Hello everyone,
I am a 20 year old male and started developing body acne when i was 14 or so (give or take?). It started of just on the upper back and i could easily hide it thinking it was just a puberty thing.
Over the years it spread through my entire back, chest shoulders and now upper arms. My face is clear and has always been clear (no more that 1 or 2 controllable pimples). I am a mentally tough person and nothing really bothers me, but honestly this situation has given me mild suicidal thoughts and i keep convincing myself it will all be gone soon.
At any given time i have around 5-10 active cyst pimples on my back, chest and arms but what makes me annoyed is the dark red, followed by a black almost colour hyperpigmentation that the pimples leave after they heal. I have attached 2 images of my back. The first shows what my back looks like, and the second one shows which pimples are active. Believe it or not the camera made my body acne look better than it actually is but whatever...
As you can see most of my back is covered in terrible dark hyperpigmentation (the same with my chest and arms).
I am an athlete and have been most of my life, and I also do weight training if that even matters. I always shower after exercising and change shirts daily etc..
I play competitive basketball and when we have our games i have to wear a vest under my jersey to try to hide my bacne. But since it has now spread to my upper arms also, its very hard to hide it and its driving me crazy.
Ok so before people try to help me, here is the list of stuff iv tried.
- Drinking 4 litres of water a day
- Showering 3 times daily
- using a loofah during showers
- not using loofah during showers
- showering with no soap and using fingers to 'clean' my body
- showering with every soap imaginable to earth (i think i may have spent around £200 on different soaps alone)
- cold showers (which i still do because it wakes me up and makes my skin feel soft)
I have also tried Apple cider vinegar (of all strengths), multiple lotions from my doctor, multiple scrubs, every acid known to scientist, lotions, potions you name it lol.
And no way in HELL am i going on accutane even if it means living with my acne till my last day. So that's not even an option. Surgery or any type of bull-crap therapy is also not an option for me.
I have ordered dead sea salt which i will bath with and see if that helps, really that is my last hope of clearing my body.
Stupid body acne...
Any advice would be greatly appreciated folks
Have you tried diet changes? Do you ingest milk? Sometimes with severe acne, it could be a food intolerance. Dairy is usually the first thing they recommend you get rid of.
Good Luck -you are not alone
Thanks for you reply! I only drink milk when im having cereal (maybe 3 times a week) and even then its only 250ml but sometimes i even go 3-4 weeks without any milk but the acne is still there. I do admit however, I rarely eat any fruit or vegetable (apart from the odd salad during dinner sometimes). Not sure how much fruit and veg would affect it though...
My first game is in 6 weeks in front of a huge crowd (~2000 people) and I really want to be able to have at least the upper arm acne under control so I can hide it easier as iv done before.
The dead sea bath salt is arriving tomorrow, and I am going to buy a super soft bath sponge today along with some Zinc Pyrithione shampoo which iv still not tried yet. My plan is to use the Zinc Pyrithione shampoo in the morning after i take a cold shower and when i get back home in the afternoon ill take a sea salt bath.
Im still using Apple cider vinegar after i shower daily but unfortunately i woke up today a few new cystic pimples on both my arms
You can try the Regimen for back acne. It worked on so many people - I have been reading and watching videos of reviewers - but it takes time to actually see difference. Or you could go to Derm? I fear they might prescribe you something harsh and affect you face skin. Let me know what you think!
You should stop applying anything on those pimp for now. You seem to get more, the more you apply.
Thanks for all the new replies guys! I picked up a bottle of 'head and shoulders classic' from a local body shop, it contains Zinc Pyrithione, which as i said before have not tried until today.
I just took a cold shower with water only, then stepped away from the water and used a sponge with a nice lather of 'head and shoulders'. I kept the soap on my skin for around 3-5 minutes so that my skin could absorb it. Finally I stepped back into the cold water and rinsed the soap of with my fingers and stepped out the shower and allowed my body to air dry.
So far my back and chest feel VERY smooth. The skin is dry but a different type of dryness that I would normally experience if I had a hot shower. Its hard to explain but think of it feeling like a babys smooth skin lol.
Anyway obviously its too early for conclusions but im hoping for a good result, I am still using ACV (about 1 to 1 water ratio) after I shower with water only at the gym. I only use ACV on my Gym days (every 2 days). I have also started to wear t-shirts that are one size bigger than i normally wear, just to let the skin breathe more and also i try to not move around during my sleep to avoid any friction that could aggravate the acne.
The sea salt has still not arrived yet and probably wont get it until Monday, but I will delay the sea salt bath method until I see what this Zinc Pyrithione shampoo starts doing. I really do hope this turns into a success thread where i find my cure rather than me ranting about whats not working.
Have a safe weekend everyone!
Head and shoulders classic is indeed pretty good for body acne.
Have you tried supplementing with vitamin d3? Take 1000iu of vitamin d3 per 25lbs of body weight. Take every morning when you wake up. If it works for you, within a week you should start to notice no new or dramatically less new active pimples, and a massive calming or complete end to inflammation and an acceleration of healing.
If you start taking d3 and you notice any anxiety, muscle twitches, or more difficulty having a bowel movement, start taking 600mg of magnesium every night before bed.
Stuff and start on accutane... No other medicine Will help your acne.you want to suicide, but you wont take accutane. Why are you even here then?... Trust me the more you wait to start taking accutane, the more scars Will appear, the day you realise, that your acne wont go away without accutane
Oh please don't even mention suicide and accutane! Accutane is not a medicine that would cure acne. Have you takin it? How did u know? Well I did! I took it twice n my acne came back. And now i have so much problems. My eyes always hurts, my legs always sore. I regret taking it. He is right. If i could turn back time, i would not have takin accutane and just live with my acne (even if it was severe) instead of these symptoms.
Thank God for Dan's reg im clear now. Took 8 months fory face to clear.
So folks, if u want accutane. Go ahead. Just keep in mind, it is a very dangerous drug and you are NOT EVEN SURE IF IT WOULD GET RID OF ACNE.
That's bad , its probably not your skin . Its your body producing too much sebum , Accutane works like a charm and if you do some research on it you will see it has a massive success rate . Accutane is by far the best acne medication out there . cured me .... also look up brewers yeast and chromium
Have you taken any antibiotics at all?
A severe case like that won't be cured by any soap or shampoo I'm afraid. Cystic acne is too deep into the skin to be affected by anything you put onto the skin.
As some already pointed out; watch for supplements as you may have intolarance to something. I assume you do protein shakes and that sort.
As for accutane.. I did it and never regreted it either. It didn't stop me from going to the gym or like that. Good luck!