This is the first post after a long absence… I had a break…  so many things happening at the same time, so I haven’t really had time for any new blogs until now.

Thank you for being there all the same , I really appreciate it.

Ok.. now to today’s topic… Acne breakouts!!!

If you are like me, you always have the occasional break out now and then, major or minor breakouts, depending what factors are to blame.

Recently, I had one of those really terrible ones and I would share with you, in this blog what might have caused the flare up, how I am managing it, and how to prevent future reoccurrence.

Firstly, I want to quickly talk about minor breakouts. In my case, I usually have these when one or more of the following conditions /factors are present, stress, oily diet, poor skin hygiene, too much oily residue on face and during my periods. These are usually not anything to unduly worry about, they are usually a few spots of pimples here and there, and usually dry up within a a couple of weeks or less, once the causative factor is addressed or dealt with or is over.

They hardly leave dark spots on my face and would simply clear away without any special treatment.

Then you have the Major flare ups, and this is the one I am currently dealing with so I will take my time to narrate my experience about this particular type of fare up.

Possible causes

From my personal experience I have observed two major causes of this type of flare up, of course there might be others, but these are the major culprits for me:

  1. I have a face that tends to be oily most times and I have observed that oils don’t go well with my face or should I say certain types of oils? Its funny to me though because when I was living in a cold temperate region, my face was mostly dry to normal and as a result I cleansed my face using the oil cleansing method using thick oils like sunflower oil and castor oil as base oils, and not breakout one bit. In fact, my face moisturiser was rosehip oil, and all was perfect. My face felt moisturised and smooth and healthy with no issues at all.

However, when I moved back to Nigeria which is a hotter more humid area, I soon discovered that oil and my face did not produce an elegant outcome. In fact , I would have my face covered in tiny bumps that need special care and attention  and time to correct.

2. I have also recently started shaving my face (WHAT!!) Well,.. yes, its a shame, but I have just recently started doing that. I am not necessarily a hairy Harry on the face, but I have to be honest I really do like the feel of a well shaved skin, so smooth and nice. Before now, I was more of a tweezer girl, but I read somewhere about face shaving and decided to give it a try.

The result at the first try was great, I loved the smooth feel and fresh look that shaving my face produced, however, I didn’t know that there were certain steps and procedures and “laws” that had to be observed with shaving or you could really end up with a rough bumpy face.

Obviously, if No 1 above is your acne trigger, your solution is to stay away from oil based products and use more water based non comedogenic skincare products.

For No. 2 above though, there are a few things that might help and I will discuss them further below.

How to shave properly to avoid breakouts

  1. Always make sure that you have washed or cleansed your skin properly before a shaving session. It is also advisable to gently exfoliate the face mechanically to dislodge any dead skin cells. Sometimes dead skin cells don’t shed naturally as they are supposed to, and still remain attached to skin surface, on top of the new skin cells below. Hair ends can be trapped within the dead skin and sometimes are the origin of skin bumps as they struggle to grow out through these layers of dead skin. Gentle exfoliation will help get rid of the dead cells and allow the hair to be exposed reducing the risk of having ingrown hairs which would ultimately cause bumps.
  2. Secondly, its advisable to use single blade shavers as against multiple blade ones, as the multiple blade ones are more likely to cause in grown hair and hence bumps. A popular shaver among most “face shavers” is the eye brow shaver and a particular brand called tinkle. Any single blade shaver will work anyway!
  3. Make sure to avoid shaving too closely to your skin to avoid abrasions which can lead to skin irritations.
  4. After shaving always disinfect your face with a good toner with antimicrobial properties.

Finally, now that I have done all the wrong things and ended up with bad flare up, how am I resolving the problem?

I will discuss all that in my next blog…..

 

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