I never had “acne” but my face was pretty bad from maybe 12yo to 15yo. When I was 15, I had the chicken pox and, for some reason, my face after the chicken pox healed up was like the difference between NIGHT and DAY-- I guess the pox must have overtaken all the pimples, like a new invading army clears out the previous invading army. After that, I spent a lot of effort taking care of my skin, and I looked much better for it.
I still get a decent amount of blackheads, though, and I try to keep up with them. Maybe once every two weeks I steam my face and then lean over the sink in the stark bathroom light and have at. The next day I’m always a little red and puffy, but then my skin looks nicer for another couple of weeks or so, while my pores fill themselves back up. Then I repeat the whole process… and I can’t say I don’t sorta/kinda/really enjoy it
Knock on wood…but I haven’t had a zit in quite some time. (I’m almost 50, so that may have something to do with it.) I tended to get those horrible, deep, painful zits on my chin. I thought it was the height of unfairness to have those kind of zits, flaky dry skn and wrinkles all at the same time.
The weirdest thing I ever experienced was in college, when I developed a patch of red skin on my usual zit location on my chin. There’s nothing quite like being seen in a clinic associated with a teaching hospital and having your physician excitedly bring in 6-8 dermatology residents to have a look. I was given industrial strength benzoyl peroxide that turned my red patch into a burning, raw patch.
I never did get a definitive diagnosis of the mysterious patch (DLE was discussed but never concretely diagnosed), and it eventually went away.
Ever since I got my period at 11, I’ve had some issues with acne. Not major sebaceous cyst type zits, but mostly a smattering of small zits and constant red spots from old acne. For a couple of years during my teens, I was on Minocycline, and it cleared up a little. When I could afford it, being on Yasmin really helped clear up the acne, but currently I’m going between having monthly menstrual zits and getting them more regularly due to stress and exposure to the two greasy inhabitants of my home (dog and SO). Most of my zits aren’t too bad, but it’s annoying to be pale, freckled, and have all these small red marks on my face most of the time.
Many blackheads actually stick out from the skin’s surface a bit, and can be grabbed with a pair of tweezers. Get a magnifying mirror and a good reading lamp. Sit down under the lamp and PULL the blackheads out with a pair of splinter tweezers. I have found Tweezerman tweezers to be the best. You might still have to pop out a few blackheads, but pulling them out seems to be much gentler on the skin. I always finish up with a swipe of astringent lotion, just to make sure that the pores are clean.
