You get pimples during puberty -- that’s what happens during a gross spurt. ha...ha..ha. nice pun right? Except my growth spurt is wayyy over, and my acne is still here. *gasp* I know. When I was in high school I remember thinking that as soon as I graduated, my acne would be gone. I would be considered a "grown up" and grown ups don't have acne. My little world crumbled when I realized that I was an 18 year-old with more acne than I had ever had -- even more than I had in high school! Then I thought, well, when I'm 20 I'll definitely not have it. Well, 20 came around and yep, I still had it. Then I did my Google (totally credited) research, and found out that acne among adults is becoming more and more prevalent. But why? I wanted to find out.
I tried everything I could to cover it/cure it. Obviously I used a ton of makeup to try to hide it. And to fix it, I tried Accutane for a while, which worked like a charm after it dried and flaked my whole entire face off. But obviously it's not the best thing to put into your body if you couldn't donate blood with it in your system. And (although I didn't have to do this while I was on it) now you have to go in to get your kidney's checked and your liver checked while you're taking it. Sounds healthy, doesn't it? So I got rid of that. Instead I tried more user-friendly methods. I made home remedies consisting of baking soda, apple cider vinegar, honey, brown sugar, and any other home ingredient you can think of. I also bought some Clinique face stuff which didn't help seem to help much either. Nothing -- I mean nothing was working for me.
It was getting to the point where my confidence was totally beginning to wither away. I couldn't look people in the eyes and frankly, they couldn't look me in the eyes either. They would be looking everywhere but my eyes, to be exact. My pimples were apparently more interesting. psh. I finally just starting putting my hands all over my face while talking to people. I knew that people thought it was weird, but I really didn't want them to look at my face.
Obviously the zits were annoying, but it was a great source of contention for my mom and I. Any time she brought it up I would get super defensive and annoyed. I had so many other people bring it up to me as well. They all said that they were worried about the scarring that could come from such 'deep acne'. In their defense, it was all over my cheeks, and it was deep. But like all problems, most people don't want to actually fix them, and they definitely don't want other people telling them they have problems. They want to cover them up and pretend they're not there. I was no exception, so once I stopped running from it, I decided to make a change ... and that's where the DIY remedies came in. Now, just because those didn't work for me, I don't want me to discourage you from trying them. One of them may work for you! The one that did seem to do a little somethin' somethin' for me was to make my own facial cleanser with apple cider vinegar. But because the stench it left on my face was so pungent that it was starting to outweigh the positive results, I stopped using it each night. But really, there a bazillion DIYs out there, so look one up if you want to try it out! The cost is so little and the risk is super low. Anyways, I wanted to fix my problem, but I didn't know how, and that was almost more discouraging than pretending the acne wasn't there in the first place.
So now let's get to the good stuff. How did I finally get rid of my deep-rooted acne? Well, I had Laikyn.
Not what you were expecting, was it? Me neither. In fact, I was totally shocked. I knew Laikyn changed my life for the better, but my face too? I felt like it was too good to be true -- but I couldn't deny the fact that the acne on my cheeks was finally going away! and better yet, it was staying away! It look me a little while to figure it out, but then I put two and two together. But let me back up a little to give you some more context: For the first 3 weeks of Laikyn's life, she was a dream baby. She slept, ate, pooped, and ate some more. She hardly ever made a peep. Then she hit 3 weeks and reality that she was a baby finally sunk in. She would scream and cry for about 2 hours every night before falling asleep. She would arch her back as though she was in serious pain and let out some intense gas. I started giving her Ovol, which helped out tons! But every night this continued and then I started to realize that maybe she was gassy from something I ate. Well, the only thing I would eat was cereal because (1) it was my favourite food, after all and (2) it was the quickest and easiest thing to get.(newborns are kind of demanding on your time) There was nothing else I could think of, so I stopped eating cereal. And once I deduced that it was probably more the milk than the cereal, I stopped consuming milk entirely. She was still fussy at nights, but at least she wasn't screaming! And with the Ovol it kept most of the gas away completely.
So how does this relate to acne? Well, let me tell you . As soon as I quit eating cereal and avoiding milk, my acne on my cheeks disappeared. Ergo, having Laikyn = clear skin. I couldn't believe it! My favourite food after all of these years was the thing giving me acne?! It made so much sense, though. And now, as soon as I drink/eat too much milk a few of those deep-rooted zits pop up, not to mention my stomach churns all night long. Although I don't cut out dairy completely (since I do need my daily dose of calcium) I consume wayyyy less of it in a day.
But avoiding milk didn't clear up my skin alone; there was another significant factor that helped a ton: drinking water! In order make sure I had enough milk production, I drank at least 8 cups of water a day. (At least!) So between cutting out the milk and drinking a ton of water, my face was smoother and clearer than it had ever been before (without being on accutane). Plus, I lost the 50 lbs that I gained during pregnancy by the time Laikyn was 6 months and then 10 more after that without even working out! Obviously nursing used up quite a few of my calories in a day, but I've been able to maintain that weight since I've stopped nursing just by drinking tons of water and avoiding excessive amounts of dairy still. My metabolism has never been faster. Btw, did you know that many times throughout the day when you feel hungry, you're actually thirsty? Drink a glass of water instead or make a green smoothy (they're my fav!) Eat small meals constantly throughout the day. I had to do that while being a mom anyways because I feel like I'm always on the go. I'm actually back to the weight I was during basketball season. But since this is turning into a weight loss/healthy eating thing, so I'll get back to the pimples now ... sorry. =)
Here are some other little things that help:
Even though I've gotten rid of my deep-rooted acne I still get some acne on and around my chin area and my forehead, and I haven't figure out to get a hold on my black head situation. They are seriously taking over my face, so if you've found any tips or tricks that have worked for you and your acne, please share! I would love to hear them!!
cheers
I tried everything I could to cover it/cure it. Obviously I used a ton of makeup to try to hide it. And to fix it, I tried Accutane for a while, which worked like a charm after it dried and flaked my whole entire face off. But obviously it's not the best thing to put into your body if you couldn't donate blood with it in your system. And (although I didn't have to do this while I was on it) now you have to go in to get your kidney's checked and your liver checked while you're taking it. Sounds healthy, doesn't it? So I got rid of that. Instead I tried more user-friendly methods. I made home remedies consisting of baking soda, apple cider vinegar, honey, brown sugar, and any other home ingredient you can think of. I also bought some Clinique face stuff which didn't help seem to help much either. Nothing -- I mean nothing was working for me.
It was getting to the point where my confidence was totally beginning to wither away. I couldn't look people in the eyes and frankly, they couldn't look me in the eyes either. They would be looking everywhere but my eyes, to be exact. My pimples were apparently more interesting. psh. I finally just starting putting my hands all over my face while talking to people. I knew that people thought it was weird, but I really didn't want them to look at my face.
Obviously the zits were annoying, but it was a great source of contention for my mom and I. Any time she brought it up I would get super defensive and annoyed. I had so many other people bring it up to me as well. They all said that they were worried about the scarring that could come from such 'deep acne'. In their defense, it was all over my cheeks, and it was deep. But like all problems, most people don't want to actually fix them, and they definitely don't want other people telling them they have problems. They want to cover them up and pretend they're not there. I was no exception, so once I stopped running from it, I decided to make a change ... and that's where the DIY remedies came in. Now, just because those didn't work for me, I don't want me to discourage you from trying them. One of them may work for you! The one that did seem to do a little somethin' somethin' for me was to make my own facial cleanser with apple cider vinegar. But because the stench it left on my face was so pungent that it was starting to outweigh the positive results, I stopped using it each night. But really, there a bazillion DIYs out there, so look one up if you want to try it out! The cost is so little and the risk is super low. Anyways, I wanted to fix my problem, but I didn't know how, and that was almost more discouraging than pretending the acne wasn't there in the first place.
So now let's get to the good stuff. How did I finally get rid of my deep-rooted acne? Well, I had Laikyn.
Not what you were expecting, was it? Me neither. In fact, I was totally shocked. I knew Laikyn changed my life for the better, but my face too? I felt like it was too good to be true -- but I couldn't deny the fact that the acne on my cheeks was finally going away! and better yet, it was staying away! It look me a little while to figure it out, but then I put two and two together. But let me back up a little to give you some more context: For the first 3 weeks of Laikyn's life, she was a dream baby. She slept, ate, pooped, and ate some more. She hardly ever made a peep. Then she hit 3 weeks and reality that she was a baby finally sunk in. She would scream and cry for about 2 hours every night before falling asleep. She would arch her back as though she was in serious pain and let out some intense gas. I started giving her Ovol, which helped out tons! But every night this continued and then I started to realize that maybe she was gassy from something I ate. Well, the only thing I would eat was cereal because (1) it was my favourite food, after all and (2) it was the quickest and easiest thing to get.(newborns are kind of demanding on your time) There was nothing else I could think of, so I stopped eating cereal. And once I deduced that it was probably more the milk than the cereal, I stopped consuming milk entirely. She was still fussy at nights, but at least she wasn't screaming! And with the Ovol it kept most of the gas away completely.
So how does this relate to acne? Well, let me tell you . As soon as I quit eating cereal and avoiding milk, my acne on my cheeks disappeared. Ergo, having Laikyn = clear skin. I couldn't believe it! My favourite food after all of these years was the thing giving me acne?! It made so much sense, though. And now, as soon as I drink/eat too much milk a few of those deep-rooted zits pop up, not to mention my stomach churns all night long. Although I don't cut out dairy completely (since I do need my daily dose of calcium) I consume wayyyy less of it in a day.
But avoiding milk didn't clear up my skin alone; there was another significant factor that helped a ton: drinking water! In order make sure I had enough milk production, I drank at least 8 cups of water a day. (At least!) So between cutting out the milk and drinking a ton of water, my face was smoother and clearer than it had ever been before (without being on accutane). Plus, I lost the 50 lbs that I gained during pregnancy by the time Laikyn was 6 months and then 10 more after that without even working out! Obviously nursing used up quite a few of my calories in a day, but I've been able to maintain that weight since I've stopped nursing just by drinking tons of water and avoiding excessive amounts of dairy still. My metabolism has never been faster. Btw, did you know that many times throughout the day when you feel hungry, you're actually thirsty? Drink a glass of water instead or make a green smoothy (they're my fav!) Eat small meals constantly throughout the day. I had to do that while being a mom anyways because I feel like I'm always on the go. I'm actually back to the weight I was during basketball season. But since this is turning into a weight loss/healthy eating thing, so I'll get back to the pimples now ... sorry. =)
Here are some other little things that help:
- Stop picking your face. Man, that was a hard habit for me to break, but it was so worth it! Picking your zits once you've already popped them stretches out the healing process and just makes a messy situation even messier. The scabs get larger, and they stay there longer, and zits don't need to stay any longer than they deserve. So, my friends, in the words of kathy dahl "stop picking!"
- Don't pop your zits before they're ready. This is a habit I'm still working on, but every time I do try to pop a zit before it's ready, it makes a huge mess. And since I'm an acne queen now, I know which zits of mine I can pop and which ones I shouldn't pop. ever. even if they are all white and ready to harvest. (ha!)
- Use a different wash cloth for every face wash you do during the day. Yes, that means more laundry. Iit's a small price to pay.
- Clean your phone screen more often and wash your hands even when they aren't "dirty". Anything that touches your face .... well, touches your face. what more can I say? You do the math. This includes washing your pillow cases more than once a month, and your hand towels in your bathroom.
- Eat less sugar. If my stomach doesn't remind me that I binged out on sugar the night before, my face sure will. When I eat too much sugar, zits beginning popping up on my face faster than gophers pop up in a field on a hot summer's day. It is so true when they say "you are what you eat." Eat well and your skin will thank you. Not only will you feel good on the inside first, it will translate to you looking well on the outside second. That's what's really important -- feeling good on the inside, of course. **this also goes for processed food. Don't think because I didn't mention it, you're off the hook. Well, now I mentioned it so you're really not off the hook anyways. =)
Even though I've gotten rid of my deep-rooted acne I still get some acne on and around my chin area and my forehead, and I haven't figure out to get a hold on my black head situation. They are seriously taking over my face, so if you've found any tips or tricks that have worked for you and your acne, please share! I would love to hear them!!
cheers
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