Hmmm ok a few questions:
1. When you wash your face every 3 to 5 days are you using a cleanser of JUST water?
2. Are you still washing your body every day?
3. Are you also trying to not touch your face with your hands throughout the week or does this not matter?
4. Do you ever wipe the oil of with a tissue or anything during the day?
I MIGHT be willing to try this.
Kimothy,
1) Just water in the shower always at night, never hot or it dries my skin, for about five seconds without using my hands just let the pressure of the water do its thing, then air dry.
2) I wash my body about every other day, from the beginning I've also been washing my body differently as well, after the first couple of days without washing the face I became really big on the idea of natural oil taking care of your skin so I only use soap and such on the necessary parts, feet armpits etc, and then just let water do the rest, i"ve always had dark skin but still had to use sunscreen, over the last week I haven't put any on and my skin is the tannest its ever been and looks really good not reddish tan its a dark brown I haven't seen since I was a child. But the days I don't want to wash my face and take a shower I just wet the rest of my body.
3)I always have avoided touching my face, but it was pretty hard while doing this because I did have dead skin especially on my nose but I decided not to scrape anything at all because its just added irritation and I believe that underneath what was going on the surface was a healing process I didn't want to disturb, I figure once the skin is healthy underneath, whats on top will go away on its own, and it happened, its now been over two weeks and my nose is completely clear of dead skin and any blemishes, every thing looks normal. So I just try to avoid touching my face with anything.
Also, I'm super incredibly baked right now..... and have been for like three days, first time in two years because it always made me break out within hours, now my face stays perfectly clear. I don't think this will work for everyone, but it fucking works for me, so I party.
First off, I've read of this thing before a few times on this website, but don't remember anyone having much success with it. So it's awesome that you're seeing it work Waterwater!
I remembered back when I went on a camping trip (I was on pro-active at the time..and it was working) but I forgot my stuff, so I thought "oh great my face is gonna be ruined after this trip". I ended up not washing my face, sweating like crazy hiking and such and my face had cleared up totally by the end of it and my skin seemed to be healthier.
OMG! The exact same thing happened to me last year! I went camping with the family for a weekend and never showered or washed my face until I got back. My acne cleared up wonderfully! I was completely amazed and confused. But it all really makes sense now!
Also, I shower daily and every time I get out of the shower my face looks its worse. Color is so uneven and red marks are extremely visible. I hate it. I always look my best in the morning when I wake up before I take my shower. It makes sense though!!
I think I'm going to try this though! It really makes sense to me, especially since I've experienced it before! I'm psyched
(btw I have very mild acne. mostly small bumps and a few whiteheads here and there - controlling my diet seems to be the key but red marks/uneven tone piss me off!)
Yeah man for sure try it, that's what I'm doing. For now my face is looking a lot healthier and isn't erupting or anything. I believe it's helping a lot better with red marks than anything else I've tried so far. The only active thing is just this whitehead on the side of my cheek that was there before I started this. It seems like it's trying to heal.
Good luck!
Starting this my acne wasn't very bad at all to tell you the truth. A couple months ago I was about moderate with acne badly covering both my cheeks and then I discovered my problem was insulin related so I've been taking DIM and chromium picolinate. Those supplements got me down to a few spots and jawline acne and red marks.
I'm mainly doing this because washing my face with a harsh cleanser hasn't felt healthy and the spots that I do have haven't been going away. So I'm trying this out.
So far my overall complexion is looking way better and the spots that I have are healing. I'm only 4 days in though.
How bad is your acne?
waterwater, how oily was your face at first??
I saw the most oil on my face after day two, by day four I guess it soaked into my face because it didn't look oily at all. But, I've always had oily skin, now its been a couple of weeks since starting this and my face never looks oily, just like normal skin, I was used to dry and red even if clear, which never looks healthy.
so you haven't gotten any new acne or anything since starting? I've been thinking of just washing with water, or nothing at all for a while . I will probably start during the summer though. Do you ever use lotion?
No, I did get new acne when doing this, but it was the same amount as before and it healed ten times faster, after a while though things quit coming. I haven't had anything in a week now but thats after about two weeks of doing it. I would never use lotion, if you need lotion than your irritating your skin too much I think. Don't mistake dead skin for dry skin either, dead is good it means your skin is healing underneath, i believe, and dry means obviously your weakening your skin.
Waterwater...haha my face feels disgusting right now.
Have you read a thread that was from a few years back by alexalmighty......it was very similar to this except he would only go two days or so then wash his face....after four months he swore he was clear.....he said at the beginning he had cysts and whatever.
Waterwater...haha my face feels disgusting right now.
Have you read a thread that was from a few years back by alexalmighty......it was very similar to this except he would only go two days or so then wash his face....after four months he swore he was clear.....he said at the beginning he had cysts and whatever.
Well think about what is happening, I think you said its been four days?, well four days ago you were washing your face with a chemical, now since that time everything on the surface of your skin has been sitting their because underneath your skin isn't healthy, but it makes no sense to strip everything off and go back to the weak skin underneath, think of what is on top as a film that is shielding your skin as it heals underneath. How do things look. In the beginning my face felt disgusting too, and I was tempted to wipe away the oil and dead skin especially from my nose but I noticed that if I left it alone the zits that popped up went away and all I was left with was dead skin and oil, but after a few weeks this too went away and the skin underneath looked completely normal, its your skins defense mechanism trying to purge all the crap that you've blocked in from sealing your skin with chemicals or anything that irritates. My opinion at least.
Waterwater...haha my face feels disgusting right now.
Have you read a thread that was from a few years back by alexalmighty......it was very similar to this except he would only go two days or so then wash his face....after four months he swore he was clear.....he said at the beginning he had cysts and whatever.
Well think about what is happening, I think you said its been four days?, well four days ago you were washing your face with a chemical, now since that time everything on the surface of your skin has been sitting their because underneath your skin isn't healthy, but it makes no sense to strip everything off and go back to the weak skin underneath, think of what is on top as a film that is shielding your skin as it heals underneath. How do things look. In the beginning my face felt disgusting too, and I was tempted to wipe away the oil and dead skin especially from my nose but I noticed that if I left it alone the zits that popped up went away and all I was left with was dead skin and oil, but after a few weeks this too went away and the skin underneath looked completely normal, its your skins defense mechanism trying to purge all the crap that you've blocked in from sealing your skin with chemicals or anything that irritates. My opinion at least.
I might try this sometime, my face is always dry and tight.. but I just can't stand the feeling when I don't wash. It feels oily, smudgy gross, I prefer dry and tight that's probably why I overwash
Sounds a bit skeptical to me. Your name is "Waterwater", you joined one day before you posted your log. Your first post is about your frustration, like you've mentally snapped and want to teach your skin a lesson. Instead of posting this after you've achieved actual good skin, you go on forums and talk about how you're going to do it, but you were never part of the forum until this post. Then, as expected, in the end you end up with good skin. Sounds like a movie, too good to be true. I don't buy it. If it really works for whoever is trying this, keep me posted.
Sounds a bit skeptical to me. Your name is "Waterwater", you joined one day before you posted your log. Your first post is about your frustration, like you've mentally snapped and want to teach your skin a lesson. Instead of posting this after you've achieved actual good skin, you go on forums and talk about how you're going to do it, but you were never part of the forum until this post. Then, as expected, in the end you end up with good skin. Sounds like a movie, too good to be true. I don't buy it. If it really works for whoever is trying this, keep me posted.
He isn't the only one. Search around, there are a lot of older threads (back to 2004) about this same thing.
Sounds a bit skeptical to me. Your name is "Waterwater", you joined one day before you posted your log. Your first post is about your frustration, like you've mentally snapped and want to teach your skin a lesson. Instead of posting this after you've achieved actual good skin, you go on forums and talk about how you're going to do it, but you were never part of the forum until this post. Then, as expected, in the end you end up with good skin. Sounds like a movie, too good to be true. I don't buy it. If it really works for whoever is trying this, keep me posted.
Strong paranoia 
Sounds a bit skeptical to me. Your name is "Waterwater", you joined one day before you posted your log. Your first post is about your frustration, like you've mentally snapped and want to teach your skin a lesson. Instead of posting this after you've achieved actual good skin, you go on forums and talk about how you're going to do it, but you were never part of the forum until this post. Then, as expected, in the end you end up with good skin. Sounds like a movie, too good to be true. I don't buy it. If it really works for whoever is trying this, keep me posted.
I would be skeptical too and you don't have to buy into believing it, thats not what my intentions are, this is simply something that has worked amazing for me and may not for others, but I consider myself extemely well read on acne regardless of when I joined the forum I've been reading for a long time just never felt obligated to chime in, and thats what led to my initial frustration, knowing everything there is to about acne, how its formed, what to do to control it and still not having nice skin, led me to try this and something clicked in my head during the process and now I have clear skin for the first time in 3 years, so I'm just saying maybe some people should evaluate their routines for a while and see what happens, but I"m not a doctor and I'm not trying to start some revolution or sell something.
Last time I tried this, I was still using water evreryday which definitely still irritates the heck outta my face. I was also using spf moisturizer on days in the sun. The only thing meant to be on your face is your own sebum. Anyway, I quit on Day 6 or so when I noticed I was super dry, flaky with some whiteheads in oilly places- but my skintone was immaculate compared to even my super gentle regimen now. Needless to say, I'm tryin again with less water and less creams etc starting 2nite. Ill keep ya updated....
You guys have me wanting to try the no wash thing again right now. I've been a believer in this regimen for a while, but it's hard for me to stop my intensive bp regimen so abrupty because of initial breakouts. My last attempt was last year around this time, but I chickened out and went back to bp because I broke out with a lot of little spots. On bp, I don't get all of those small spots, but I do get single big bitch ones at the worst times.
I'm convinced that if I had stayed the course back then, all of the small spots would have subsided. I was just too impatient. The spots were hardly even noticeable. Sad thing is that as soon as I started bp again, I broke out pretty badly. My face does not handle irritation well, and I think that starting back on bp as abruptly as I had stopped it really irritated my skin.
For the short time that I had stopped using products, though, my face was doing really well aside from the emergence of the small spots. My complexion totally evened out, and red marks/hyperpigmentation were not nearly as intense. I definitely plan on trying this regimen again, but I've been cutting out the bp very very slowly to reduce the initial breakout before I completely stop using it. I'm getting close to this point, and I may consider stopping again at the end of June. BP does keep me clear usually, so it's harder for me to say f*ck it and make a radical change.
EDIT: I started looking back on my old posts, and found a good quote from my last experience with the do nothing regimen:
"For the past week, I've stopped using any form of treatment again, and I don't even wash my face with soap on regular basis. My skin hasn't looked this healthy since the last time I stopped, and I haven't had any spots. We'll see how long it lasts this time. If I do break out again, I'll probably go back on bp, but I'm going to use it very sparingly. It makes my skin look like complete crap, and marks take forever to heal. I'd rather just deal with a few spots and have an overall healthy complexion at this point."
Well, I did get those small spots, and I did go back on bp, but I did not use it sparingly.
Well it's the end of day 1 for me, and my face is super oily and looks like shite! I want to wash it so bad but I know I must resist. It feels like the oil is dripping on my forehead - so nasty. Also I can already see a small patch of dead skin - seems to be working fast. Fortunately tomorrow I don't have anything to do all day so I can stay home and let my face turn into a toilet.
I'm glad some people are trying this. I know how shitty it feels to have acne, especially when you're the only one who routinely takes care of your skin among all your friends and their skin looks flawless. Now that my skin is clear its surprising how much I have been surviving and not really living, always checking the mirror hating to be in the light etc., its freedom that I hope every acne sufferer can experience again. I don't think this will help everyone, and I don't think that after ten days or so your skin will be spotless, decreasing the irritation I think is key and then giving your face time to heal, by doing this I was telling myself it was kind of a shock therapy, go extreme for better results, but the biggest thing I got out of it is seeing how my skin reacts when left alone and seeing how it really does repair itself, in time, and knowing from their when I really need to cleanse and when its not just something done habitually.
I woke up this morning and my face wasn't as oily as it was last night. However it is already starting to get pretty oily now. I also had a whitehead on my chin last night but it's healing, and now I have another one right next to it. Overall though, it seems to be more even toned.