15 replies to this topic

[Bamsny]

I've been going to a very patient aesthetician for 4 years using Electrolysis for a simple removal of stubborn chin hair (tiny areas at the corner of my mouth). The reason it took 4 years is NOT because I was inundated with large amounts of hair but because the hair that needed to be removed was held captive in sebum& keratin plugs. The plugs prevented the complete removal of the entire hair so it would snap off, leaving the hair still trapped (and growing) in the plug. The plugs are like microscopic balls under the skin, they acted like the tiniest balloon which couldn't be grabbed or popped by the tweezers (even fine pointed ones are not successful 1/2 the time). The little ball would bounce back into its hole if you ever got a chance to even grab hold and If you have this condition, you'll know exactly what I went through..... when this little balloon is within your grasp & you lose grasp of it, you lose all sense of reality & remarkably you keep digging! Causing holes! Its only a harsh reality when you finally give up and you find you've just cause the stupidest deepest scar but you're desperate for a solution. Its insane & you feel insane!!! I researched my condition endlessly on the net (this was one of the sites) after Dermatologists repeatedly told me, "just leave it alone" or "stay out of the mirror!" or prescribed medication that dried out my skin and made the plugs that much harder. The condition hampered my progress of the hair removal. I finally read a post on this site, someone mentioned that some conditions might be fungal and to try Lamasil...and then it hit me..its spreading..of course! That's it..anti-fungal cream! At 2Am in the morning I'm searching my medicine cabinet for anything and Voila! Jock itch cream!! Tinactin was my savior!!!! I put a dab of it on the 2 small areas and the puffiness under the skin began to flatten, the plugs were dissolving !! I applied the Tinactin cream twice a day for 2 weeks and used moisturizer at night on the area. I went back to my aesthetician and continued the Electrolysis treatments and the hair is now slipping out like silk & able to be Electrolyzed (?)..lol successfully! I can't undo the scarring that I did, but if this post gets read by some one that's found their acne is caused by these plugs early enough, I might have just saved their skin, their wallet and their heart ache! Good luck to you and never give up-there's a solution, just stop mutilating yourself.

[Lange]

Would this work for a closed comedone? Does that tinactin have the ability to penetrate the skin/pore?

[Bamsny]

Yes, goes through the skin, dries up the sebum/keratin plug so the hair is free to grow thru the skin and not cause an ingrown. It took me a very long time to find this amazing solution. Hope it works for you, don't use anything else on it while ur treating the spot with this, give it time to work. I'm sooooo happy since finding this treasure. Good luck!!!

[wicky]

OMG Im crying because you hit the nail on the head in describing my condition. Its been an endless 2 yr battle with these and I knew I was missing something because this is not normal skin. They crop up only in my chin. Just under my lips where there are microspopic little white bubbles that I know have hardened sebum inside. I sometimes have to literally cut them out with the end of my tweezer. If I'm lucky a little white seed will pop out and if I'm unlucky it just retreats back in and now I have to wait until it heals to try again. I have constant buldges in the corners of my mouth that have these white dots. I also have sebhorreic dermatitis so i get the anti fungal thing. Does the tinactin just wipe them away or do they rise up and need to come out? Also what moisturizer are you using? Im desperate to get my chin back and stop this endless cycle of picking at them.....

[daveoh]

Interesting, I have experienced the hard plugs that seem to stick around until I can tweeze them out. Not as many as of late, but I'll keep this in mind. Thanks!

[Bamsny]

Wicky, soooo glad you've benefited from this. I kept reading the posts for about a year, every condition, looking for something to trigger an answer & one time a post mentioned the word fungus..the ah ha moment happened for me! My condition, like yours, was stubborn and spreading like a fungus and since antifungal cream is gentle on the skin & seaps down to the problem, that was the solution for me. I keep my regimine simple, at first I kept the cream on morning and night (use different fingers for different areas if you have more than one problem area), found it would dry the spot a little too much so I switched to only night time and in the morning I used moisturizer. Sometimes the bumped would disolve and other times it'd bring that lil grain to the surface..either way..success! I've gotten it down to maybe twice a week or if I see that area getting puffy or if I press down & feel pain like there's something in there. The other side of my mouth where I had no problem started to exibit the same little bumps but instead of mutilizing THAT side too, I simple keep the Tinactin on it till my skin is smooth again. A fighting battle but now I have the right tool!! I love that I had an opportunity to help another sufferer because I suffered for far longer than you & made signifficant damage (pock marks ) in the process, fortunately I stopped myself in time from ruining the other side . All the best to you too and spread the word!!!

[PumpkinAliza]

Will using Lotrinum work too? I used it for a ringworm spot last year and it says it's an antifungal cream.

I've gotten a bunch of these too, especially when I was doing the caveman routine. I'm done with that, and some I squeezed out , and some turned to pimples but some are still there.

[Bamsny]

Now don't judge!!!..lmao it was a moment of shear desperation that I found the answer to this prob one night at 2AM!!!! I scavenged through my med cabinet where I found an old tube of the Tinactin cream for JOCK ITCH of my husbands!...LMAO As I said, just like hemmoroidal cream has positive effects on the face, why not JOCK ITCH CREAM????!!! Made perfect sense at the time and still does since finding it was THE ANSWER. The tube says Tinactin Antifungal. Brand of Tolnaftat 1%. Jock itch Cream. Cures jock itch soothes ad relieves itching, chafing,rash. it's a 20 g tube (smaller than a Bic pen). Rub on the area and just leave it over night, by morning you should see some reduction of puffiness. I found that the morning/night regimine works eventually to dry the Sebum bumps (which is the sourse of the puffiness). Depending on the severity of your condition, stop it when you see the surface of that area smooth. Don't continue it if you've noticed the area becomes smooth & clear, you'll just dry out your skin and cause another problem you'll have to solve I found this stuff, unlike acne med, goes THROUGH the skin to penetrate the real problem below without burning the skins surface. Hope this helped, good luck and enjoy your skin again!!!

[Soledad]

I'm late to this post, I know!
Like many others, I am sitting here cruising the web looking for skin answers and this post shows up in my search (although I have been a member for a while, I forget to come here first! ).
My question is, putting an anti fungal on the corners of your mouth.. Doesn't the product leak into your mouth? I have those wicked hard sebum plugs and they are along the lip line (where liner would go, if you wore lipliner) and into the corners where lower meets top and I'm concerned some product will get in my mouth. I have used ACV on my face and I have not got the antifungal result that apparently the actual AF creams give.
Thanks!

[ellatica]

I actually need to give you a hug

I felt like I've had an infection under my skin that wouldn't be released and was just becoming painful. After trying this and coupling it with a soft anti-bacterial facial soap all of the cysts and acne on my face flattened out and it's only getting better.

I'm hoping this isn't temporary and this combination can actually kill whats there long enough for me to try and fix any nutrition/diet/stress related causes so that I can finally get through this. I feel really good about this since I haven't had any new breakouts in months, only old cysts finally coming to a painful head.

I'll post pics in a few days

[walshy]

will it work for this type of acne??? I've had the little bumps under my lip for as long as I can remember. they are impossible to squeeze out.... i also have little bumps all along my jawline that are a little easier to squeeze out and this little white string comes out of them but they always come back.... i don't have any real pimples.... just a bunch of these damn things..... are they keratin plugs?

http://i46.tinypic.com/2zh3b5l.jpg

http://i49.tinypic.com/2wpkp77.jpg

http://i46.tinypic.com/2lwqj3c.jpg

[wicky]

bamsny are you still having success with the tinactin? I have tried several anti fungal creams as well as a tea tree oil serum and it hasnt helped in the least. In fact my skin is worse. Im constantly picking and squeezing them out and they keep coming back. All these bulging little milia type whiteheads is not normal. I cant take it anymore

[penny40]

This post has just made my day,
I am 40 and have suffered with spots for 30 years and nothing seemed to work then i got these horrible open sores that just wouldnt heal,after having several for around 18 months i found this thread.
I went straight out and bought some Anti fungal cream and it has almost cleared my skin in a couple of days i cant believe that after all this time they have gone so easily. i am overwhelmed and so very grateful to you all for sharing your stories.
Thank you all x
penny x

The cream i used is called MYCOTA and is for athletes foot.

Edited by penny40, 08 January 2013 - 01:38 PM.

[Sarsar123]

Ok reading this has freaked me a bit as some of it sounds like mine - it's never goo puss its mostly hard, a lot of it is stuck in hair follicles areas on chin and just repeats itself time after time, the same clogged areas. I'm going to go but some cream tomorrow it's got to be worth a try

[mikito]

Bamsny, when I was reading your post, I thought you had the same condition as mine, because I don't have pustules or papules, I just have plugs under the skin that contains hard serum and keratine, that I constantly scratch,dig them out,  and remove them with my nails, then it starts bleeding, and leads into a scar. But they are not microscope like you say, mines are like small stones, that when they starts healing, new hard plug sebum starts growing in the same place.

 

Could you please specify if the condition of your skin is like the pictures walshy show us?

 

Does anyone have the hard sebum plug that I have, I mean the big size, like little stones?

[Bamsny]

I'm soooo excited to hear my suggestion of Tinactin cured so many. I was ecstatic when it worked for me having suffered for over 5 yrs! I found it by scanning 100's of hours of acne posts and trial and error. This cream seems to help dry up the offender (hard or soft cyst like pimple that's embedded under the skin) by penetrating the skin and attacking from underneath, not destroying/buring your skin, as acne meds do. I apply it at bedtime making sure I don't wipe it off on the pillow. I continue the regimen until the bumps flatten (1-3 days). Adjust your use time, your body is unique, what works for one time might take longer, shorter for another.i don't feel you should use longer than 5 days as it may eventually dry your skin. Wash it off in the morning with mild soap n water and don't use anything else on it. K.i.s.s. "Keep it simple stupid". Like many things in life, less is more, this I believe is one of those things. Good luck an d enjoy your skin again!