Whether you’re 13 or 43, acne can take an emotional toll. When you experience a breakout, you are willing to try anything that vanishes blemishes. There are, however, certain treatments or methods of getting rid of acne that do more harm than good. Once you understand what you should eliminate from your acne treatment routine, you’ll have an easier time clearing up the skin.
From certain foods to store bought cleansers, many things can damage the skin. Even if you think something should get rid of acne, it may not always do the trick. If you find that you’re struggling to clear up acne despite your best efforts, you may need to start from scratch. It’s perfectly acceptable to abandon what you know and welcome in new methods. It may never occur to you that an ingredient in your breakfast is worsening your breakout. So if a breakout happens and you want to clear up your skin, please avoid the following things.
Avoid Drying Agents
You can’t scrub away your acne, which means that you can’t burn or dry it away either. Many dermatologists discourage people from using astringents and tonics that are too strong and harmful for the skin. When you use the strongest products, there’s a higher risk of experiencing long-term skin damage because they can disturb the skin’s balance and hydration. Hydrating the skin with moisturizers is integral to minimizing breakouts, even if your skin is oily or acne-prone.
Avoid Eating Pasta
Pasta, or any refined, white, sugar, or grain-based foods for that matter, are foods that have a high glycemic index. Triggering inflammation and skin damage, these types of foods can worsen acne, rosacea, and other skin conditions. They release sugar into the bloodstream quickly, which leads to a sugar crash. These foods are simple carbs that worsen or trigger acne. The increase in insulin is accompanied by androgen hormone increase, in addition to IGF-1. This combination causes skin cells to grow at a faster rate, and sebum production increases as well.
Avoid Facial Brushes
These products have been popular for quite some time, but are slowly disappearing into the darkness of the beauty world. Facial brushes or spinning tools can damage the skin barrier, which you should protect. When you maintain the skin barrier’s integrity, you have a better chance at fighting acne. You can still exfoliate acne-prone skin, just not with abrasive scrubs and hard brushes. It’s better to use a gentle exfoliant that doesn’t strip the skin of oils or cause micro tears in the process.
Avoid Picking
Popping a zit, when the time is right of course, can potentially shorten the amount of time you have to lay eyes on that unsightly blemish. Red pimples, as unappealing and uncomfortable as they may be, do not have a clear connection to the skin’s surface. That means that you cannot pick them out. If you continue to pick or try to pop those unpoppable pimples, you disrupt the skin barrier and can create a wound, where one wasn’t before. In addition to worsening the appearance of the pimple, breaking the skin barrier via picking allows bacteria easier entry to the skin, increasing the risk of infection.
Avoid Coconut Oil
Normally, coconut oil is great for the skin, but not if you are prone to acne. Because coconut oil is thick, it can easily clog pores on the face, which is more sensitive than the rest of the body. Moisturizing the legs, arms, or feet with coconut oil may be completely fine, but the face is a different story. Applying oil to the face isn’t off-limits; rather, you just have to choose the right one, like rosehip oil or jojoba oil.
Vincent Stevens is the senior content writer at Dherbs. As a fitness and health and wellness enthusiast, he enjoys covering a variety of topics, including the latest health, fitness, beauty, and lifestyle trends. His goal is to inform people of different ways they can improve their overall health, which aligns with Dherbs’ core values. He received his bachelor’s degree in creative writing from the University of Redlands, graduating summa cum laude. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.
