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Started 4 years ago by freeyourself
Latest reply from Soleranz
I've been fighting acne for many years. My biggest problem areas have always been my back and butt. I always thought I'd outgrow acne and it was very depressing for me when I realized that wasn't really true. On the good side, for me, my acne is not extreme. On my face, I think the outgrowing it did actually happen. I'm always at risk of having a break out, but I think a combination of changes as I've grown older and the products I'm using has pretty much beaten it on my face.
My back is what has caused me the most problems. I cannot understate how damaging it has been to my self-esteem that I have this bacne problem. And, yes, my butt is often breaking out, too. I don't know the technical terms, but my type of acne has always been break outs of deep pimples that can take a long time to completely disappear. I have very sensitive, fair skin (I'm half Swedish, sun-burn very easily, and my skin can get irritated very easily).
I'm posting because over the past year I have mostly defeated this long-stanbding acne problem. Not 100%. I can still break out. But here are some things that work for me. Everyone is different, so I don't know if this will work for everyone or every type of acne.
1. I generally shower every day, but I DO NOT use soap all over. I use soap on the important areas (underarms, crotch, ears, sometimes on my face). I never use regular soap on my back. (Well, if there's a specific pimple I'm trying to make go down faster, I may use a little soap on that one little spot to dry it out faster.) The point that I can clean my body with mostly just water. The shampoo running off my head cleans my body, too. I have just found that the skin on my back does better without much soap.
2. A couple times a week I soak my body in a bathtub. No products or anything. Just soak for 5-10 minutes to get the skin cleaner than a shower.
3. I vary the frequency of my use of this greatly depending on my intuition, but about once a week I use Neutrogena's acne body SCRUB (as opposed to their body WASH) on my back and butt. I think this is a very good product. I'm not sure how much it prevents acne, but it makes my skin feel better.
4. Here's the most important thing, and was the key to getting my acne under control. AFTER EVERY SHOWER it's vital to use Gold Bond body lotion. Well, the brand may not be vital. I'm not sure about that. Gold Bond is the brand where I came upon this revelation and I'm sticking with it. Gold Bond has the added benefit of being very effective at making the skin feel cooler and not itchy, especially in the wintertime. I have noticed that if I fail to use Gold Bond lotion after every shower it will have been a mistake to take a shower at all -- there's a high chance I'll start breaking out very quickly. I'm not a dermatologist, but my theory is that my skin gets so dried out after a shower (even without soap) that my skin responds in a way that causes break outs. Gold Bond lotion prevents this response. I swear to God the skin on my back and butt started clearing up within days of using Gold Bond after every shower. Again, perhaps there's many other brands of lotion one could use, but this is the one that has made my life much, much happier.
5. To my face, after each shower (usually I have shaved, too, but even if I haven't) I apply either Neutrogena's Razor Defense Post Shave Lotion or Nivea For Men's aftershave balm. I am still trying to figure out which of these I prefer. They're both good.
6. I check the skin on my back and butt every day to feel if there's any sort of acne coming up. My pimples tend to be the deep big ones. I know I have to start fighting them immediately because they can take a long time to fully go away. I use an arsenal on them, but in sort of a trial and error way because I haven't worked out the best way to go about it. Generally, in the morning I'll clean the break-out area with Neutrogena's Stress Control scrub. Then I put Neutrogena's Acne Eliminating Spot Gel on the area. Later on in the day I apply Neutrogena's On-The-Spot Acne Treatment. I don't know which product is better between the Spot Gel and the One-The-Spot cream. They both seem to make zits go away faster, and I alternate between them when I'm waging war on a nasty pimple. Occassionally, when I know someone will be seeing my bare back (say, if I'm going swimming) I'll try and get a little bit of a sun-tan on my back beforehand. The geat news is that I can now go to a public pool without destroying my self-esteem. I always loved swimming but quit swimming for about ten years because I couldn't bear to show my bacne. I have emotional scars about this because I was on swim team in high school and always felt ashamed about having bacne (standing on a starting block in front of a hundred people and feeling ashamed of your bacne can be horrible to a teenager's self-esteem!).
The main message I have to convey is that showers and baths can CAUSE break outs if you don't immediately follow them up with a lotion. It took me so many years to realize this. I realized it after I went a whole week without a shower and noticed my skin seemed better than usual. I need to shower a lot, though, because I sweat a lot. I had been confused about what was going on because when I used a lot of soap and stuff on my skin it would make already-existing pimples go away faster. So I'd use more soap and tons of Clearasil to fight the zits I already had, not digesting that I was ensuring my skin would break out more and more. I feared lotions because I thought they'd clog up my skin.
Gold Bond body lotion does wonders for me and my sensitive, itchy, bacne-prone skin. I don't know if it'll help everyone, but it's worth a try. So, try showering without soap (or just generally approaching showers/baths in a more gentle manner - mostly just to let pure water clean you) and immediately applying Gold Bond all over.
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I also had a long battle with my acne, I started using proactiv but it didn't work even after using it for four complete months. I switched over to Murad for a month but the results were the same. I finally found relief after I used derma cleanse acne system from zenmed. It's a wonderful product and really works wonders in a short period of time.
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I found the same results as Tanisha.. Murad didn´t really help that much, but the Zenmed derma cleanse really worked for me. I also started taking Actimine tablets to reduce the oil that my skin produces. The 2 together have worked wonders for me after years of frustration.
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Yeah .. the last week i been gettin pimples &&&& i never ever had pimples my whole 19 years lol and i found gold bond in my junk draw and i started to use it only becuase it said medicated lol . && my forehead is starting to clearrr upp !! ... it was a very depressing week !!
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Hey guys! What is actually helping you on your back is not the lotion part, it is the zinc and salicylic acid which is in the Gold Bond lotion. So yes, it is brand specific. Here's what I do for my back, and I am completely clear after having nine or so years of Horrible acne on my back: In the shower I wash my back with the Head and Shoulders classic clean shampoo. Sounds weird, I know, but it works. I think it is the zinc in it. Sometimes I get lazy and wash my whole body with Head and Shoulders, because who cares? Then I get out of the shower, make sure I'm completely dry, and put the Gold Bond original medicated body powder all over my back. Completely breakout free!
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