Avoid over-cleansing, over-treating or excessively exfoliating the skin other than what is directed by your aesthetician as this can cause irritation and stripping of the skin’s natural oils. It can then cause a surge of oil in response to this action and poor healing of breakouts. Some acne treatments on the market can be too astringent and in fact, cause dehydration.
Avoid picking and touching breakouts or the facial skin as this can cause lesions to heal slower and spread or activate bacterial infections.
Protect compromised acne skin from UV rays, avoid tanning beds and actively tanning the skin in direct sunlight as this can aggravate the condition and increase the risk of scarring and future breakouts. Twenty minutes of sunlight a day is healthy for the skin before eleven and three without wearing sunblock to ensure healthy levels of vitamin D. We do promote the use of a physical sunblock daily during all seasons particularly between the above mentioned hours of the day.
Always remove makeup and cleanse in the evenings before sleeping. If dirt, oil grime and pollution from the environment is left on the skin it can lead to clogging of the pores and future breakouts. Sleeping in a well-ventilated room is essential, so keep a window open in bedrooms at night and regularly change pillowcases.
Particularly if stress and hormones or participating heavily in active sports is a base cause to your skin condition it is important to reduce inflammation internally to help with healing and to assist the body’s detoxification processes. You can help with this by drinking two litres of water daily throughout the day. You should also be conscious to limit consumption of refined carbohydrates, processed foods, sugar, caffeine, alcohol and nicotine.
Adding plenty of white meats, leafy greens and brightly coloured vegetables, berries, fruits and essential fats such as nuts, seeds, avocados, oily fish and good oils will help the natural functions and processes of the skin and defences of the skin.