Hello,
i'm new to this forum and I would say I have moderate acne.
It is making my life difficult at the moment, it's noticable especially in daylight and my social life is also stagnating because of it. This nonsense makes the easiest tasks not managable for me.
The thing is, 1 or 2 years ago i got complimented by everyone for the clear skin I had. The Irony..
I'm a 20 years old male and I believe my acne is hormonal, just a bit late.
I had very oily skin, especially in the T-Zone, my forehead was the worst and of course everywhere little pimples and terrible skin picture. I then discovered BP and Acne.org and with BP I have no more oily skin and my forehead looks a bit more under control...(still not happy with it tho). Downsides are very flaky skin i notice it especially before applying moisturizer, sometimes also in the mornings.
Right now i'm washing my face twice daily, i try to follow the regimen just with different products as I can't order the exact same from my country (I'm from Europe). So I will splash my face with warm water, then wash it with PH-neutral soap for a few seconds, wash it off, wait for it to dry, apply 2,5% Benzoyl Peroxide and then an oil-free moisturizer.
Doing this for some weeks now but the results could be better, the problem is it won't stop, every day i wake up I have 3-4 new pimples which are visible (whitehead and red infected base most of the time). Because of this I am basically touching my face every day trying to get it out. I know I shouldn't do this but I don't know whats worse, running around with a nasty whitehead or a red infected area?
Also some of the picked areas are refilling themselves in lightning-fast time, just have to wait a few hours and a whitehead is visible, if not then it will happen overnight.
I have an appointment with a dermatologist next week and really hope he can help me.
In case he won't I opened this thread to get some feedback. Thanks for reading.
I know how you feel, i am feeling terrible too. Just 4 months ago, i had such flawless skin, people used to say how good looking you are and all such compliments. But life isn't meant to be so easy so, just after that month i got some red bumps on my face which because of my home treatment were only getting worse. I went to a dermatologist and he prescribed me some multivitamins, an oral and topical antibiotic. My pimples or pustules or boils or whatever they are called went away after 1 week i was left with some serious red marks (post inflammatory hyperpigmentation) then after 1 month while continuing my prescribed medicines i got them again on my forehead they went away after 1 week too leaving those red marks on my forehead too. But you know what i now only had some hyperpigmentation to deal with. So i felt happy eventhough i was still looking like crap. I was applying lemon juice and honey for faster fading of my hyperpigmentation but one day suddenly some holes appeared near my eyes and new scars and some where hyperpigmentation had faded a bit. I was really scared as i was now noticing a new scar everyday which were not there before according to some of my pictures. Mind you, it has now been 3 months since that ugly breakout. When i somehow got over that scarring stage. Those same boils or bumps which later get a whitehead in the centre of that red area and i have to go out to work. I am not free to see the derma. So am taking those medication as am getting new pimples everyday. That time i only got them on my face and back. I am now getting them on my neck, chin and legs too where i never used to get any. So yeah am feeling really bad too. Seems like life is playing a cruel joke with me.
I have the same problem except around my mouth (upper and lower lip area). What i have found out is that when i am outside sweating a lot I tend to break out the following day. What i do is wipe my face and as soon as i can wash it. Also when i sleep i try to sleep facing up so my face wont be covered by anything. Also have a derm appointment monday.
I too suffer from extremely oily skin. When I used BP to treat my acne (I used proactiv for 5 whole years), though it made my skin much more manageable, it greatly increased the oil my face was producing. Maybe because it was drying it out so much so my skin had to overcompensate.
What I recommend for you.... The worst thing is waking up with skin much worse than when you fell asleep. I had the same problem. Now, I go to sleep every night knowing that I will wake up with smoother clearer skin. The trick is tea tree oil. Every night I mix one part water with one part tea tree oil and use a cotton ball to rub it over my entire face. sometimes it can sting a tiny bit. It prevents acne from appearing the next morning and it clears up acne that is already there. It is AMAZING. I was miserable before I discovered it from other forums.
I would only make plans at night because I couldn't bear being seen during the day. Wash it off every morning with a gentle but effective cleanser.