how do I get rid of pimples?
I moisturize, exfoliate, drink lots of water, etc. and some of my pimples still don't go away. any advice?
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Exfoliating while you have them will only worsen things.
My advice: get antibiotics for acne, take them for 1 month; that will help clear a lot of the bacteria away. Also, make use of Benzoyl Peroxide. At the same time, of course, wash your face once a day with something soft and soothing (which has salicylic acid inside). Continue to moisturise well (maybe something with hydraulonic acid in it too).
Then I would recommend 3 months of retinol, that will clear away a lot of stuff buried deep in your skin (warning: it might temporarily make things worse, but it will eventually be better).
After that go and do a microdermabrasion and general cleansing with a dermatologist; finish with a soothing mask. Be careful in the days after this, lots of moisturising is needed.Keep up the normal routine after that, maybe go back and do a second one too.
After all of that, your skin should have stabilised and you're going to then want to use lots of hyrdaulonic acid for a few months to help it rebuild/ get rid of scars. You can also take hyrdaulonic acid in pill form as well as selenium (and "skin and nails" vitamins).
In all it will probably take ~8 months or so, after that just cleaning, exfoliating, and moisturiser will keep things stable; but for now there's a lot more that needs to be done to cleanse what's already in your skin.
Thanks a lot, this is solid advice. I’ll consider the antibiotics since I don’t really have acne but rather just a few pimples, and antibiotics are known to give side effects such as dry lips
Struggled with a lot of pimples especially in middle school. Go talk to a dermatologist. They have pills that will help your pimples go away over several months.
The pills will dehydrate you and make you break out like crazy. They''ll combine those pills with some antibiotics as another user said above. After a massive breakout, the pimples will go away. Have never had pimples after my treatment.
Edit: A user further below said acutane. That's the pill I think I took or a similar one.
So load your face with every chemical in the pharmacy??
In college i didn’t change my pillow case often enough. It can have a lot of oil from your face on it
Used to do tons of face washing and shit. Stopped everything and wham bam the odd pimples I would get from time to time never returned.
Accutane
came here to say this. shit just nukes your entire body.
I took it over 10 years ago as a last resort option after trying what felt like every option under the sun. It definitely puts a lot of strain on your body and skin, but overall it was worth it to me. Can't speak for others.
Most people use harsh, irritating products for acne resolution which make matters worse. Pick up a gentle cleaner to use 2x day (Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser) and a non-condemgenic non-irritating lotion (Cerave Everyday Moisurizing Lotion) - there's your cleaning and moisturizing lotion. Either use a bezoyl peroxide cream, or my personal preference, a dermatology retinoid (e.g. retina 0.05% nightly).
Beyond that - don't pick, wash your pillow case, don't touch your face all day. Food was never much of a trigger for me but excess dairy or sugar always got the zits going.
GL!
This. Extra sugar or just excess carbs in general always made my skin feel a tad bit irritated and lo and behold, within a few days, Pimple Pete's emerged.
Are you eating clean? Eating fast food and processed sugar can cause acne
yes I spend about 500 a month on food alone
I would recommend not taking any medications or drugs like Accutane. What worked for me back in the day was cutting out as much sugar from your diet as possible (also no carbs, because they act like sugar in the body).
Literally just eat meats, veggies, and fruits and only drink water for 5 days and your skin will look 100x better. All those creams, soaps, washes, and medications are poor substitutes for a clean body and clean diet.
I deal with acne from time to time. I clean my face but do have oily skin so I think I need to stick a real regiment. I've never had bad acne but once in a while I get a pimple on my nose (always happens on the nose for me) and it's a bad one. Sometimes it gets bad enough where I put a bandaid over it.
I had acne from the time i was like 13 until I was 29 when I finally said screw it I'm just going to do accutane. I tried everything mentioned above (e.g. changing diet to exclude dairy, sugar, white carbs; every other over the counter and prescription medication/pill/wash; washing pillow cases constantly; tried to avoid getting stressed as much as possible) for the 16+ years I dealt with acne. The 5 months of accutane wasn't too fun, but now a year after finishing it, I have not had a single pimple since I was put on the medication. I really wish I would have just bit the bullet many years sooner to avoid years of looking at pimples and screwing with my diet etc. If your acne is bad enough, I would recommend accutane for sure.
I can second this. Had pretty consistent acne through my entire high school career. Lucky enough to afford a good dermatologist and so I tried pretty much everything under the sun for decent periods of time. Finally bit the bullet and did Accutane freshman year of college and had large initial breakouts for the first few months and crazy dry skin. But then for the final few months of Accutane, I had the nicest skin you could imagine, blackheads would literally naturally fall out of my pores. I could sleep in like a dumpster at night and my skin stayed clear. Then I had a great few months after treatment stopped but then some small breakouts started happening again and I was thinking of going back onto Accutane for a second round because you can do that to improve long-term results if breakouts occur again. But then my skin pretty went back to being normally clear and a gently facewash and Cerave in the morning and at night did the trick. And yea you'll still get the random pimple every once in a while, but generally my skin is clear.
From where I was in high school (multiple pimples on my face in clustered areas at any given time) to now (like a random pimple once a month), I think of Accutane like a miracle drug. Side-effects can be bad but damn it's insane how much anxiety can be squashed once you never have to worry about acne on your face. Easily increases confidence and life satisfaction.
Honestly just see a dermatologist if you can afford it and ask about different treatments, Accutane is usually a last resort because it's harsher.
Agreed. It was crazy for me to go from dreading to leave the house to forgetting that I ever had acne in the first place. It's been almost five years and I still have people complimenting my skin regularly.
Acne is a medical condition that has absolutely nothing to do with your diet, absolutely nothing to do with not washing your face or changing your pillow case frequently, etc...Acne happens when hair follicles become plugged with oil and dead skin cells. That's it. That's why acne is common in teens because of excess production of oil during hormonal changes like puberty - not because teens don't take showers or eat sugary foods/carbs compared to other age groups lol.
I had bad acne in HS and it affected my self esteem badly. I tried everything mentioned above to no avail. I eventually ended up on accutane for ~6 months, which completely wiped my face, chest, and back clean of every single pimple I had. It has been 12 years since then, and the acne mostly did not return (outside of maybe one small pimple every several months that would last for a few days).
Realize that acne is a medical condition that requires a discussion with a dermatologist. Don't try to cure acne with dieting, washing face, etc. as that is not the underlying issue.
I'm going to give you the simplest advice; go to a dermatologist and ask for Accutane. That will literally perfect your skin in less than five months, and there's no maintenance other than taking a pill.
I'm not sponsored or have any affiliation. You're going to laugh but it works.
This shit cleared my acne up perfectly: https://www.amazon.com/Aztec-Secret-Cleansing-Original-Bentonite/dp/B08…
Just apply, leave on for 10 minutes while you prepare the rest of your routine. After the mask, apply moisturizer, eye balm, and SPF. DO NOT SCRUB YOUR FACE.
The mask strips your face completely of the stuck toxins and oils. The moisturizer is important because it hydrates your face so it will stop producing excess oils in an attempt to fix your dried out skin.
Thank me later.
Pump those rookie wanking numbers up
OP, it starts in the gut. Please, go read about it. External solutions (cream, etc.) are not the answer. Frankly, it's probably making things worse. Of course I am not a doctor, but I am very into health and nutrition... I don't wash my face and my skin is the best it's ever been. Seriously, I don't wash my face but max once a month. It all starts internally my friend. Good luck
I wouldn’t be confident in anyone’s answers besides the people that say to get Accutane. Sure, whatever regimen the other posters are recommending might have worked for them but there’s no guarantee that it’ll work for you. At the end of the day, the only long lasting treatment for acne is accutane, and this was according to my dermatologist. A dermatologist could put you on an antibiotic like doxycycline that could temporarily make the pimples go away, but eventually your body builds up immunity to the antibiotic and the pimples come back. All this stuff about not eating meat or dairy or changing your pillowcase is broscience. The only effective treatment is accutane. I had pretty bad acne for three years and tried everything but accutane and nothing worked. Then I jumped on accutane and haven’t had a serious breakout for the last 3 years since I got off. The side effects were pretty manageable too. Just bite the bullet OP.
I'm inclined to agree with you for the most part, except no guarantee that Accutane will work for them either. Well, more accurately, Accutane might work for the acne, but may cause many other issues. The side effects are actually quite common, unfortunately :/ Had quite a few friends on it, in addition to my sister, and the side effects were not pretty.
hi OP here, that is a valid point. a lot of people in this thread are downplaying the side-effects accutane can have. my close friend was on it, and it absolutely wrecked his body
Agreed. Accutane is the only real answer. Diet has a small factor but it doesn't do anything if your body is naturally oily. The anti-biotic with tretinoin cream treatment that dermatologist's try first is garbage and is like trying to hold together a broken machine with scotch tape. I've been on Accutane and it forever nuked my acne problems.
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