dan seems like a cool guy. i think its great that he allows threads like this to stay alive

Yes, no one is saying Dan is cruel or anything like that. I also think he is great for doing all these things. Though it's pretty discouraging especially when it worked for me and many others. Anyhow, I'll leave it at that and let others decide for themselves.

@pandaboy

Maybe you haven't gotten rid of the trigger of your acne. Mind sharing what you are currently doing to battle it?

In my current condition, I still get spots but not 5 a day. It's like one per mistake I do that triggers a pimple. All in all, I have only 4 actives clustered on my right temple. But my skins texture is still not good. I'm just free of acne but not yet flawless skin. Though, I'd prefer this than having a routine that keeps me trap in acne problem.

Hey i'm doing this right now too. i came up with the idea a few days ago and then searched it on here, and other people had the same theory as me! I'm finding it kinda hard right now because my face is getting really oily and i'm breaking out a bit. I was going to stop tonight, but i might continue if people have had good results?

I am a girl too, so i can't wear make-up! but it will be def worth it if it does work.

So far it's been two days, my skin texure and tone looks alot better but currently no improvment in acne, also my forehead is very oilly but i don't really get acne there, it's my chin that is breaking out the less oily part, weird...

also has anyone noticed that their skin becomes very itchy, and hard to resist not scratching it? I eventually rubbed it a little with some tissue to ease the itchyness and quite alot of dry skin came off.

Can anyone give me some encouraging stories to make me contuine this?

Read my log girl. Keep it up! By the way, try to find what triggers you to have a pimple and avoid it. It would help you stop getting new spots.

i read your log very interesting! it all makes so much sense to me. I have been into the natural treatment of acne for a while now, and although my skin is better than when i was using harsh products it's still not clear. I use a mild cleanser coconut oil and castor oil on my skin right now (well not for the last few days)

I have tried to get more and more natural and this is the most natural you can get! I have one question though, i find that my skin becomes very itchy, i don't want to interfer with my face, but it's so uncomfortable at times, will this go away? and what do you think the itchyness is caused by?

thank you so much for writing your log, i'm def gonna carry on not washing!

couple of tips:

1. bring water back in eventually. perhaps sooner than later. water is not the enemy. just splash water on face every couple 1-2 days or so. this is what you used to do (maybe in shower or sink) and this is likely what the average clear person does. not washing for a few days is likely to be beneficial at first but no need to go overboard like i did. i think it caused unnecessary dead skin accumulation. that's all gone now and has been for ages. i introduced water months ago. dont be afraid of mild MANUEL exfoliation with a little brush or towel (see the success of 'baby brush' method). do this for dead skin mostly, not flakeage i would say. but yeh i do think that water can provide moisture for your skin!

Edit: maybe helpful to read whatever i say with a critical mindset. clearly, i dont know all the answers. chlorinated tap water may irritate your skin. the water in your area may be more irritating than water in my area. I DONT KNOW.

2. good idea to listen to wapak. see his log/regimen/tips etc.

Wow, even our method that worked for many is now criticized by Dan. Well, he should just keep using his regimen if that does work for him, this goes for others too.

 

Living life without any routine is beautiful.

 

I'm getting less active in this forum these past few days contemplating whether I will keep staying here or not. I'm afraid this might be buried and be forgotten but this site also doesn't help on making me forget about acne. I'm confused. Sigh.

I agree And yeah, if it works for him, that's great. But I still believe that with a good diet and no soaps, anyone can have clear skin. For those who have used very harsh products in their lives, however, it might be a longer recovery.

But that's just my idea And of course I love and respect Dan for creating Acne.org, because this website has definitely changed my life and the way I look at my skin.

I guess it's up to you if you want to leave; we'll keep this going, but we will miss you and your insight

Hey all,

I have been ghouling around this board for years and I thought I would finally post. As for a brief background, I have tried almost every OTC product, and numerous prescriptions including two round of the tane, antibiotics, and years on differin and other topicals. None of them seemed to work to well. My problems start when I was 13 and eventually I settled for using a minimalist regimen using a mild face wash, aloe gel and a moisterizer when I was around 19?(i think) My complexion gradually improved on this and was okay. About 7 months ago (I am now 24), my favorite moisturizer was discontinued and I tried something that made my face breakout very bad. So I started using ACV again, and it got worse, and then I kept switching products, and it kept getting worse, and eventually I started on Dan's regimen again, and it got way worse. Finally I got a prescription to differin again and was using a mild glycolic acid product.

Finally with my face battered with cystic acne, I said screw it and stopped using everything. That was two weeks ago. Out of the 10 large cystic acne bumps that were along my jaw line and hair line only 1 is left. I have gotten only 3 new pimples in that time and 2 were very tiny and 1 was like 2 days after I stopped. Overall, my skin looks great compared to what it was. I only rinse with water when I shave (every two-three days). I also stopped taking a multivitamin and started eating more fruit. Good luck everyone! great post... I still can not believe this worked, I thought I was just being stubborn!

I have noticed too that the more you switch products hoping that the next one will help even more the worse your acne will become. Before i did this no washing i was using natural products (like coconut oil and castor oil) but i still kept changing my routeen.

a month back or so i was just using face wipes most days and my acne improved. I think because your skin wasn't meant to have chemicals on it, when you change your routeen your skin has to constantly addapt to the new chemical you put on it, dissrupting it's natural oils and causing more acne.

I think a chemical routeen can work like dans bp, you just need to keep doing it forever and it will become expensive and harmfull to your skin, when you could just sit back and let your skin do it's job at healing!

Adam: i live in scotland in the uk. We have really nice soft water here, the water it's self doesn't irritate my skin so much, but when i even splash it becomes very dry. I will eventually use water, maybe in 10 days or so, i'll see how the condition of my skin is.

Don't worry about the itchiness, that will subside soon. Just don't scratch or it will become more itchy. Yes, Adam08 is right. Water will be reintroduced soon. But if your method of coconut oil and castor oil is working then keep it up. As long as it doesn't trigger a new spot then it's good.

when i was using coconut oil and castor oil it helped by not making other spots form but it wasn't really clearing them up, that is why i wanted to try this for clearing.

castor oil is good because it helps open your pores so along with a healthy diet it can help get toxins out. the problem with it is it's so sticky that you kinda have to wash the next day if putting it on at night or else your skin just becomes way to uncomfortable and yucky. i am thinking of doing an apple fast and a colon cleanse (no i'm not gonna use an enema lol) i have these pills called oxy powder that-well make you poop.

do you think that a colon cleanse with a water and apple fast for 3 or 4 days would help speed up the process of clearing if i also carry on with the no washing?

update on the no washing: I've not washed my face since wednessday and i'm not sure if my acne is getting better or worse. i looked in the mirror at work today and my skin looked pretty gross it's not really oily anymore it's just full of dead skin and kinda flaky and looks pretty dull. i've broken out a bit too, please tell me it gets better?

it does get better.. but you have to be patient. and the dead skin means your face is healing

will this work on blackheads too? i have loads of blackheads

This is a stupid idea.

I go to another forum and The Caveman Regimen has become super huge. Like everyone is doing it.

First of all, the Caveman Regimen is just the name it was given, it in no way is implying that cavemen didn't wash their faces, though we can easily concur that they did not use acne medication to clear their faces, which brings me to my next point: The caveman regimen, is the idea that you don't wash your face with any skin-care products. The point of it is NOT to leave your face unwashed. That is absolutely stupid.

The reason this regimen is supposed to work is because the ingredients in the acne products that you use not only damage your face (they are all chemicals that strip your skin of essential oils etc.) but they disrupt your PH balance, and therefore cause your skin to produce more oil, and cause it to break out.

The real caveman regimen works like this:

-Wash your face twice a day. Use hot water to open up your pores, and then cold water to close them up. This is to remove excess oil and dirt that might have accumulated during the day.

-Use a good moisturizer before you go to bed, you want to make sure your skin stays moisturized so that it doesn't create excess oils. Expect to pay anywhere from $20-$30 for a good moisturizer, I suggest using the 'Yes to Carrots' line, they use 99.6% organic ingredients in all of their products

-Optional: Once a week use a mask to cleanse any excess oil, dirts, and clean out your pores

Still, the caveman regimen doesn't work for everybody. You have to remember that your skin is differnt from everyone elses and what might work for a large group of people might not work for you. I tried this method, and it only made my skin worse, because acne can't be cured it can only be prevented. The caveman method wasn't preventing my acne from coming back, it was letting it fester. So I use the 'Yes to Carrots' line to clean my face since it is 99.6% natural ingreduents, and I have substituted spot treatment gels with 100% all natural Tea Tree Oil. These things are all natural and organic, so my PH balance will not be disturbed and my acne will be kept at bay.

Many people using the Caveman regimen have also reported that they have had some foul-smelling sebum. This is because the caveman regimen is letting your bacteria fester and mix together with the oils on your face. Ew. So, I don't recommend this method if you have extreme or persistent acne. This only works for those who don't have acne, or have very, very mild symptoms.

^- what do you know? hahaha

This is a stupid idea.

 

I go to another forum and The Caveman Regimen has become super huge. Like everyone is doing it.

 

First of all, the Caveman Regimen is just the name it was given, it in no way is implying that cavemen didn't wash their faces, though we can easily concur that they did not use acne medication to clear their faces, which brings me to my next point: The caveman regimen, is the idea that you don't wash your face with any skin-care products. The point of it is NOT to leave your face unwashed. That is absolutely stupid.

 

The reason this regimen is supposed to work is because the ingredients in the acne products that you use not only damage your face (they are all chemicals that strip your skin of essential oils etc.) but they disrupt your PH balance, and therefore cause your skin to produce more oil, and cause it to break out.

 

The real caveman regimen works like this:

-Wash your face twice a day. Use hot water to open up your pores, and then cold water to close them up. This is to remove excess oil and dirt that might have accumulated during the day.

-Use a good moisturizer before you go to bed, you want to make sure your skin stays moisturized so that it doesn't create excess oils. Expect to pay anywhere from $20-$30 for a good moisturizer, I suggest using the 'Yes to Carrots' line, they use 99.6% organic ingredients in all of their products

-Optional: Once a week use a mask to cleanse any excess oil, dirts, and clean out your pores

 

Still, the caveman regimen doesn't work for everybody. You have to remember that your skin is differnt from everyone elses and what might work for a large group of people might not work for you. I tried this method, and it only made my skin worse, because acne can't be cured it can only be prevented. The caveman method wasn't preventing my acne from coming back, it was letting it fester. So I use the 'Yes to Carrots' line to clean my face since it is 99.6% natural ingreduents, and I have substituted spot treatment gels with 100% all natural Tea Tree Oil. These things are all natural and organic, so my PH balance will not be disturbed and my acne will be kept at bay.

 

Many people using the Caveman regimen have also reported that they have had some foul-smelling sebum. This is because the caveman regimen is letting your bacteria fester and mix together with the oils on your face. Ew. So, I don't recommend this method if you have extreme or persistent acne. This only works for those who don't have acne, or have very, very mild symptoms.

Yeah not washing the face is very unhygienic so everyone should use the OCM Method instead.

Adam08 said:

couple of tips:

1. bring water back in eventually. perhaps sooner than later. water is not the enemy. just splash water on face every couple 1-2 days or so. this is what you used to do (maybe in shower or sink) and this is likely what the average clear person does. not washing for a few days is likely to be beneficial at first but no need to go overboard like i did. i think it caused unnecessary dead skin accumulation. that's all gone now and has been for ages. i introduced water months ago. dont be afraid of mild MANUEL exfoliation with a little brush or towel (see the success of 'baby brush' method). do this for dead skin mostly, not flakeage i would say. but yeh i do think that water can provide moisture for your skin!

this is verrrry good advice. i havent let water touch forever and the dead skin buildup was stuck to my skin and i couldnt get it off, and when i did i irritated my face really badly.

so now im going to wash my face with water every 2-3 days, let it touch for like 5 seconds, and im going to start exfoliating the dead skin buildup with a baby brush.

for those who want to try the baby brush method for exfoliating dead skin, heres the link:

[Edited link out]

This is a stupid idea.

 

I go to another forum and The Caveman Regimen has become super huge. Like everyone is doing it.

 

First of all, the Caveman Regimen is just the name it was given, it in no way is implying that cavemen didn't wash their faces, though we can easily concur that they did not use acne medication to clear their faces, which brings me to my next point: The caveman regimen, is the idea that you don't wash your face with any skin-care products. The point of it is NOT to leave your face unwashed. That is absolutely stupid.

 

The reason this regimen is supposed to work is because the ingredients in the acne products that you use not only damage your face (they are all chemicals that strip your skin of essential oils etc.) but they disrupt your PH balance, and therefore cause your skin to produce more oil, and cause it to break out.

 

The real caveman regimen works like this:

-Wash your face twice a day. Use hot water to open up your pores, and then cold water to close them up. This is to remove excess oil and dirt that might have accumulated during the day.

-Use a good moisturizer before you go to bed, you want to make sure your skin stays moisturized so that it doesn't create excess oils. Expect to pay anywhere from $20-$30 for a good moisturizer, I suggest using the 'Yes to Carrots' line, they use 99.6% organic ingredients in all of their products

-Optional: Once a week use a mask to cleanse any excess oil, dirts, and clean out your pores

 

Still, the caveman regimen doesn't work for everybody. You have to remember that your skin is differnt from everyone elses and what might work for a large group of people might not work for you. I tried this method, and it only made my skin worse, because acne can't be cured it can only be prevented. The caveman method wasn't preventing my acne from coming back, it was letting it fester. So I use the 'Yes to Carrots' line to clean my face since it is 99.6% natural ingreduents, and I have substituted spot treatment gels with 100% all natural Tea Tree Oil. These things are all natural and organic, so my PH balance will not be disturbed and my acne will be kept at bay.

 

Many people using the Caveman regimen have also reported that they have had some foul-smelling sebum. This is because the caveman regimen is letting your bacteria fester and mix together with the oils on your face. Ew. So, I don't recommend this method if you have extreme or persistent acne. This only works for those who don't have acne, or have very, very mild symptoms.

The idea here is NOT to stop washing your face ever. Most people go about a month with little water contact to their faces so their skin can heal beneath the dead skin mask. Then, water is reintroduced. Eventually, a mild soap may also be added into the mix once the skin has grown strong enough.

You also must consider a few things. First of all, bacteria isn't necessarily all evil and to be feared. Second, soap wasn't invented until just a few hundred years ago.

A tip for you: what is your diet like? And have you considered diet changes to help with your skin health? These may help you

adam08, did you use a baby brush to exfoliate the dead skin?

did it work better than using your fingernails?

how often did you exfoliate? once a week?

thx

adam08, did you use a baby brush to exfoliate the dead skin?

did it work better than using your fingernails?

how often did you exfoliate? once a week?

 

 

thx

end of a little toothbrush actually. yeh once a week. even just used a towel towards the end and that was fine.

I'm starting this as of today - will keep you posted. I'm 16, which means that if my acne is hormonal, this probably will not help. I've only had acne for about 7-8 months really and I must say that I feel bad for everyone who has suffered for years, I simply can't imagine the battle. My few pimples turned into bad acne steadily, but starting when I ruined my face with a wash serie which completely dried out my skin. A wash serie I kept using even though I got a rash on my neck and I could feel unbearable irritation when scrubbing my face. One thing has led to the other, and I now know that I've done so many very(!) bad things to my face, since learning so much on this site. Nobody in my family had acne, but ofcourse they've had the odd pimple. Therefore I'm really hoping this will put an end to my embarrasment. I've survived worse stuff than walking around with an oily face or a flaky face, so I don't think its going to be much of a problem. (Let's just say I don't pop my pimples and I've been on the DKR ~ very red, and heavy use of moisturizer+jojoba oil. Not to bring down the DKR though, it really is efficient.

Anyways, here I go.

@bufas

Do you still remember what you usually do before you started using that wash serie? Aim to go back to that time and never mess with your skin again as long as it is fine.

Actually I don't, but it's gonna be great. Today is day 5 I believe, and it's been very up and down I think. Some of the things I've observed are:

- I have had no new zits in the places they'd normally be these last couple of days. (Chin and some of cheeks - basically around my mouth)

- My face looks freakin incredible in the morning and then less exciting as hours go by.

- I still have not experienced dead skin buildup (that I know of) nor flakes (except for eyebrows).

- Face feels less greasy every day I believe.

- I seem to get quite a lot of clogged stuff such as small pustules, whiteheads and small red bumps on my nose, cheeks and forehead. It sucks pretty bad, but I'm giving this a few months the least no matter what. Is this normal?

- The "rashes" are appearing, which was expected.

I think that's about it so far, I haven't told anyone that I'm doing this and I don't think I'm even going to tell my family. That is unless I see some good results ofcourse. But how does this sound to you wapak? I noticed in your gallery that you already had flakes by now, and I'm afraid it will take a little longer for me to heal.

Other than that - I love not having a regimen!

Yes baby! Finally some flakes.. Now I'm excited, yet can't wait for school .... This is day 7 for me I think, and I think that things are going to work out for me with this regimen.

I have a question though. I've read through many of the pages in the orgininal threads of this regimen and I've read several times that the dead skin was the worst part of this. But if this dead skin mask isnt flakes, and people say you can't really see it.. Whats so horrible about it then?

Hi there

For the first time in about 9 months, I have no big spots anywhere

Now my only problem is skin tone, but seriously so far this regime is great, how long do you think until i see improvements there as well? I have loads of small whiteheads on my forhead and right next to my nose on my cheeks?

Day 8.. Whiteheads in massive amounts.. Mostly where I never breakout, but theres a little bit everywhere. Alot of flaking on my eyebrows this morning, not really anywhere else. Kinda sad.. I'm not very happy about this, since pretty much anyone here having the flakes as their problem by now, but my acne has worsened. By whiteheads I mean tons of very small pustules. (Not much into what all the terms exactly means.) I have a suspision that's its from something I eat, but how could I know?