Acne is very much a trial and error process to solve.
I don't know the science of it all, but I have managed to take my acne down to almost 0 on my face, still get a bit here and there, but nothing that noticeable. We're talking like 1 pimple that's barely visible.
What you are going to have to do, at least to try and make a dent in your condition, is experiment with different ways to treat it. Each time you experiment you need to try for 1-3 months, since some might break you out at first and get better overtime. With my tips, I doubt that will happen, but there are no guarantees, it's very individual based.
Here are some easy different methods and tips to try out:
- Count how many grams of sugar you eat per day. Yeah, you say you eat healthy, but there's sugar in so many items you wouldn't even think about (tomato soup at restaurants has 20-30g of sugar sometimes). You need to actually COUNT the sugar that you are eating. If it's above 40g per day, you need to lower that and you'll see some improvement definitely.
- Is your face too oily or too dry? Both will cause acne. My acne tends to go away the more moist my face is, which means dryness is my problem. I've known people who's skin is an oil factory, their issue is too much oil that it's clogging their pores. Figure out which is yours.
- Try out a MILD (for sensitive skin) facial cleanser. You have to experiment with different ones. Washing with water usually isn't enough for most people. A mild/sensitive facial cleanser shouldn't make your acne worse, in fact, it should only help a TINY bit at most (I doubt it will help drastically, but who knows).
- You don't even have to use a cleanser, some people just use an extremely sensitive soap to cleanse their face. Again, figure out what works for you.
- Wash with that facial cleanser ONCE a week, and over the course of 1-3 months, SLOWLY increase how often you wash your face with it. I used to wash my face and exfoliate EVERY day. My acne got better but it didn't get perfect for some reason. That reason was that I was washing/exfoliating TOO often that it was irritating my face skin. You need to find your sweet spot (very few people follow this advice, and that's why you hear horror stories of "I used ____ every day for a week, and now my face is horrible!!!!! What do I do!!!!")
- If you find that the mild cleanser helps after 1-3 months of using it, but you still have acne problems, consider switching to a regular version ("combination skin") of your cleanser (a lot of cleansers will have 3 different versions, mild, combination, and oily)
- To exfoliate your skin, literally just use a washcloth with your cleanser (cinnamon-honey scrubs and exfoliating beads and all that shit are fucking STUPID and irritate way more than a washcloth despite what "experts" say.) You don't need to use a washcloth every time your wash your face, you should be using your hands most of the time (wash your hands beforehand). You should use a washcloth to exfoliate your face at least once a week. You will need to experiment with how hard you rub that washcloth into your face. On my nose, which got a lot of blackheads, I push that washcloth pretty damn hard there, and that keeps the blackheads at bay. On the rest of my face, rubbing too hard irritates my skin (of course). Again, err on the side of less pressure and be very gentle, and after doing that for 1-3 months, you can decide to up the pressure or not.
- Moisturize. You will have to find a moisturizer that works for you, generally the less chemicals in it the better. If your problem is your skin is too oily, moisturize less often. If your skin is too dry, moisturize once a day.
- I wouldn't recommend a toner, it often has alcohol in it, which badly affects your skin. I have always ignored this piece of advice, alcohol doesn't help in any way at all. If you feel you must have a toner, stick to "skin bracers or fresheners" that have no alcohol in them.
- Wash with colder water. Not freezing, but cold tepid. Hot waster irritates and dries out your skin. That whole "but it opens your pores" argument? It's bullshit, your pores don't open up as much as you'd like to believe, and even when they are open, they close pretty quick. Irritated skin stays with you longer than open pores, so it's better to avoid irritation. Use tepid water for showers, shaving, washing face, etc.
- Your problem might be shaving irritation as well. Shave using a thick lather (preferably with a shaving soap or foam or whatever with less chemicals), and shave USING COLD WATER. Using cold water keeps your stubble hair relatively normal, while hot water actually makes it weaker, making it more prone to being tugged on and not getting shaved as well, and again, hot water irritates your skin. Do you think shaving over irritated skin is a good idea? No, so shave with colder water.
- Shave using a razor with 3 or less blades. Ingrown hairs were my problem for the longest time, and this also helped solve the issue. You don't need 5 blades, and I read a whole article with citations to studies talking about how 2-3 blade razors causes less irritation, it was bookmarked on my computer that crashed, I backed up the data, but it's going to be hard to find. But yeah, 2-3 blades only. An example would be the Gillette Mach 3.
- Shave often, from once every day to once every two days (if your facial hair grows in but it's not enough to have a beard). I don't know why, but shaving more often than not seems to keep ingrown hairs at bay.
- Always moisturize after shaving, no matter your skin type. Do NOT use aftershave. Aftershave is an antiseptic (alcohol) meant to disinfect cuts and "reduce skin irritation." How on earth does an antiseptic reduce irritation? Does your skin feel less irritated after throwing rubbing alcohol on a cut? You don't need to disinfect your skin, and moisturizing your skin is a better way to go after shaving as that will keep irritation at bay. Irritation=acne.
- Stay AWAY from natural/home remedy treatments for now (bakingsoda/apple cider vinegar, honey bullshit, etc.). Don't fuck with them. I hear girls washing their hair with baking soda and apple cider vinegar, it is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of, and it damages your hair overtime. A lot of the anti-chemical rhetoric comes from this placebo based "medical condition"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_ ... ensitivity
- I am not saying to absolutely use chemicals nor to avoid natural remedies. I'm saying you need to figure out what's best for you, and the natural remedies section is not the best place to start for most people. Things like honey cinnamon masks, putting oil in your hair, etc. People think that chemicals are the problem, saying "Do you know they use that in car paint?" Fun fact, in order to create a normal bar of soap, you need to use "lye," which is a drain cleaner and can cause extreme chemical burns. But because of science, you put lye in with fat, and it creates soap. Even natural soaps use this.
- I still recommend using more natural based shit though, like glycerin soap, soaps without sodium sulfates, parabens, etc. Just do a google search of irritants in cosmetic products, you'll see what to avoid better than I can explain and list off the top of my head.
- Speaking of soap, I noticed you mentioned your arm and body acne. If the problem is that your skin is dry, moisturize these areas, you'll likely see a huge decrease in acne there. I had extreme acne on my back, turns out the problem was the area was too dry, I started moisturizing up back there, problem solved.
- If your body skin is irritated, I recommend trying out glycerin soaps, African Black Soap, maybe check out Vermont Soaps, Castile Soap. Soap bars tend to have less chemicals than liquid soaps from what I've seen.
- Use benzoyl peroxide gel or Retin A to spot treat acne (I recommend Retin A since it doesn't damage your skin, which I guess benzoyl peroxide does? I don't know as much here). You will need to be VERY careful about getting sunspots though with both. Both will make your skin sensitive to the sun and can cause hyper-pigmentation, or basically fucking up your skin. Wear a strong ass sunscreen, use Retin A/Benzoyl Peroxide gel ONLY at night, and make sure to lightly use water to clear it off in the morning. To give you confidence, I have been using Retin A for years now, I have 0 sunspots. If you end up using these, and follow the instructions here, you'll be fine
- Also, don't use Retin A or Benzoyl Peroxide in huge smears and quantities. It is not a lotion. Use only a tiny amount, smaller than a pea size, and dab it onto pimples. And maybe don't do this every night. Again, start less frequent (maybe once a week), and gradually increase and figure out the sweet spot of how often to use it.
- Take less showers. Generally a good rule of thumb, showering once every 2 days should benefit most people.
- Figure out if your home's water is soft or hard, and figure out how to change that (I believe there are filters for this, and you will have to see if hard or soft water is better for your skin.)
-Even if there aren't soft/hard water filters or changing that is too expensive, get a filter for your shower or faucets or whatever to filter out the chemicals in it.
- Finally, STOP touching your face throughout the day. Touching causes acne.
Wrapping Up:
Like I said, a lot of this is going to be experiment based, and I recommend trying one thing at a time (start with the tips that don't require you to buy stuff, like showering less, tepid water, etc.). It may take only 1-2 months to solve your problem, it may take 1 year. But doing something to change what isn't working is way better than just sitting there with the problem.
One point I can't stress enough: It all depends on what works for you. I knew a girl who washed her face with a standard Clean&Clear cleanser, ate sugary shit all the time, slept with her makeup on, every sin in the book, but her skin without makeup was still clean as hell. If using hard chemicals or inorganic shit works for you, I'm not going to tell you to stop. Do what works for you. This is just a general map with ideas of where to start.
