Sooo, you've probably clicked on this to understand why you're acne just isnt going away? or that you've tried everything under the sun (countless products, diet changes, to name a few) and your acne just doesnt seem to get better, and you just feel like nothing you do can help.
Trust me when i say this, i've been through it all.. dealing with severe acne and clinical depression throughout my teens completely controlled and made me into a different person.
But, luckily i managed to control and manage BOTH of those issues
The caveman method / or other wise known as the water-only method, is where you leave your face alone for as long as you can without using ANY product or acne treatment (water being the only exception).
Products can help and rid people of acne, but it can also do the complete opposite as all those chemicals and commercial products can do more Harm then good for your skin.
I can get into the details and explain this wholeee thing for you, but i just want to get down to the regimen i follow to make life easier for the both of us.
(If you want to know more about this, then just search it up haha )
ANYWAYS.. this is how i cleared my skin :
1. dont pop, pick, or scratch your skin (can worsen scars/existing acne and make the healing process 10x longer)
2. STRESS! don't stress. Distract yourself from worrying about the state of your skin (stress is a huge deal, as it can cause and worsen breakouts + all these negative thoughts arent healthy)
3. every 3-4 days, take a damp washcloth or simply splash your face with lukewarm water (try to use filtered water/spring water as the tap is filled with metals and other nasty chemicals) and as your skin adjusts, try to prolong the days and aim for atleast a week or two without any water touching your face (this will give your skin a longer time to heal)
THIS wont work for everyone, because everyone is different. BUT IT def. worked for me (cleared me after 3 months) and now my skin is virtually clear and i havent got a single pimple in 3-4 years since ive started!
THE BEST OF LUCK TO YOU
yes... yes.
natural is a very effective way to go. How I cleared mine real quick:
Learning about my body and my health issues. Realized my bacteria was imbalanced in my body. Realized it was most likely in my gut, as my acne was correlated somewhat with my digestion. Realized I reacted to certain foods. Realized I have leaky gut. Stopped eating all foods except for the ones I knew were safe. Slowly added in more foods, see if I reacted to them, if did, got rid of em. If not, kept em. If a lil bit, ate them anyway if they were worth it, but tried not to overdose.
Just curious to know what your healing process was like on the caveman regimen? Did you ever feel like you had to exfoliate? After about 2 weeks I developed a thick layer of skin so I began using an oatmeal exfoliating mask and after about three days my skin was softer than it had ever been. Im not sure if I could have achieved the same results if I didn't exfoliate or if it would have been fine to just leave my skin alone.
I'm quite new to this whole thing, so i dont know how to tag you haha but hopefully you read this anyways..
I had pretty dry/combo skin to begin with, so for the first month of doing the caveman regimen i had a pretty bad case of the dead skin buildup as well
The "dead skin mask" is important because the layer of skin underneath is healing, so its best to leave it on for as long as you can (typically 4 weeks max)
After that, you can exfoliate it to get that build up off to reveal the new skin underneath. For me personally, i left it on for about a month and it all kind of just "naturally" flaked off but if it hadn't i would of manually exfoliated like you did.
Isn't this a little unsanitary though? I'm thinking after 3-4 days of not taking a shower my hair would get really oily and messy. (I'm a guy by the way) Wouldn't one develop bad B.O from this?
No not at all! you can still take showers (although for this regimen i reccomend taking baths so its easier)
if you take daily showers than try to keep your face out of the water when you wash your hair/body.. and if you take showers every 2-3 days then its okay to just let the water run down your face
I've been doing the water only regimen for a little under a week now and it's been working pretty well. Twice a day I have been taking cold showers then drying off with a towel. I still have semi oily skin so far but it's getting better. I'm thinking I should try what you're saying about using lukewarm water every few days. I read somewhere on here that using a water only regimen will develop a lot dead skin in the beginning. I have oily skin not dry so I don't think I'll get tons of dead skin flakes.