Hi,

Whilst my acne has never been severe, and the severity of it would probably be laughed at on these forums I did suffer.

My lifestyle is incredibly clean, im in the gym 7 days a week, lifting weights on 5 and cardio on 2. My diet is extremely clean, all i drink is water and green tea. I record what i eat each and every day, i get in all the correct foods and very very rarely eat refined carbs.

During summer my skin wouldn't be flawless but it would be close enough, however in winter my skin goes CRAZY, despite keeping my lifestyle very much in check. This was very frustrating to me because I hadn't changed a thing yet I looked like i had just hit puberty. It felt like i was doing everything i possibly could to have good skin yet it eluded me. I had read a few things on the possibility of weight lifting playing with your hormones so at times suspected it could have been that but it was not something i was willing to give up.

Now, i am a very clean person, I showered 3 times a day which made complete sense to me at the time. Once when i woke up, just to wake me up and as a refresher. Once after gym, naturally. Then i would proceed to have one in the evening just before bed.

Each time i showered i would gently bathe my face and moisterise after, and each time i would be sure to be using products that were gentle on my skin with no harsh chemicals.

I got fed up. I was doing everything humanly possible to ensure my skin was clear and yet it was horrific. So one day i stopped showering, it felt horrific to finish the gym and not come home to shower but i had tried everything else so figured i could probably give this a shot.

I now shower just once a day (at night) and don't wash at all apart from this. This was very challenging for me at first because i loved to be squeaky clean and hated feeling dirty. I have been doing this for just 4 days and my skin is looking AMAZING for it. Turns out i was cleaning so much that I was removing natural oils and all the good stuff whilst drying out my skin. Because my skin was so dry (and this is why it only happened in winter) my skin would produce more oils to compensate thus leading to breakouts.

It feels so unnatural to not be showering as much but i certainly cannot complain when it has worked wonders for my skin.

I wanted to share this just to help anyone that had the same frustrations as me, it is so hard when you genuinely believe you are doing everything possible to help and your skin continues to get worse.

Even if this only helps one person then it would be worth it, stop showering today!