I try not to eat too much (or any) spicy foods, drink lots of water, go to bed on time.
this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2026
42 points (93.8% liked)
Ask Lemmy
40652 readers
1281 users here now
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, toxicity and dog-whistling are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !uspolitics@lemmy.world
7) No Hit-and-Run questions.
Please don't delete your post for no apparent reason. If you plan on deleting a question later, say so in the post, or if you feel that you have a good reason to remove it, message a mod beforehand. It's not fair to the ones who took their time to answer, and it's not in the spirit of the community.
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
1: Believe it or not, face moisturizer really helps. You don't need anything particularly fancy, I just use the Gold Bond brand stuff from the grocery store.
When your skin gets dried out it starts to overproduce oil to stop the dryness. But this overproduction of oil contributes to acne. Moisturizer prevents it from the start.
2: As others have said, regularly washing your pillowcase helps as well, as it prevents oils and bacteria from building up. Wash it weekly at minimum. Having multiple pillowcases to swap in and out will help as well. And if you shower in the mornings, washing your face before bed every night will also cut down on oil accumulation throughout the week.
3: When you get out of the shower, use a separate towel for your head. Some acne is caused by microbes being transferred from different parts of your body. A bacteria that's benign in your armpit might cause issues if it gets moved to your face.
4: As others have mentioned, an exfoliating facewash during showers also helps.
5: I don't buy acne wipes anymore because they're overpriced. When I can tell some form of blemish is forming, I put some isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol on a q-tip and rub it on the spot for 30s. And yes, I count the full 30s. This part's probably easier for me since I was finished with puberty almost 15 years ago, so it's easier to treat the occasional zit.
wait 10 years. worked for me. had the worst acne of anyone in the entire country. nothing worked, change of diet, antibiotics, skin care routine, etc failed as spectacularly as anything could possibly fail. it did nothing, and i mean absolutely nothing. anyone out there, reading this, saying "you should have just done x" shut up. it's not working that way.
just wait 10 years and it will automagically disappear.
(and i mean disappear as in "it's impossible that you've ever had acne. you have the cleanest skin that i've ever seen" type of disappear.)
Tretinoin keeps my skin clear. Retin-A cream.
Unless it's an allergy, Retin-A is the way.
Acne around mouth and chin can be hormonal too. But even in that case, the tretinoin helps.
diet for sure, washing your pillowcase/bedding often makes a big difference, and another big one is stop touching your face.
washing your pillowcase/bedding often makes a big difference
Expanding on this... put a fresh, clean hand towel over your pillow every night for about a week or so. Never sleep on the same towel unless it's been washed first. You'll be surprised how quickly your face acne clears up. Especially if you regularly wash your face.
Turns out, spending hours smearing your face oils on your pillow every night, then sleeping on the same pillow for days/weeks at a time, causes your face to break out. Especially in your teen years, when your body is changing and your hormones are on overdrive.
I never had face acne as a teenager, but I also slept with a hand between my cheek and the pillow. I always had super soft pillows as a kid and I would sink deep into them. I felt like I was drowning in them when I slept on my side, so I kept a hand or two under my head so I could keep the pillowcase away from my mouth and breathe easier in my sleep. Turns out, that kept my face relatively clean.
Plus, taking a daily shower helped me stay mostly acne free throughout my teen years. I did get a little "backne," but it was mostly in the spots I couldn't reach well to wash in the shower. Buying a sponge on a stick helped clear that up.
Diet being linked is largely a myth, unless recent studies have changed their tune.
Oil comes out of your pores if you eat certain foods, which makes it easier for your pores to clog, resulting in acne.
Different diets resulting in different physiological effects is solid scientific fact.
So, yes, recent studies have changed their tune.
Studies deny that diet affects physiology?
Fitting lack of sources you are not offering.
Don't pretend to be obtuse.
please don't
Accutane if your dr agrees.
I tried it. Wasn't for me. No liver issues, I just didn't like the way I felt when taking it.
Keep in mind Accutane is the nuclear option. I literally cannot have it because of how it fucks up your liver. You'll also be required to take monthly blood draws until you stop taking it, which can be anywhere from a year to two years.
Ironically, taking Accutane was how my liver issue was discovered in the first place.. I had to immediately stop taking it and I still get acne.
Accutane *if you want to gamble with something mildly toxic.
Accutane will indeed do it, but it's kind of heavy-duty. There are less powerful antibiotics you might want to try first with fewer side effects.
But yeah, you can dick around with soaps, "don't touch your face" (yeah, right that's some judgy bullshit) and other stuff that implies that the individual is somehow dirty, has poor hygene, has poor diet or other habits but in the end, it's bacterial.
Never feel bad about going to the doctor to get real medical interventions. If tea tree oil and other bullshit actually worked, it would be a lot more expensive.
If tea tree oil and other bullshit actually worked, it would be a lot more expensive.
hmm disagree here. i've got very effective medicine for a problem i had a year ago and it worked wonders. cost: $10 to produce, $15 over the counter.
Clean pillowcases and a face wash with benzoyl peroxide would be my suggestion.
Benzoyl peroxide works great at clearing out acne but will bleach yout towels so just keep that in mind
Not quite answering your question if what you want
understandably
is it gone now, but "time". If you're in your teens, to some extent, it's a phase in life. Lot of people get it around then, and it tends to go away on its own later in life.
I had some when I was a teen. Went away.
I was always told that it would go away after my teenage years. Now I'm in my 30's and still have acne issues.
I also had adult acne and ended up finding an aesthetician for facials who set me straight. The biggest thing I was doing to hurt my skin was using products that were way too harsh. I’m sure the facials themselves didn’t hurt, but switching away from benzoyl peroxide products to really gentle cleansers and light moisturizers was what really made a difference. Now I use fancier stuff but she essentially recommended Neutrogena sensitive skin moisturizer (without sunscreen — use a separate, physical sunscreen) which can easily be found at any pharmacy, and for cheap.
Full disclosure though, while I was on the road to recovery, I also got pregnant and then my skin was great. And my new products and habits meant that my skin managed to keep being okay post-pregnancy.
- try to reduce touching your face
- Wash your face with soap and water
- Wipe your face once or twice daily with witch hazel wipes (depends on severity)
- Add a side salad with your goth mommy milk and chocolate granola
Zinc is the only thing that really helped me. Plus exfoliation.
This means you had fungal acne. Fungal infections can cause all kinds of things, ranging from acne, athletes foot, jock itch, yeast infections, and dandruff. In fact, one of the easiest sources of anti-fungal skin treatments is anti-dandruff shampoo that contains zinc pyrithione.
OP, if you’ve tried most of the big things (it sounds like you have) and haven’t had any relief, try using some anti-dandruff shampoo as a face wash. It sounds stupid, but I swear it’s the only thing that helped me when I was a teen. I first noticed it when I used the anti-dandruff shampoo for dandruff, but then I did the typical guy thing of “use it as shampoo, conditioner, body wash, face wash, motor oil, cutting fluid, BBQ sauce, boat resin, degreaser, greaser, and garage door lube” thing. Basically, my bar of soap ran low, so I used the shampoo I already had in the shower with me. And then I started noticing that my skin was clearer too. After some googling, I discovered that fungal acne is a thing, and it’ll basically be immune to any of the traditional treatments because none of those are targeted at fungus.
If your acne improves after a few days of washing with the shampoo, you know you have fungal acne and can simply start using anti-dandruff shampoo to wash your face regularly. Technically you can get special zinc pyrithione soap… But why bother with that, when you can get Head & Shoulders in a giant pump bottle?
Oh interesting.. I think this is exactly my issue, I will definitely give the head and shoulders treatment a shot.
Also worth noting that if this is the case, your diet will also slightly factor into it. Insulin triggers your sebaceous glands to produce sebum (skin oil), and fungus tends to thrive in oily environments (like your scalp and face), because it needs the oil to help retain moisture.
So keeping your insulin levels low (avoiding sugar and carbs, high fiber and protein, etc) will help starve the fungus out. Basically, if you see improvement from the dandruff shampoo and that gets things under control, your diet may be the difference between “spot-treating” and “completely clear”.
Fungus amongst us is not necessarily a good thing
I don’t know face creams but I know zinc, zinc poisoning sucks, avoid breathing it.
You will go through natural hormonal cycles in your life that will kick up with things like diet and hygiene but unfortunately hormones will rule all.
That said, cutting down on sugar and milk helped for me (PCOS so hormonal-driven acne)
Otherwise just keep your face clean, moisturize, try ro get some sun (within reason, dont give yourself melanoma). Exfoliate every once in a while for dead skin, change your sheets/pillowcases/towels often and keep them clean.
I have a lot of success using cerave products in Canada for dry skin, but skincare is massive now and the world is your oyster. The Ordinary has something for basically everything now.
Also keep in mind depending on facial hair you could be seeing ingrowns from bad shaving technique (against the grain, not enough glide, etc)
High doses of vitamin B (I think, ask your Dr) for a few months helps. My cousin was getting acne scars, so the doctor gave him regular injections and it went away forever. But he had to go to regular blood checks every two weeks because this is kinda bad for your liver (?) And you have to stop if your stats get to bad.
For me it helped using a creme with niacinamide 2 times a day after washing my face with soap. I was just looking for a simple moisturizer but noticed that my acne gradualy disappeared since using it and breaking out again when im too lazy to apply it for a few days.
Stop touching your face.
You know how they keep saying "it's hormones" but never mention the hormone? Cause that hormone is insulin. Eating sugar does in fact increase your insulin (if you aren't diabetic) which in-turn stimulates sebaceous glands to secrete sebum. Also, anything that irritates your skin will do that too.
Salicylic acid acne treatment pads work like a charm
Not for everyone and usually not for severe acne.
Severe acne needs to be paired with diet improvements and using salicylic acid more often, followed by moisturiser to prevent the skin from overproducing oils in response. Hyaluronic acid is great for this.
I went through a bunch of medication, mostly the wipes. Then I realised it was just drying them out, so I started wiping with isopropyl alcohol.
Maybe not the best solution, but it worked for me.