Hello, I've been having heavy acne (comedones absolutely everywhere on the body and face, cysts primarily on neck, chest and upper back and along the length of the spine).

I've tried for a long time benzoyl peroxide, combined antibiotics, antifungal medication, tretinoin, glicolyc acid, salicylic acid, different alcohols, sulfur, supplements(zinc, magnesium, vitamin d3, probiotics, vitamin B complex), I've spent an absurd amount of money, effort and pain and never got a permanent result or even a temporary full cleanse.

The ONLY thing that ever worked was leaving head and shoulders on my skin overnight.

The result is that my comedones dissapear in 1-2 days, my cysts slowly fade too and I am clear for nearly a week, however I get unbearably painful chemical burns(so painful that I can't fall asleep on the first day) and my skin sheds completely over the course of the week.

I thought the main active ingredient of head and shoudlers is zinc pyrithione, so I purchased a spray that contains 1% zinc pyrithione.

I used it for a while, but it had no effect (and it didn't give me chemical burns).

So what else is it in head and shoulders that can be curing my acne? If the compound that is clearing my acne and the compound that is burning me are different, then I can search for a product that contains only the former.

However I don't know which one it is. Here are the ingredients of head and shoulders, quoted from Wikipedia:

Active ingredient: Pyrithione zinc 1%

Inactive ingredients: water, sodium laureth sulfate, sodium lauryl sulfate, cocamide MEA, zinc carbonate, glycol distearate,dimethicone, fragrance, cetyl alcohol, guar hydroxypropyltrimonium chloride, magnesium sulfate, sodium benzoate,magnesium carbonate hydroxide, ammonium laureth sulfate, benzyl alcohol, sodium chloride, methylchloroisothiazolinone,methylisothiazolinone, sodium xylenesulfonate, blue 1, red 4

The active ingredient in Clinical Strength Head & Shoulders is selenium sulfide 1%.^[3] With the exception of Head and Shoulders Clinical Strength Shampoo, the rest of the line of shampoo products specifically contain pyrithione zinc as the active ingredient.^[4]

All the other ones are listed as inactive ingredients That can't be right, cause pure zinc pyrithione couldn't clear me up the same way or shed my skin so quickly.