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Hey guys just wanted to post my thanks for all the experiments you've put yourselves through to make this thread. The no wash regimen helps me a lot.
I wanted to say though that if after you've waited for a while and you feel the dead skin mask has done it's job helping and healing, and is possibly hurting your skin now, and if your skin is EXTREMELY sensitive to topicals, water, or wash cloths, like mine is, you can take a smooth cotton shirt and exfoliate your skin. It's less irritating than a wash cloth and avoids the drying effects of water.
I always broke out a little bit when I used water and my fingers to remove the dead skin mask. Although my skin would be smoother, it would still form pimples after, although not as much as before. Same thing would happen to my chest area, shoulders or back when I washed with water and fingers or wash cloth, and I never got acne there before. Using a cotton shirt avoids this, and lets me not take a shower to remove dead skin. My skin actually looks clean from just exfoliating, I was surprised.
I'm hoping it works the same way for the scalp. I'll know tomorrow.
Day 15:
Skin tone never been better.
Lower half of face great. Upper half covered in small spots.
Actives:
Forhead, scattered
Upper left temple medium
Upper nose (left) medium
Under left ear small
Under left eye small
Right temple 2x small
Upper half of face looks bad, but showing signs of pulling out of breakout. Lower half (below eyebrow line) looks good.
After eating some microwavable foods recently I found that my acne was returning (after almost a year of a pimple here and there). In my haste to quickly get rid of pimple I went out and bought some Cetaphil soap bar and started washing my face. After the first time it left my face feeling smooth (which is unusual) and looking vibrant, but definitely do more hurt than good. I have more pimples now than I've had in about 2 years. It's definitely a combo of my recently crappy diet and washing again.
I'm going back to caveman and not cleaning at all, but perhaps I'll do this exfoliating you guys speak of. My acne scars never ever seemed to fade (after about a year or more on my cheeks) but perhaps once the pimples go away the exfoliating will take the scars.
What I don't get about this, are people still "washing" their face with water? Or this is absolutely no washing at all, not even with water?
Of course people make variations to everything. But "the caveman regimen" says don't let water touch your face for at least a month. Then, water is slowly phased in if desired. The point is brilliant: restore the skin's natural state (acid mantle, health, good tone) and it starts to become self-reliant, strong, balanced, and moisturized, naturally.
The problem with water during the early stages is that it dries you out and leads to acne and improper uneven odd dead skin buildup... or leads to moisturizer. and POW you've completely missed the point. that's what I've drawn from hundreds of pages of testimony on here.
I usually only wet my face in the morning and towel dry. Some of the people in this thread don't seem to be doing anything. However, how does that work when they hop in the shower?
Many have ditched shampoo altogether because it's too much of a hassle to avoid water touching the face. Others have done their best with little tricks of tilting the head a certain way. I personally just brush my hair with a wet comb once per day and body wash in the shower it has restored a great smoothness and healthy shine to my hair. This all depends on personal preference. be creative i guess.
Oh wow they've done away with it completely. Hmm, well I'm going to see how my new shower head with a filter does. Perhaps I may look to go that way too. I guess when they said caveman they weren't kidding.
I have felt that second only to changing my diet, not washing my face is the highest contributor to my lessening acne.
What do you mean by dead skin mask? I've only been washing with water once a day in the shower (filtered shower head) and notice that my face is actually looking a bit worse. I'm going to allow this for about a month or two, but we'll see if it ever starts recovering.
The dead skin mask is visible when looking close up. People report it becoming noticeable on the nothing regimen within the 1st and 3rd week. It is a buildup of dead skin, sometimes flakey, sometimes cracky in some areas and it appears worse after someone showers or sweats apparently. But this is what protects and heals the skin underneath. And after some time, many exfoliate off the dead skin mask, unveiling healthy smooth skin. I hope that happens for me. One might also experience "shoots" of sebum. I have these around the inner area of my nose. Like little hairs, but white and hardly noticeable if not close up.
Current Update: Day 20
THIS HAS BEEN SOOO GOOD FOR ME PSYCHOLOGICALLY!
Yesterday I posted and was a little down, but then I exercised and sweat a little. I left it because a majority of people saying it actually helps while not washing (something about the acid mantle). I can report that my skin looked better (toned, even) later in the day and today. I may sweat more often... lol.
I'm like a week into a beard/stache. It was crazy itchy the for a couple days, but now its only itchy when i mess with it or move my face too much. Only one w.h currently on neck area. Tiny spots here and there. on lower half of face, except for a medium sized w.h in left of chin area on Forehead is doing pretty well. Temples are finishing the breakout that my forehead is now pulling out of.
Spots come and go soooo quickly! I mean like roundabout 24 hrs.- 2days whereas before it was at least four days sometimes a week
Hi Guys,
Just thought I drop in and give you a status. I have been on this caveman regimen for 6 months now and let me tell you my skin is incredible. The first month my skin was flaking all over the place and the blackheads on my nose were growing (that was disgusting!!). But I kept with the program and after 6 weeks the flaking stopped and my blackheads also went away. Now after 6 months my skin is glowing and I rarely get any pimples!! I am serious. Before my skin was always oily and inflamed but now it is smooth and has the right amount of moisture in it. I do not put any sort of lotion/chemical/facewash etc on it and am in dry environment all the time. I shower with my back towards the showerhead so little/no water gets on my face. Maybe once a week I wipe my wet fingers over my face if I feel like it. I also stopped shaving and just trim my beard. This regimen alone did not cure my acne but it definitely helped. Along with this regimen I also drink 2 tbsp of Cod Liver Oil and stay away from junk food (Pringles, cookies, ice cream, Mc Donalds) and sugary drinks. Stay away from sugary drinks!!! I can not stress this enough. High Fructose Corn Syrup is really bad for you. I know its hard to give up Coca Cola (I used to drink 3+ cans of that poison back in my dumb days) but it is definitely worth it. I also don't drink any milk or eat a lot of cheese as this was another trigger. I still drink 2 cups of coffee everyday and that doesn't seem to be a problem. For all the people out there who are depressed and sick of acne. All I wanna say is: Don't give up! I have been there and was seriously contemplating taking Accutane but it is NOT worth it. All you have to do is systematically take stuff out of your diet and keep a log. I was able to figure out the bad foods within a month of keeping a log. Just don't give up!! PM me if you want more details/support. Good luck!!!
I would love to know if any ladies have tried this.
If I was to do away with makeup completely maybe I could.
At the moment its water, jojoba oil, primer then powder.
Then at night simple face wipes to remove the makeup and jojoba again.
But maybe now it's summer....I could give it a bash.
I would love to know if any ladies have tried this.If I was to do away with makeup completely maybe I could.
At the moment its water, jojoba oil, primer then powder.
Then at night simple face wipes to remove the makeup and jojoba again.
But maybe now it's summer....I could give it a bash.
I'm a girl, and I've been doing this for a little over a week now, and its awesome. I dont wear makeup though. I only use concealer for 2 or 3 spots on my chin. the rest is clear. I tried everything before this too. I was on accutane (which works wonders btw. for about 4 yrs, i was completely clear. then it slowly started coming back.), i was on duac, just bp, erythromycin, differin, and epiduo. I started this when i thought about how clear my sisters, my boyfriends, and my best friends skin is. I asked them all...and none of them do anything to their face. just water once a day usually. But I'm on day 8 now, and my skin hasnt looked this good since accutane.
Well i've been doing this for a while after reading a couple months back (didnt start untill about 2 weeks or so ago though) and things are kinda improving.
I had a MASSIVE breakout for some reason last week, but I feel that was down to trying out lemon and green tea on my spots. This week they have died down a bit, the cysts are still there but are fading down. This could also be down to the fact I went quite paleo (except keeping sweet potatoes because I train with weights), diet changes always make things worse before improving, so I kept at this.
In these 2 weeks I havnt directly washed my face at all, when I shower I wash my hair by tilting my head back and get hardly any water on my face, I also keep it fairly cool so the steam doesnt dry my face out. My skin is at the flaking stage as its flaking BIG time! Round the corners of my mouth especially. Im definately keeping with this and will start to keep people updated as it seems alot of people are pondering whether to do it.
Another thing, I have noticed my forehead never gets any acne at all, and I reckon its down to not having any acne for it to spread, there is also no dry skin up there and its perfectly clear bar some old dark marks. This makes me hope that if I can get everywhere clear I just have to keep to this regimen and all SHOULD be well!
I mostly wash with only water. However, a couple of times a week, at night, I will wash my face with 'Head and Shoulders for men' and leave it on like a face mask until it dries, then thoroughly was off. I've found this is excellent for any patches of dry skin (not that I get much any more), and the skin is really shiny afterwards.
interesting i did this regimen before and still do when i have the time to devote to it. Only thing is i don't have acne, but i do get occasional blackheads and clogged pores and rare breakout. I'll use 2% SA wipes(containing alcohol) rigorously for a month to purposely dry my skin out, my skin becomes kind of plasticy with all the dried skin from the wipes(though it's not really visible i can feel it when i move my face).
Then i stop washing my face for about 2 weeks, no water, nothing. If my face gets oily i blot with paper towel. I get the "dead skin mask" which is basically all my dried out skin exfoliating.
Then i wash my face and my skin underneath is super smooth,soft, clear,any acne scars or discolorations gone. After washing i do a mild scrub to make sure i got everything off.
Important: while on this routine it's important to eat very healthy(which i do anyway) but for those of you who eat junk and processed foods cut them out for that time frame eat lots of veggies and fruits,fish, and drink lots of water it makes for a very effective "skin detox" while its healing itself, just my experience
I never really wash my face, nor do I put anything on it. I've been doing the 'caveman regimen' for about a year or two.
It was around the time I started abusing face washes and topicals, like rubbing alcohol and peroxide and Oxy cream, that I began to get serious acne. So then I just left my face alone and it became a lot less severe.
I would say that now I have typical teenage acne, not really that bad, but my skin is still very sensitive and gets irritated easily all because of the topical abuse from two years ago. It's caused some permanent damage, like my facial skin is a lot more sensitive and not as thick as it used to be.
I've learned that water is the only thing thats safe to put on sensitive skin. and for me personally when I'm in the sunshine a lot, my skin will clear up totally.
So it is important not to put too many things on your face, or ideally, just don't even touch your face at all (including picking). It's not worth the damage it causes.
This makes me so sad. I still tell myself my skin will heal completely. It is nearly there. I've been on the nothing regimen for a couple of weeks and my skin has never looked better. Is it really true that we've sensitized our skin permanently? I hope not!
this is very interesting but i guess i will continue using tea tree oil soap, acv and aloe vera moisturizer first as this regimen seems to be helping me stay clear for 2 weeks now.
i am not sure if this would work for me as i used to have pretty bad seb derm in the past and my face is extremely oily.
