So I've had bad acne since high school. I know I'm acne prone anyway, but I've been on a prescription routine for a few months now. I've been breaking out like crazy and my derm said that's normal. I figured I was just still in the purging process.
I'm a student so I went home over Easter break and my acne cleared up a ton. Even between when I would wake up and when I would go to bed, my skin would look better. I thought it was just that my prescriptions were finally working (which was probably part of it) but then I came back to where I'm currently living for school, and my acne is worse than before.
We have soft water at home, but were have terrible hard city water where I am now. It's bad enough that there are gray deposits on the shower curtain, in the corners of the bathtub, and even in a ring around the water level of the toilet. And I'm wondering... is that all just hanging out in my pores? Tonight I went out and bought a jug of distilled water so we'll see.
I'm mostly just curious to know if anyone else has experienced this? If so, what have you done? Distilled water is mostly annoying because I don't know the best way to use it. Do you put it in a bowl and use a washcloth? If this works, I'm thinking of also getting a filtering shower head because my back acne is worse now that I'm back. My roommate has never had acne problems and now she has mild acne on her face and back acne for the first time in her life.
Update posted below.
Hard to say. Could be the water. Irritants can certainly contribute to irritation breakouts. And interesting that your roommate is also having skin problems. Stress can play a role. I know my acne was always worse when I had a paper due, during midterms, etc. It always got better when the pressure was off. Do you tend to eat healthier at school, or does your eating habits tend to get slack? Increased sugar, dairy, processed food, etc. can also be contributing factors.
I've experimented with all of those things. I've done basically every diet thing you can imagine. My acne was practically gone my first two years of undergrad, when I was eating on the lousy meal plan and under the most stress I've ever survived. My roommate is not in school.
To anyone who is following:
Washing my face with distilled water made a difference in my skin immediately. It hasn't completely cleared up, but the difference in severity was noticeable within 48 hours. Since posting this topic, I've learned that our water tank was set at 125 degrees, which is a perfect temperature for bacteria to grow. I drink tap water from a filtered pitcher, and have since switched to drinking bottled water until I can figure out what to do about a better pitcher, and my skin is improving a lot. I don't think the water alone did it; but I think bad water was preventing my acne-fighting routine from being effective.
I've recently done a lot of research and found that pH levels in the water can absolutely cause or make acne worse. So can heavy metal contents in the water, and normal water filters cannot filter out heavy metals. If you don't have a water softener, I highly recommend anyone who is at all suspicious of their water quality to experiment with distilled water.
If things keep improving, I am going to buy heavy duty filters for my sinks and a softener attachment for the shower. I'll post pictures once I'm totally out of the woods.