Zits and Facial Care

[seloifter]

alright, back in high school, I had my share of zits and break-outs..... and for DJs, that simply won't do...

Now, there is no reason to be embarassed about having acne.... it's not a reflection of hygiene, it's just a side effect of puberty.
However, it is pretty damn ugly, and it can put a damp on a HS DJ's success......

so, I'm gonna give you a little guide to getting rid of zits!

Here is what you'll be needing if you want to keep real good hygiene:

-Water
-Facial Soap
-10% Benzoyl Peroxide solution/cream
-mini sponge
-Qtips
-rubbing alcohol
-commitment
-a magnifying mirror

Now, proper facial hygiene requires daily attention. Even twice a day for better results. Here is the routine:

Rinse your face, then wash it with special facial soap (you can get those special brand pore-cleansing soaps if you want, but just make sure it's a facial soap). Wash all over now. Rinse, preferably with a mini sponge (very useful).
Now, apply 10% Benzoyl Peroxide (these are products such as Oxy and what not.... they will usually be marked) to a Q-tip. Apply some over all your zits, and rub it in with your finger. Don't apply too much, and be sure to wash your hands right afterwards.

That's it. If you can do that twice a day, you'll be pretty well off.

During the day, do your best not to touch your face. Your hands have oil on them, they get dirty.... touching your face just blocks your pores and causes break-outs. Whenever you're in teh bathroom, run some water over your face. Whatever you do..... don't play with your zits!!!!!!

However, this world isn't perfect, and **** happens. I know, even if you try your hardest, some zits WILL break out.
Now, according to "experts", you shouldn't pop your zits.... but that's bull..... they're ugly as hell and no one wants to stare at a pimply face, let alone HBs.

Here's how to pop zits:

-Wash your face and hands
-Get a washcloth and put hot water on it until it's nice a damp. Place the cloth over your face (or if you just have zits in one particular place, over that area). What this does is the steam gets into your pores and it makes the zits really ripe and ready to pop. You may want to re-wet the cloth a few times.
-Get in front of a mirror, preferrably a magnification mirror
-Get two Q-tips, and press one on each side of the zit, the Qtips pushing together, creating alot of pressure on the zit. This may hurt a bit. You should soon see white crap oozing out of the zit. DO NOT STOP applying pressure until you see blood come out. The reason is that if *any* of the white ooze remains, the zit will just come back and bigger and badder. The blood clears all the ooze.
-Repeat for all zits you notice. Don't be surprised if black-heads get popped that you didn't even know you had.
-*VERY IMPORTANT* After you're done popping, get some rubbing alcohol. Put some on a Q-tip, and apply it on every zit you popped. If you do not disinfect the popped pimples, they will just get infected and come back even worse! All your popping efforts will have been in vain.
-After the alcohol has dried, get some moisturizing cream, and apply it all over your face. Do this *especially* if you have dry skin!
-You may have a red mark where your zit used to be in the morning. That's fine. Make sure you re-apply rubbing alcohol...... 3 times a day if you can until it's all gone. Try not to be too generous with the alcohol tho..... it's really bad for your skin (of course, it's really bad for zits too, which is why we use it )

Alright, that's my little guide for proper facial hygiene..... trust me, it is VERY important...... with all the effort women put into their hygiene, you don't want to look like a slob.

Now if you'll excuse me.... I need to wash my face

 

[\m/]

ya... allllllllllllllllll that... or.....


...Accutane. I swear to god this is the miracle drug. I had major (major) acne and it got rid of it all within 4 months... I have extremely smooth skin now.


All the side effects it lists are just precuationary... the only real side effect was dry skin.


Miracle drug.

 

[G_S]

Okay, I can't help but chime in here. I'm 22 years old, so I can give you some solid tips as I've delt with acne much longer than most of you. Here's a few things that the original poster didn't cover.

1. Wash Your Pillow Case Once a Week
This makes a MAJOR difference. Do you wake up with zits? At night your pillow case soaks up the oil from your face. Over time it will take on an oily rag effect if it's not washed, clogging freshly washed skin with old oil. Before you know it you'll be waking up with big zits and all that face care was in vain. Wash your pillow case! I'VE FOUND THAT IT ACTUALLY HELPS MORE THAN SKIN OINTMENTS. Try to keep several spare pillow cases so that you can change often while the others wait to be washed.

2. You shouldn't pop zits unless they're really disgusting. If you're going to pop them for the love of God don't let it get infected! It will look 10X worse. Don't be afraid to put ice on a popped zit. I've found that 2 ice cubes, applied enough to chill the skin and kill the infection, but not enough to give you some type of frost bite, will make a popped zit dissapear days soon.

Good luck..

 

[Player 2k1]

b careful w/ that 10% benzol peroxide... that stuff made me break out real bad.. if ur acne is horrible just go to the dermatoligist

 

[damned_in_black]

How do you get rid of blackheads?

 

[maosrdbf]

Interesting stuff I'm learning. I always popped pimples by squeezing the white **** out. When it came back, I just popped it again hehe. At least I now see ways to prevent it from coming back.

 

[Entity]

also wash your face right after exercising if you can. i think stri-dex makes wipes that are individually packed.

 

[mrsoy]

idk what my doctor perscribed me but its pledglets like little pads and it got rid of my chinstrap acne in a few weeks. worked very nicely. ill try to find the name of it when i go home

 

[Julius_Caesar]

I had rather bad acne since 5th grade and it gave me alot of confidence issues. However, I realized that some thing happened to me when I spent the night with friends or went on a trip with them. But one instance stands out in particular: I was up at a cabin with a bunch of buds and as I go through my bag...F_ck! I forgot my pills(tetracycline at the time, minocycline now), I thought that I was going to break out pretty bad in the morning, but noticed that my skin actucally looked BETTER! Then I realized why my skin looked better. For almost all of the time up there with my friends I did not touch my face. Initially because touching the breakout brings more attention to it and I just wanted to forget about it. Once I got home and was alone, I could let my guard down. I began to touch my face out of long time habit. Then I realized that I had the road to salvation right in front of me. I started one a monday, a school day, and said that every time I touched my face I would do ten push ups. The first day: 21 touches, 210 push ups; the second day: 15, 150 push ups; the third day: 7, 70 push ups; then 4 times, then 2, and now hardly ever do I touch my face unless I am GENTLY washing it or appling sunscreen or topical meds. I saw FANTASTIC results, I get only the occasional white head or sometimes no white and just a red inflammation. Oh, the remnants are still there, a little read on the old trouble spots, but face is very clear and smooth! feels like a weights off my shoudlers. So the moral of the story: never, I repeat, NEVER touch your face. within just a few days you WILL see results. Just stick to it dammit.

 

[Oxide]

****ing great advice caesar. im off to do pushups.

 

[jmm854]

Jesus F*ckin Christ. I'm seriously gettin sick and tired of these threads. All the sh*t you mentioned seloifter may have helped control some people's acne in the past, but the bottom line is none of the things you mentioned actually permanently clears up your face. I tried the majority of the stuff you mentioned and sometimes it worked, sometimes not, but a few days later there's always new zits appearing.

ya... allllllllllllllllll that... or.....


...Accutane. I swear to god this is the miracle drug. I had major (major) acne and it got rid of it all within 4 months... I have extremely smooth skin now.


All the side effects it lists are just precuationary... the only real side effect was dry skin.


Miracle drug.

Amen. Exact same story here. Every other drug is a pretender. Some drugs may clear up your face while you're on them but as soon as you quit taking the pills/applying the medication(for all you proactiv boys) the acne's right back. Accutane...it's a rough 20 weeks of side effects but it clears your skin up FOR GOOD. In less than 5 months you'll never have to take any acne medication for the rest of your life.

 

[Eventide]

Jimm, not everybody has moderate to serious acne, and therefore not everybody needs Acutane. For people with mild acne his guide will probably work very well. Of course he didn't mean his post isn't the end all definitive answer to acne, none of the posts on this board are supposed to be the definitive answer to everything, each has its exceptions.

Acutane clears up acne for life? Great, thats all aces and spades, but most people aren't going to have acne for their entire life. Sure, a zit may appear here or there, but once your passed puberty you are normally pretty well off.

This is a good guide, and the tips concerning popping zits with q-tips and going out of your way to keep them from getting infected are golden.

 

[Oxide]

i dont want to jump on accutane, and i generally get zits from sweat mixed with puberty. this pushup thing it great. i dont know if it helps my face, but my arms are getting strong as hell

 

[xanderbaz]

Alright, I have a skin-related question:
I have these weird looking white spots (perhaps 8-9 of them) under my eyes that look like zits, but I can't pop them at all; the white stuff is deeply under my skin. If I try to pop them or anything, they hurt like hell.
Any ideas on what this could be? How can I treat this?

 

[Oxide]

yeah, if u press hard thru pain u can pop em out, the white stuff is DEEP within the skin layer. a huge block comes out, ew.

 

[xanderbaz]

Uh, not really. I tried that several times... I squeezed until blood showed, but nothing the "zit" was still there. I really want to get rid of them. They're pretty inconspicuous, but still...

 

[Oxide]

i know what u are talking about. yesterday i popped one, blood came out, then u press harder adn thick white stuff comes out.

 

[Eternal]

Could be a cyst...Be careful when popping them, especially if the white crud is deep down...They tend to leave red marks that last a pretty good amount of time.

 

[dogstar]

I too had accutane. It's the BEST acne medicine out there. Absolute BEST. It's a pill you take, it TOTALLY clears the acne. You have to be prescribed though.

 

[jmm854]

Eventide, I see your point man, but still...mild, moderate, or severe acne, accutane's got you covered.

In my opinion it's biggest downfall is it's price...insurance covered about 75% of the cost for me but the co-payment was still $147 a month.

And yes, generally after the teen years the acne clears up...but still, it's no guarantee when it will start to decline in your skin. My brother suffered from acne until he was 20, and I started to get it moderately at 16...there was no way I was going to deal with it for that long. On accutane, you're done with it in 20 weeks, and about halfway into your treatment your acne pretty much disappears.

I don't know about the rest of the posters here, but skin maintenance can be a royal pain in the ass. I mean seriously, taking care of zits and following the rest of the skin care advice to prevent acne is time consuming and let's face it, it f*cks with your confidence. The only reason I preach accutane to be so great is because that's one less thing in my life that I have to deal with now, I know my skin is clear everyday. Believe me, it is a HUGE RELIEF, I'm sure dogstar and m would agree.