

[stupidskin]

Day 19

Well I am now into my 3rd week, the last few days flew by.

Skin status : each day seems a bit better than the last (or it has felt that way for the last couple days). I had a cyst on my left jaw that is still there but its quite flat and not very red, I guess it just doesn't want to come out, but it doesn't bother me too terribly since its pretty flat. I had a couple pustules on my right cheek/jaw that had popped up on week 2 but they are now mostly a thing of the past. Other than that, I have a fairly small red spot (papule) on my neck kinda below my ear, I think this is an area that does not get much if any BP, I recently decided to expand the BP to these areas.

I noticed that I have a dry patch of skin partway down my neck, it is sort of a line of dry skin (the kind that seems dry even after putting lotion on it), it seems like it is the threshold of where BP would get applied, I am going to be more careful with moisturizer in this area. I do have issues with flaking sometimes, I try to exfoliate gently but I do get to a point where I have to get the flakes off, they look really terrible especially when my skin gets pulled tighter....I am hoping that once I get into the proper habits this can be easily controlled.

I've been in pretty good spirits about the regimen, despite a few setbacks it certainly seems like the quantity of spots (large and small) has reduced since I started, I think in another couple weeks I may be nearly all clear if things keep going this way. I don't think I have missed a single application and as of this morning I started using a full 2 pumps of the BP.

I got some of Dans AHA lotion the other day, I have been mainly using it in certain spots (like that dry patch on my neck) but I have put some on the lower part of my face one night since I kept getting pretty flaky, seemed to help so I'll probably do this once a week or so assuming my skin doesn't get too red from it.

[Kairasa]

Hello there and I hope the regimen goes well for you. =) Let me counsel patience though. It took around 5-6 months for it to properly work for me. My skin also had a hard time adjusting.

As for moisturizing, I found that Dan's product doesn't do enough, so I use Aquaphor on the dry patches under my jawline (where I had moderate acne before) and it seems to clear that up.

Again, I hope it works for you. Keep us updated and congrats on getting married!

[stupidskin]

Thanks Kairasa

Its been a while since I posted, I'm now on about Day 27...almost a month!

Things are definitely improving for me. I try to keep a mental image of where I was at in the beginning and I am definitely happier with the state of my skin now then I was. One good comparison is when I look at myself straight out of the shower, before it was pretty blotchy and lots of red spots and I really didn't like looking at myself until the redness had subsided...now it is actually not so bad, I still have red marks here and there but I have not had a new spot in a few days so everything is just in heal-mode it seems.

I've been at the full BP amount for a while now (nearly a week). I had some bouts of dryness and decided that I needed to continue to mix a half pump of cetaphil into 2.5 pumps of Dan's moisturizer to control flakiness....It seems to be just the added moisture I need to avoid issues...maybe eventually I can stop doing it but everytime I stop and just go with 3 pumps of Dan's moisturizer I get a little out of control with the flakes.

I've still got a pretty small lump on my left jawline from where a cyst tried to form, it seems like it is just taking its time on disappearing completely, hopefully it doesn't try to make a last stand.

I had a spot on my right jaw/neck in a spot that I hadn't been treating very well early on (which I've adjusted for)....that is all healing but whats strange is my lymph nodes or something on that side went crazy, its not abnormal for me to get a swollen lymph node in that area (usually acne induced) but this one is painful when i press on it, which is a bit unusual...i'm just trying not to push on it and let it heal but I was starting to wonder if an underground zit had formed next to the lymph node or something since it seemed like there were two lumps next to each other....anyways, other than that things are really good!

my irritation induced redness is nearly all gone, just have the red spots here and there which seem to be fading each day a little...i've been using Dan's AHA now and then for exfoliation, seems to help...it can itch pretty bad if you use it on a larger area of your face.

I expect it will be 8 weeks before I can really assess where my skin is at, since you never know when new break-out may form, but so far so good!

[stupidskin]

Just wanted to say, things are going very well for me. I'm now on Day 33 and I hope that this next month keeps the momentum going. Pretty much everything is gone except a couple very minor things that occasionally pop up. Mainly on the perimeter of where I put BP which makes me think I need to be sure to get good coverage. I'm still doing the regimen verbatim with the full amount of BP. I just got my second shipment today so I'm good to go for a long time to come. I had a sore spot at the junction of my nose to my lip that made me think " great here goes the good luck streak ". But I threw some AHA on it and just tried not to think about it and nothing happened...not even a red mark.

Yeah the dry flakiness can be annoying and I have to keep my eye on it, I keep a backup thing of lotion at work if my skin decides to dry up, but mostly I can get through the day without resorting to this. I also don't really care for the slight darkening of my skin tone on my face just because i'm a pretty pale guy, but its summer so nobody thinks anything of it, i'm hoping this slowly subsides but I guess side effects considered i'm still very glad I went on this, its really the only thing i've felt has done much for me.