Do you envy just about anybody with clear, acne free skin? Breakouts might be one of those petty issues for someone, who’s of course not dealing with it. If your biggest nightmare is waking up with acne, this article’s for you.
Contrary to the myth that acne and pimples are a teenage thing, it can be frustrating and confusing if you’re still breaking out in your 30s and 40s. Don’t fret, adult acne is very common. Teenager or not, it’s time you broke up with breakouts.
What’s a breakout?
Breakout or an acne attack happens when the hair follicle gets plugged with debris, grime, dead skin cells, sebum/oil , and sometimes bacteria. This leads to swelling, redness, and inflammation. Eventually, the pores become clogged and push their contents to the skin’s surface.
Here too, like most of the problems, the answer lies inside. Inside your pores. Clogged pores are the root cause of your breakouts. Understanding what causes clogged pores and how to avoid them is the key to clear acne free skin.
Acne can largely be categorized as comedone, whitehead, blackhead, pimple or cystic acne depending on the type of clogged pores, as explained below:
Comedone is clogged pore without inflammation.
Whitehead is a closed comedone that looks whitish.
Blackhead is an open comedone that looks blackish, due to dust and oil which turns black on exposure.
Pimple occurs when a plugged hair follicle gets infected with bacteria, that leads to inflammation and red pimples.
Cystic acne occurs when skin cells, oil, and bacteria are trapped deep inside the pore. They are very painful.
What causes clogged pores?
Oil balance and hygiene are the vital parameters here. Excess oil can cause clogged pores and infected clogged pores lead to breakouts. Factors are:
Excessively oily skin, due to overactive sebaceous glands
Excessively dry skin, which compensates for the dryness by secreting excess oil causing pore clogging
Oil based skin products or cosmetics (causing excess oil and subsequent clogging)
Accumulation of dead skin cells increases chances of clogging
Exposure to dusty, unhygienic environments or excessive contact of the skin to such situations again increases chances of infection and inflammation.
How to avoid clogged pores?
As I always say, lifestyle changes are most effective as against quick fixes. Avoiding clogged pores is the long term solution to avoiding breakouts. You can spread the skin care routine into a daily, weekly and monthly regime.
Daily Regime:
Skin care products : Wash your face thrice a day with a facewash that can maintain the oil balance and has antimicrobial properties.
Use a light moisturizer to keep the skin nourished and avoid drying.
Drink at least three to four litres of water to keep the skin hydrated and detoxed.
Avoid touching the face with hands or reused towels. Preferably use disposable tissues to avoid contamination.
Avoid dandruff, as it’s a large cause of breakouts.
Weekly Regime:
Exfoliate your skin weekly with a mild scrub to clear off the dead skin cells and prevent clogging. Avoid rubbing over active acne.
Change your pillow covers to avoid contact with a contaminated surface.
Wash hair at least twice a week to avoid grime and dandruff from the scalp contaminating the face, specially the forehead and cheeks.
Monthly Regime:
Deep pore cleansing treatments at qualified clinics once a month, will help clean clogged pores and thereby not just prevent breakouts, but also help minimise enlarged pores.
Treatments like carbon laser peel are useful in getting rid of dead skin cells, excess oil and grime, again causing unclogging of pores.
And above everything else, BREATHE. Clear skin is just a regime away!
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