I never took it as far as not washing at all, but did stop applying junk and I stopped washing my face. I had instant success with that.
Not everyone will. If you actually have an inherited skin condition, you will most likely need something else to control it.
I still firmly believe at least 80% of the people here with acne have it because they stressed about one pimple, then tried to over clean it, then got more, then continued stressing out, and before they knew it, they ended up on this site contemplating things like drinking pee.
It does not have to be that way.
With all do respect, I highly doubt that 80% of the acne.org users have acne because of stress, alone. I'd wager to say that the majority of people on here are suffering from acne because they have a "skin condition."
If not washing works for you, it's probably because your skin was breaking out from irritation, not from hormones.
I never took it as far as not washing at all, but did stop applying junk and I stopped washing my face. I had instant success with that.
Not everyone will. If you actually have an inherited skin condition, you will most likely need something else to control it.
I still firmly believe at least 80% of the people here with acne have it because they stressed about one pimple, then tried to over clean it, then got more, then continued stressing out, and before they knew it, they ended up on this site contemplating things like drinking pee.
It does not have to be that way.
With all do respect, I highly doubt that 80% of the acne.org users have acne because of stress, alone. I'd wager to say that the majority of people on here are suffering from acne because they have a "skin condition."
If not washing works for you, it's probably because your skin was breaking out from irritation, not from hormones.
Please read more carefully. I said they have acne because they "stressed about 1 pimple" and then went all out on their skin.
They have acne because they irritate their skin with acids and other products.
Take someone with clear skin and apply your products and see what happens. It simply is not good for you skin and your skin will show it.
I'm sorry, but this is a terrible idea. If you really want to get clear skin, you need to get off all pharmaceutical drugs you may be on, completely overhaul your diet, and continue to wash your face with a NATURAL cleanser ONCE a day. This takes incredible determination, but the results are profound. My skin has become SO MUCH clearer, softer, and overall better since I started eating 100% organic. It wasn't easy, and the detoxification my body went through made my skin worse before it began to get waaaaaaay better.
The natural v chemicals debate
While I agree that overdosing ourselves with "chemicals" may not be healthy, I also think it is flawed to conclude that anything that is "natural" and free of "chemicals" is good.
Chemicals are bad?
The term "chemicals" is often wrongly used by the cosmetic industry to label anything that is not "natural". However, if you have studied Chemistry, you will know that all matter on Earth are in fact made of chemicals. Water is the chemical H2O.
The correct analogy is not natural v. chemicals.
The correct analogy should be chemicals that appear naturally v. synthetic chemicals (which we artifically put together). We can have H2O appearing in its natural state, or we could artifically put H2 and O2 together to form H2O. However, there is no proof that the one appearing in its natural state is necessarily better for our bodies than the one that we synthetically put together.
Natural = good?
Another inherent erroneous idea is that anything that is natural must be good. My media teacher back at uni once said to us, "spider poison is natural, so does it mean it's good for you?" A lot of poisons appear in nature that cause severe allergic reactions in us. Poison ivy is one example.
Conclusion
A lot of face washes on the market are not labelled "natural" because they consist of lots of synthetic chemicals. However, these face washes are not necessarily mediocre because some of these synthetic chemicals may cause us less irritation and fewer allergic reactions than many so called "natural ingredients".
However, moderation is the key. We really should not load our faces with lots of chemicals, be they natural or synthetic.
While "going natural" sounds like a good idea, unfortunately, some of us do need "artificial" drugs and chemicals to control or heal our ailments.
Hi,
I have been lurking around the boards for a year now. A little background about myself: I am a 26 year old Asian male who started getting severe cystic acne on my chin and cheeks when I turned 18 (puberty was late). Ran to the dermatologist and that's when the circus began. Doxycycline, Minocyclin, Tazorac, Dalacin-T, Vibramycin. You name it and I've tried it. Decided a year ago enough was enough and started researching on my own. I never believed that diet had any link to acne until I read posts here. I was a Coca-Cola junkie and ate junk food A lot. Also drank milk. Cut out Coca Cola from my life and also stayed away from milk. Saw a huge improvement!! I began to believe the acne-diet connection and began keeping a log of the food I ate and the acne. I have been doing that for a couple of months and have realized that processed foods are the killers and HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP is poison. I now eat a lot of fish and cook my own food. I still had some acne and wanted to completely be clear. I stumbled on this thread and decided it was worth a shot. I stopped washing my face 2 weeks ago and I must say, my face has improved drastically! No more new acne and my scars are fading fast. My face is oily at certain times of the day but it takes care of it by itself! Also, i used to have a lot of blackheads on my nose and they have also started to exfoliate by themselves. It is frankly a miracle. My face has never glowed like this before. I will continue to not wash my face for another 4 weeks since that's how long it takes for skin cells created at the lower level to mature fully. After that i am planning on washing with cold water once or twice a week. I can't wait for the end results. Give this a shot you won't be disappointed. And do not be afraid of the sun. It is helping but I am not sure how much.
So, people on this regime don't take showers either? Or do you keep your face dry? I might try this. Want to get rid of the spots that acne leaves. After I stumbled upon this board and got some good tips, and I haven't got any new outbreaks. I do have some spots, or left over marks on my cheeks. Anyone knows how to get rid of those effectively?
I will join in, no more touching my face with anything. Although I am going to try to incoprerate Jojoba Oil into it, not sure how often yet.
Currently: 5 white heads on my chin, some are pretty bad, and some smaller ones as well. Other than that, some scattered on my forhead. Acne on my cheeks is very small and almost non existent.
I will update my progress in the future.
I haven't been following the caveman regimine exactly, but I have eliminated all chemicals.
I now run 1 mile a day and bike 5-6. I pat my face afterwards, but I do not wash and it has not caused any breakouts. I take a whole food supliment in the morning (synthetic vitamins don't work well or at all), and take Udo's 3 6 9 oil blend.
As for washing, I do a quick wash with water on my face in the morning and night and apply 2-4 drops of jojoba oil afterwards. The jojoba oil caused some bad whitheads and breakouts at first, but now my face is clearing up. Jojoba oil in no way makes my face feel oily, in fact it makes it feel a little tight.
This is the bet my face has been in a while, and it has been less than a week of following this regimine. I am pretty positive i'll have my face back within a month. If you have acne, stop using chemicals, do cardio at least to the point of sweating, eat better, wash less, and moisturize (with jojoba oil!).
Right now I'm on day 48 of washing my face with only water. Actually there have been a few days during the 6th week when i washed my face with cerave hydrating cleanser. I do have some dead skin build up and it's been tough not to pick off the flakes, though there have been a few that I've picked off to see how the skin underneath is doing. I don't and have never really had acne, but mine was due to over exfoliating by rubbing my face way to hard with a washcloth, which I would repeat every few weeks in order to get the flakes off, but it's been 48 days since i've last done that. By rubing the flakes off, not only does that dry out the skin, but it has the skin produce new cells faster than they should. I'm letting the flakes build up so that the rate of turnover returns back to normal. The flakes, for the most part, are ready to fall off. It looks like it won't be more more than a week or two before they do. Some of the flakes have fallen off naturally, and surely enough, there is mostly healthy smooth skin underneath. The transit time/cell turnover for skin is about 6-8 weeks, not 4. It takes about 4 weeks for it to get to the stratum corneum, and then another 2 weeks or so for it to slough off. Unfortunately, I'm thinking it will be about 8 more weeks until my skin is completely back to normal. If you get the dead skin build up, you can see how it has some crack between them, meaning that its not completely protecting the skin underneath and water can escape easier than it should, so i'm thinking that the skin underneath after the first 8 weeks will have hardly any cracks, but still a few, and then after the second 8 weeks goes by, there will not be any cracks for anything to get through and it will be healthy skin.
AlteredCourse: You may want to think about taking an Omega 3 supplement without the 6 and 9. You most likely get enough 6 and 9 in your diet, and when they are consumed at the same time as Omega 3, they compete for binding sites when absorbed.
moisturizers dont form protective layers over the skin they are designed to penetrate the skin which is why they have a potential to cause breakouts.
why not just wash your face then apply some type of oil afterwards ( i personally use coconut). You can try mixing it with some bottled water instead of regular to avoid the chloride in tap which is known to dry the skin out. Sometimes usually in the winter when i feel like my skin is dry ill apply oil all over my body when im in the shower and just run water across it. makes the skin feel highly moisturized for several days.
if anything not washing will make your skin drier eventually because youre not adding moisture from the water to your face anymore. its best to wash and then replace the oils lost if necessary.
You cant replace lost oils from youre face with cosmetics, theyre nothing like youre natural oils although you will look and feel less dry and flaky
Hi all,
I just wanted to drop by to give you an update on my caveman regimen. I have been on this regimen for close to 3 months and all I can say is WOW. No more blackheads on nose and my skin looks Great. The first month my skin was cracking and my blackheads looked like black pointy things. But now my skin has completely exfoliated and I do not have any oiliness on my skin. Old scars have also disappeared 
It is great! However, I must caution you that this alone did not cure my acne. I still have to keep away from milk based products and also juices. I have been acne free for 2 months now and encourage you to keep trying and experimenting. It took me a year of diligent research and keeping a food log but now the work is paying off!! Good luck!
I am 22 years old and started this regimen 14 days ago. ive had acne since i was about 16 and treated it with benzoyl peroxide. it has predominantly always been on my cheeks so i began just treating that area about three years ago. now the only acne I have is on my cheeks and this area appears to be red and irriatated i havent touched my fore head in like 3 years and it is flawless, my chin and mouth area are as well. Also my cheeks are far more oily than my forehead and I believe it is supposed to be the opposite, so I assume it is the BP an SA causing this. the first week went very well. I rinsed with water at night for like 10 seconds. With in the last few days I have been getting verysmall redmarks than do not come to a head but there are more than normal. I am wondering if this is just the damaged skin underneath what has been peeling of this is new ace. I have had minimal peeling over my cheeks and nowhere else. has anyone gone through this?
3rd Day of Caveman Log:
No "new" breakouts, other than those that I saw developing before I started the Caveman. But holy cow, my skin is matte this morning. Yesterday's complaint was the oilyness around nose, and I am certainly beyond that.
Biggest complaint at this point: Uncomfortableness. My face is actually a bit itchy, especially around beard area (I grow stubble and trim stubble w/ trimmer). I am not sleeping very well the past couple nights. Been having crazy dreams and moving around on my pillow, and at times I am itchy in the night.
Biggest noticeable problem with my skin: It's coming down to "red marks" from the big breakout I had prior to going on Caveman.
End of Day 4 on Caveman Log:
A couple very small new whiteheads. Breakouts are healing at a much faster pace than they come. Broken out area on chin is actually crusting off.
Forehead a bit oil, skin is still relatively blotchy. Dead skin building up on nose (feels interesting, only visible if I wiggle my nose around) and blackheads are actually noticably decreasing. Overall skin healthiness.
The redness in my cheeks (maybe KPRF) doesn't flare up really anymore. At least I don't feel it.
Biggest Negative: Occasional itchyness (beard area, and hairline)
Biggest noticeable flew with skin: Red marks and resolving spots.
Biggest Positive: I feel freed of a giant burden, my skin is CALM and I can just hit the sack after a long day.
Looking forward to the skin tone improvements that are rumored to occur around day 5
End of Day 4 on Caveman Log:
A couple very small new whiteheads. Breakouts are healing at a much faster pace than they come. Broken out area on chin is actually crusting off.
Forehead a bit oil, skin is still relatively blotchy. Dead skin building up on nose (feels interesting, only visible if I wiggle my nose around) and blackheads are actually noticably decreasing. Overall skin healthiness.
The redness in my cheeks (maybe KPRF) doesn't flare up really anymore. At least I don't feel it.
Biggest Negative: Occasional itchyness (beard area, and hairline)
Biggest noticeable flew with skin: Red marks and resolving spots.
Biggest Positive: I feel freed of a giant burden, my skin is CALM and I can just hit the sack after a long day.
Looking forward to the skin tone improvements that are rumored to occur around day 5
Are you gonna be updating every single day?
I think it's gonna take awhile to see dramatic results so soon, especially on the caveman regimen.
End of Day 4 on Caveman Log:
A couple very small new whiteheads. Breakouts are healing at a much faster pace than they come. Broken out area on chin is actually crusting off.
Forehead a bit oil, skin is still relatively blotchy. Dead skin building up on nose (feels interesting, only visible if I wiggle my nose around) and blackheads are actually noticably decreasing. Overall skin healthiness.
The redness in my cheeks (maybe KPRF) doesn't flare up really anymore. At least I don't feel it.
Biggest Negative: Occasional itchyness (beard area, and hairline)
Biggest noticeable flew with skin: Red marks and resolving spots.
Biggest Positive: I feel freed of a giant burden, my skin is CALM and I can just hit the sack after a long day.
Looking forward to the skin tone improvements that are rumored to occur around day 5
Are you gonna be updating every single day?
I think it's gonna take awhile to see dramatic results so soon, especially on the caveman regimen.
Yeah, I think I will update pretty often, if you don't mind. A log is always beneficial to myself and hopefully my experience will be helpful to those who are considering and will consider this path .
Hear me out though: "Dramatic results" are occuring. They are dramatic because I have never seen my skin act or change like this. Now that is not to say "dramatic results" means great results or perfect skin. We all know that's stupid to expect.
Day 5 of Caveman:
Slept well (no itchyness) Skin is quite balanced this morning. Hard to expain but my skin feels and looks thicker (close-up). Also, among the worst things I struggled with was milia and at one point I knew that it was due to drying out my skin. Well this has affirmed that, because many are disappearing well and no new ones.
Day 6:
Active breakouts are isolated to a toubled area on my left forehead, which had a few medium sized whiteheads. And 2 small surface whiteheads on neck. Both were previously troubled areas.
Skin tone could be better. Chin is building up crusted sebum over old clogs.
Milia are limited to between eyebrows. Forehead only a bit rough.
Neck and cheeks look healthy. Oils are very balanced except for forehead.
Dead skin buildup on nose healed over and doesn't feel funny anymore. It's as if it filled in evenly. (hard to explain)
Caveman Day... 7.. I guess:
Complexion looks nice today. It is more bright and balanced, not as blotchy, especially on neck! Old breakouts on chin have sebum crust that is slowly flaking off. Left side of forehead has an active breakout (i actually felt it coming from like a week ago) which im guessing will stop and heal up nicely to bring healthy skin. Red marks to the side of mouth have disappeared almost completely now. Oilyness is not an issue, except a little on forehead, little on nose. Blackheads on nose have seeed to turn into tiny raised flesh colored bumps, that in turn go away.
I'm starting to enjoy the healthy pinkness in my cheeks. They used be dull and red.
Overall, I'm happy with progress. Slow and steady is how I can best describe it. Oh, and if you've been following my progress, I'm sleeping much better the last couple nights, no jawlineitchyness.
What are you supposed to do when you shower or shave?
@crashoran- when you shower, simply avoid getting water on your face. be creative. Shave with a beard trimmer or electric razor. I just keep a stubble and it looks great.
Day 8:
Not much change from previous day.
I think there's two spots coming on right of my chin area.
Left forehead still healing. They have almost all scabbed over, overnight. Yesterday they were flaming whiteheads. My forehead is the only thing stopping me from looking better than ever. Couple new ones coming in above eyebrow on right forehead.
Day 10:
I've been growing a lot from this. And I'm in it for the long run. That said, it is a slow and long-term solution. I will not post on the boards often. I may simply update with current status of skin.
Nose: Little bumps/blackheads stretching almost to inner cheeks
Cheeks: Rosy
Actives:
*Forehead scattered small
*2 above right eyebrow/temple area
*1 small on right temple
*Couple small on each side of neck
*2 unsure areas on right chin
*Btwn eyebrows and right inner cheek small clogs
Currently, my forehead is a mess of small spots. I am giving up on that area. This may be the Week 2 breakout. I don't know. But luckily, this is easy to do, because I have long enough hair, and it looks good down. So I will not wear my hair up anymore for now. It may get worse, I Dont Care!
I would like to thank Adam08 for being an inspiration to me too. In honor of alexalmighty's signature, I believe everyone on this site should:
Search "This is your Life by the Dust Brothers" on YouTube.