Teenage Dopers: How do you fight zits?

[Teelo]

I'm not a massively zitted teen myself, a few here and there and they usually die within the week. My problem is that no matter when one dies, a new one is there to take its place. I'm convinced my diet is too blame, the sugars and whatnot...anyways I've experimented with a few things that have given less than adequate results: Tea Tree Oil, Noxzema Cleansing lotion and Neutrogena Deep Clean Cream Cleanser. So far the Tea Tree oil works best. (I'm aware that the two lotions aren't designed to kill zits specifically.)

What do you use that works fast and keeps them off for good?

[Lissa]

Nothing really works fast that I know of. You don't want to "shock" your skin-- it can make things worse in the long run. Some of those harsh chemicals can actually worsen breakouts. Sometimes acne is caused by your skin trying to keep itself moisturized, and heavy-duty acne products can sometimes dry your skin out of its natural oils.

Here's a suggestion . . . it may work for you and it may not. (It worked for me.)

Find some witch hazel pads. (You might find them at a health foods store.) They're slighly abrasive like Oxy pads, but without the alcohol and harsh chemicals. After using them to clean your face, apply an oil-free moisturizer. Do this a couple of times a day. My problem cleared up in about a month after trying this method.

[Miller]

When I was a spotty teen, I found that a belt sander really helped clear up the problem.

[SanibelMan]

A doctor prescribed BenzaClin for me recently and it's been working okay, not so well recently for whatever reason. It's a mixture of benzoyl peroxide and clindamycin, an antibiotic. I would note that I have cystic acne which is a pain in the ass to deal with. I was on tricycline for a long time and I've tried any number of doctor-prescribed things to deal with it, none of which have been successful at actually eliminating it. I'm waiting for the acne-killing pill. I've heard rumors of a vaccine that may be available in the next decade or so.

[iampunha]

I'd advise against using a mace.

[Flutterby]

Well in the middle of it I mainly used tea tree oil face wash (from the Body Shop) and a vitamin e cream applied lightly so as not to completely dry out my skin. It worked pretty well when I actually used it.

More recently I had a bad case while pregnant (all those out of whack hormones) and nothing really worked but afterwards I started using Johnson and Johnson Deep Cream Cleanser. My hormones settled again and my acne mostly faded but the cleanser really helped clear it up, and I still use it because my face is still oily and every so often zits pop up (there and on my back/shoulders) so I use the cleanser on all those places mainly when I shower. It's kept it under control since then. I also use the vitamin e cream just because I like it :)

[Vaioman]

I took accutane from 15-17, then I didn't really have a problem until I was about 19 I guess. My skin got really dry, so the dermatologist prescribed Nizoral(sp), which is a shampoo mainly, for my dry scalp/face. Seems to work well enough, but I find that face specific washes(using clean and clear 'light scrub' or something now) work better on my face than the shampoo(which the doctor told me to use, I wouldn't normally wash my face with shampoo!).

[Cardinal]

I've had only a few big zits after starting to use 2% salicylic acid wash on my face every night. You can actually see the dirt you get off. I do get some dry spots, which I put Vaseline on in the morning. I don't know that's what's best, but it's what I have.

[Sisyphus' Stone]

Straight lemon juice from a quarter of a lemon cut fresh then rubbed on the facial area (avoiding the eyes) followed by 10% tea tree oil works for me. It leaves my face reddish but then, better than craters erupting all the time. I've avoided the cystic stuff to date. Retinoic acid has been used by some of my colleagues in extreme cases but it's an extreme treatment for a persistent difficulty and I wouldn't recommend it, based on the appearance of my mates following treatment.

[Lsura]

Well, I'm not a Teen Doper (I'm 30), but I'm still fighting the zits. Mine have turned into cystic acne as I've gotten older.

For me, the best thing I've found are the Tea Tree Oil facial pads from the Body Shop - it just really helped to clean my face up.

If your acne is severe, maybe you can get in to see a dermatologist? They really can help you out.

[holdmytail]

I took Accutane for six months and that helped a lot but it's a last resort because it has lotsa side affects. I've been on Duac Topical Gel ever since - its Rx. I love it.

[anu-la1979]

When I was a teenager I used Differin gel b/c my skin was way to delicate for Retin-A and the Montreal cold and winds only exacerbated the peeling and drying. I just went back on Retin-A (after all, it fights wrinkles too) b/c my adult acne started flaring up again and it cleared everything up in a jiffy. I also use a cream with retinol and SPF during the day. My dermatologist also starts off my treatments by a round of Tetracyclene (basically every other year or so I convince myself that I no longer suffer from it and go off of all the creams. Then once it comes back I need to start with a Tetracyclene round along wtih the creams).

Home/drug store remedies don't work for me. I also don't have a lot of acne but if I don't take a Differin/Retin-A/Benzamycine treatment then I get one zit on my face that is replaced by another once it goes away. Now, I only have to deal with a small period zit. Oh, and I also eat a lot of salmon and take Vitamin E as it is supposed to make your skin very healthy.

[Ca3799]

I didn't get acne until I was in my late 20's or early 30's, when I developed cystic acne. I had no luck wth drug store remedies so went to a dermatologist. I took low dose erythromycin and used an EES (see previous big word that starts with an "E") topical with excellent results. In my 40's, I don't have the outbreaks I used to, but still use EES occasionally.

I'd recommend spending your spare cash on the Dr rather than the variety of OTC preparations available at the drug store, particularly if your outbreaks are greater than average. Apparantly there are different types of acne that respond to different treatments.

[Israfel]

I'm not a teen, but I do deal with occasional acne. My favored remedy is to grow a beard. :p

[AbbySthrnAccent]

TeenSthrnAccent usesProactiv (http://www.proactiv.com/). It seems to make a difference when he sticks to the regimen.

He took a prescription for a short while before we tried the Proactiv, but he's an athlete and a lifeguard and it would make him ill when he was out in the sun.

[vix]

I didn't really bother to deal with my acne as a teen, but now that I'm in my 30s, I use three topical prescription meds: Retin-A Micro, Cleocin and Differin (I think). Works for me.

[emekthian]

I wash my face with Safeway brand Oil Free Acne Wash. It seems to help.

[Mirror Image egamI rorriM]

I use the Neutrogena bar of soap that's a sort of transparent orange color--I don't remember the real name for it--as a preventative. If zits start to show up, I'll use some benzoyal peroxide (sp?) cream where the skin is oily. To deal with the zits themselves, I usually squeeze the living daylights out of them.

[Colophon]

I'm 27 and still get a few :mad:

Strangely, I find that if I just forget about my face, and don't touch or prod it, and don't wash it more than twice a day (once in the morning, once in the evening), they get much better. Try avoiding washing your face too much as it dries it out. Leave it and the oils balance out a bit.

I use tea tree oil too, and if there's one coming to a head, a dab of toothpaste left on overnight tends to do the job.

[StGermain]

What I found worked best for my oh-so-not teenage skin was from this (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=120258&highlight=miracle+whip+facial) thread. Miracle whip facials. Yeah, it sounds icky. It smells bad. But it did work when I did them faithfully.

StG

[flamingbananas]

*No personal experience but....
I've heard that once you start having sex regulary, the horemones and sweat you produce clear up your skin real nice.

[Teelo]

*No personal experience but....
I've heard that once you start having sex regulary, the horemones and sweat you produce clear up your skin real nice.

I think i'll try that. :p

[Colophon]

*No personal experience but....
I've heard that once you start having sex regulary, the horemones and sweat you produce clear up your skin real nice.

Maybe for women... i find if I'm getting it good and regular I'm more likely to get spots. Maybe it's some kind of self-limiting device - if you get too much sex you becoming increasingly hideous so it stops ;)

[Dung Beetle]

I'm 33 and going for my first ever dermatologist appointment tomorrow, so obviously I don't have the answer! I did want to give out one little tip though (probably the only helpful thing I ever got from a womens' magazine). When you go to squeeze, wrap your fingertips with tissue. It keeps your nails from cutting into your face, improves your grip, and soaks up the mess so you can really see what you're doing.
Ahh! Nothing like a good zit thread, I always say.

[Shirley Ujest]

Aveeno Foaming Facial Wash works great for me on a daily basis. It has .5 salacytic whatever in it to keep the bumps at bay.

For flair ups due to hormones, I have a OTC face wash with 2% salacytic ( sp?) acid that I just dot it on the problem, leave for a minute or so, and the problem is usually dried up by the next day.

AS HARD AS IT IS never squeeze the pimple. Yes, there is a sense of orgasmic satisfaction with a resounding pop of a pimple, but it takes longer to heal and will/can scar. It's taken me until recently ( last two years) to stop popping them.

I only get flair ups now with my period.

I wish someone had dragged me to a dermatologist when I was a teen, then it would have saved me hundreds of dollars in products that ended up making the situation worse and discovering much sooner what other products ( like hair conditioner and gel) can cause break outs.

If it is a chronic problem, please consider seeing a dermotoligist. You could/can save yourself loads of hassle, frustration and money down the road by having a pro look at your face. And you don't have to have pizza face to consult.

Now, at 37, I have most excellent skin. YAY! but the waist line is gone. Feh.

[Felissa]

First I tried antibiotics for a while, but they just gave me yeast infections and didn't do much.

Since my worst breakouts were period related, I started on birth control. Which did nothing, until I decided to go with the three-months-straight method (four periods a year, glee!). I've cleared up a lot.

As for washing, I can only use water or my face tries to crawl off. But I rinse my face at least five times a day. Now my only problem is overscarring, and the fact that it takes well over a month for the mark to heal. That tends to make my face look worse than it really is.


*No personal experience but....
I've heard that once you start having sex regulary, the horemones and sweat you produce clear up your skin real nice.

There's that, too :D

[Green Bean]

Well, the bad news, as you can see from this thread, is that zits are hardly a teen-only problem. I'm quite annoyed with all the perpetrators of that myth! I honestly thought I'd be done with zits by the time I got out of college. Hardly. I guess zits do tend to be worse in teens because of the raging hormones. But there are other factors at work.

First of all, adults have usually learned to manage their breakouts better. They have learned what products and methods work better for them. They have more experience in dealing with an emerging zit to ensure that it doesn't become huge and hideous. They have more experience, so they better understand their own acne triggers and can avoid them.

Related to this is the fact that adults are trusted to figure out what's working for them, even if it goes against the conventional wisdom. Teenagers are constantly being told by the media, their parents, and various well-meaning adults that they should wash their faces 3 times a day, use this or that product, never pop their zits, etc. etc. etc. All good general advice, but it may not suit every individual. I hate to disagree with the otherwise infallible Shirley, but for me, popping my zits is the best solution for me. If I get it at the right time, it just disappears within a couple of hours. Felissa says that it helps that she never washes her face. Hey, if it works for her, then it works for her.

The third, and probably most important, factor is that teenagers are expected to have zits, so they are often not given the most effective treatments. And the treatments' failure to work are often blamed on the teenager himself. Yeah, teenagers are often pretty bad about following grooming routines, but so are a lot of adults! So teenagers are often nagged to just try harder with the routine, instead of being offered help in figuring out how to follow it more successfully. And a teenager's complaints about side-effects are too often dismissed. If a treatment is causing itching, the teenager will be told just not to scratch it. An adult wouldn't be expected to tolerate constant itching when there are alternatives available.

Furthermore, since teens are expected to have zits, they are less likely to be taken to the dermatologist. A minor case of zits is certainly something to be expected in a teenager, and can usually be controlled with hygiene and OTC products. But when that fails to work, teenagers are too often told that zits just come with the territory and they should just wait it out. As this thread shows, waiting it out often doesn't work, and in the meantime, nobody deserves to look like a pizza-face! And if you have cystic acne, all the Clearasil in the world won't help. If an adult has chronic zits, he or she can make their own decision to go the dermatologist. A teenager has less information and less power, and significantly less ability to look past the myths and misinformation and insist on medical treatment.


Anyway, when I was an older teenager and young adult, I had some pretty bad cystic acne, especially on my back and shoulders. Topical treatments did me no good, and caused too much discomfort. I went through 3 courses of erithromycin between the ages of 18 and 26, which helped enormously. The zits would mostly go away for a long time, and then slowly re-emerge, at which point I'd go back to the doc. I'm 33 now, and cystic acne is a distant memory. But it it reemerged, I'd go straight to the doctor.

I do break out around the time of my period, but it's just normal facial zits. My treatment of choice is St. Ives. apricot scrub--the one marked "medicated." I use it almost daily. It's too harsh for a lot of people, but it works great for me. I usually use Dove soap to wash my face because that's what the last dermatologist I saw recommended. I like it because it's cheap so I can use it as a whole-body soap and I don't usually have to use a moisturizer. Also, I don't usually wash my face except when I'm in the shower.

My cousin, on the other hand, always had a zit problem, as well as some other medical problems. She was well into her 30s when she was diagnosed with a gluten allergy! No more gluten, no more zits. Wow.

Well, as you can see, when it comes to zits, the only truism is that YMMV. The best thing you can do is consult a dermatologist.

[monica]

I am seventeen years old and I have spent years battling acne. The most important, basic element is a good facial cleanser. I've found that Bath and Body Works makes an oatmeal cleansing wash that helps with an overproduction of oil.

You also should see a determatologist. Although we may all have miracle cures that work for us, everyone's skin is different. Also, if your dermatologist ever tells you "This is as good as we're going to be able to get it," don't listen to him. See another dermatologist. My first one originally gave me that line when I had terrible acne that, although dramatically different from the even worse acne I started with, was still dreadful. When I saw another one, however, she was determined to make it better. Since she started working with me, the improvement is amazing.

Anyway, what worked for me, after several trials of other stuff, was using this stuff called Tazarac which causes the skin to peel.

[Dung Beetle]

Well, I had my derm appointment this morning and was prescribed tetracycline. I was also prescribed Retin-A cream, but my insurance won't cover it because "you're too old to have acne". Grrrr!

[Dopef1sh]

Apathy

[Lando Griffin]

AS HARD AS IT IS never squeeze the pimple. Yes, there is a sense of orgasmic satisfaction with a resounding pop of a pimple, but it takes longer to heal and will/can scar. It's taken me until recently ( last two years) to stop popping them.


Uh-oh. I just popped the latest round this morning :smack:

Why don't they teach this in school?

[Teelo]

When I pop my zits they bleed and puss for over an hour...today I was dabbing my temple with paper towel for my whole social class. Kind of nasty for those around me.

[Daftbugger]

I also find that popping them makes them go away faster. One time I had a huge one and resisted the urge to pop it. I still have the scar to this day :mad:
I also was a pizza face in my youth. I think it was purely down to stress, from both school and parents. When I left home, after a few months it mysteriously mostly vanished. I still get a bit, but mostly controllable.

Oddly, what I found worked best was NOT washing my make up over night. I use oil free foundation (Clinque) and Body Shop tea tree oil concealer. I think the powder absorbs the excess oil produced overnight, without drying my face out. The tea tree oil concealer also helped on eczema outbreaks on my neck and forehead too!

Also Dianette contraceptive helped too, I think it has a different brand name in the US. But it made me perpetually sleepy so I had to quit.

[Daftbugger]

Oh, yeah, on squeezing spots, I think it may be practice. It you squeeze too hard, you will ooz blood for ages after, you just have to get the technique right...

[aurelian]

My 2 cents...

I would say I tried just about everything possible to deal with my acne: birth control pill (tried 3 different brands), oral antibiotics, collagen injections (for these big nasty ones, and, oh gawd did they hurt), Retin-A, Differin, facials with glycolic acid (milder than the pink-for-a-week kind). I went to several dermatologists, all to no avail.

My beef with the dermatologists was that they only prescribed creams and pills - drugs. They dried my skin out, and didn't really seem to helping my acne. By the time I gave up on everything else and decided to try Accutane, the nurse told me I would have to take a monthly pregnancy test before getting the medication...anyway, I decided Accutane just sounded too scary for me. I finally found something that worked when a medical esthetician came to work for my mom (I would not have been able to afford such treatment without nepotism - a series of 6 microdermabrasions can cost 600 or more - my mom owned a salon and had been doing facials on me for years) and every couple months, when I came home from college, I would get a microdermabrasion and a salcylic peel (again, milder than the 'pink-for-a-week' sort). I use products with salcylic acid every day (cleanser, spot treatment). I still get zits on occasion now, but it is so much better.

If you haen't gone to a doctor, I would highly recommend it - again, like other people are saying, when your acne is that bad, Clearasil just won't cut it. You need higher percentages of the product - benzoil, or glycolic, or whatever - and that's what the doctor should be for - to help point you in the right direction.

[Daftbugger]

My doctor just perscribed be antibiotics that made me sensitive to sunlight, when he knew I was going to India (I went for shots) :smack: I fried good in English spring evening sunshine, I hate to think what would of happened if I kept taking them when I was in India.

[Clothahump]

I'm not a massively zitted teen myself, a few here and there and they usually die within the week. My problem is that no matter when one dies, a new one is there to take its place. I'm convinced my diet is too blame, the sugars and whatnot...anyways I've experimented with a few things that have given less than adequate results: Tea Tree Oil, Noxzema Cleansing lotion and Neutrogena Deep Clean Cream Cleanser. So far the Tea Tree oil works best. (I'm aware that the two lotions aren't designed to kill zits specifically.)

What do you use that works fast and keeps them off for good?

Fight them? Why fight them?

Cultivate them. Grow 'em big and juicy, then squeeze them and see if you can get at least a six foot spray.

[Teelo]

Fight them? Why fight them?

Cultivate them. Grow 'em big and juicy, then squeeze them and see if you can get at least a six foot spray.

...no thanks. :p

[flamingbananas]

Fight them? Why fight them?

Cultivate them. Grow 'em big and juicy, then squeeze them and see if you can get at least a six foot spray.
*shudders*

[Teelo]

Hmm, come to think of it I did pop a zit about 4-5 inches from the mirror when it shot off my forehead and stuck to the mirror. Yes, horizontal shot. Kind of nasty.

[START]

I shampoo with dandruff shampoo when I can because I heard it's better for your skin and I wash my face with Biore and I take an antibiotic called Minocin which really helps alot and I drink a lot of water and in the past have switched to a benzoyl peroxide based cleanser such as OXY.

[wmulax93]

I'm a fan of Neutrogena Men Face Wash. 2% salylcitic acid, and all that.

Of course, I only get zits when I wear hats or helmets frequently, but this face wash prevents them from popping up.

[Carol the Impaler]

I cannot recommend the regimen from acne.org (http://www.acne.org/) enough. Plus, it's cheap and simple.

[Mr. B]

I tried all sorts of stuff when I first started to break out. Anti-biotics, proactive etc. They all made very little difference. Then I moved to FL (from New England) got a sunburn and became relatively pimple free. Now, so long as I get outside every few weeks I do pretty well. and the bonus to this method is that your corpse will be pimple free when the skin cancer catches up to you.

[fluiddruid]

A lot of my work involves customer support for an acne product (previously mentioned in this thread). So, here's my two cents.

Stay off of Accutane. If you're not heavily pimpled, there's really no need. My close friend was on it and has serious acne, and couldn't stand it. Do you like the idea of regular blood tests to look for organ failure and lips that bleed so much you look like you have lipstick on?

Find a preventative regimen, and stick with it. Acne takes weeks to show up on the skin. I see a lot of people fail because they'll use a product for a week, then switch.

Make sure you try discontinuing use of any makeup, moisturizer, etc. -- I've seen people have problems even with oil-free stuff just because their skin was sensitive. It's not forever, just see if it helps it clear (4-6 weeks).