Top tips

The best tips for acne - from a person that had facial and back acne.

These tips will not cure you, but they will help a considerable amount in your on-going fight against acne. For any aged acne sufferer, wether you've had it a week or 15 years...I hope that these tips will give you a bit of hope in reaching your goal of clear skin and also giving a confidence boost. Enjoy.


1) Be open about your problem, one of the main problems that acne causes is a loss of confidence and acne does slowly take your confidence. That only way to deal with it, or the only way I have ever found to deal with acne, is to be open to people about it.

Tell your family how you really feel, tell your friends, tell your teachers, don't lock it up. I know that I kept my feelings a secret for so long, when I came out with my story, I instantly felt that buzz of getting such a big thing off of my chest. It's the best feeling. People around you change. 

People begin to respect you more, they feel your pain, if you don't tell them how you feel then they won't have the level of sympathy required to help you battle your acne.

2) Wash twice a day: Wash your face/back when you take a shower in the morning, preferably when you wake up. What I do is cleanse my face and then use the conditionner, just in case it g onto ets my face, the cleanser can somewhat remove it. 

From my experience I usually need a shower in the morning anyway to wash my hair. Also I heat my skin which can aid to squeeze the odd spot. Getting hair products onto your skin, will be bad for your acne.

Wash at night before going to sleep.It doesn't have to be dead before you sleep, just aim it to be around 12 hours after you had your morning wash. On the night wash I tend to not use a shampoo or conditioner in my hair, what is the point? In the morning my hair gets greasy anyway, so I just wash it in the morning.

*Note: since you’re washing your whole body (if you have back acne), you will need a shower, you will be washing your hair twice as much. Try not to get your hair wet in the shower when you don't intended to clean it. 

3) Apply the products properly: This is 100x vital, so many people get it wrong and so do I occasionally. If you take a little longer doing your regime, slow it down and be really gentle to your skin, it works. I have realised this many times before and I constantly remind myself that I need to be extra gentle, just be very sparingly, if in doubt use more.

If you run the products into the skin slowly, they will work a million times better; however if you put a big dollop of product on your face, it will not work as effective, it will work but not to it’s potential.

This does work, from my experience using my products or any past products, if you use them precisely, be gentle and softly rub it into your skin, you can go almost a full day without a new pimple head or white head arising. Try it, it may be a silver bullet in your acne regime.

4) Don’t pop your pimples at night: I know how difficult it is not to pop a pimple, it’s so hard not to. It’s fun, it relieves pressure and you can get addicted to it. A million people must have told you not to squeeze spots, you can’t help it, you have to and you can’t walk around with white heads.

The best number one solution to this is to follow standard procedure, heat the area, squeeze the spot and treat the area. But though from my experience the best thing is to just do this in the morning, twice a day is to much in my view. If you leave them overnight they have less chance of getting infected and also what’s the point? You’re off to sleep anyway, it just makes things worse.

5) See a dermatologist and get the right products: Seriously the best thing i ever did in my life. Go private if you must, you need to do it if your acne has lasted over a year, you’ve tried many things and you’re beginning to scar. You need to see a dermatologist preferably at a Danné clinic. They’re the best, i’m going through treatment now and i have never seen my skin this good in years.

The downside is that you may need to ‘splash some cash’ on products and treatments. It’s going to come at a cost but it is 100% worth it.

Making a regime up from the drug store may work or may not work, dermatologists know what they’re doing, they know what works. Drug store brands are a hit and miss in most cases and you never find the right regime that will cure your acne.

Remember to follow me on Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/WTTR2597
                                      and Twitter: https://twitter.com/WTTR2610 


I hope that everyone is doing well. I had some good feedback on my previous post and i'd love to write more about that topic as well. I would like to keep the blog varied; different posts every few days, I would love to do that, but sometimes I get stuck for ideas and end up not doing anything.

Please could you leave a comment below, just a general idea of what you guys would like to hear me talk about :) 

 or direct message me on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/WTTR2597

Thank you. William Rickard, Selby.x

Dealing with the emotional side effects of having bad skin

Dealing with the emotional side effects of having bad skin

This time last year I couldn't look my Dad in the eye, my skin was the worst it had ever been and my confidence rapidly shattered. I couldn't bare the pain of waking up each and every morning, walking into the bathroom, not turning the light on, looking into the mirror and having to look at my acne-ridden skin. Some days were better than others, some days there would be no new heads and like most days I would see a cluster of new pustules. For months I had hope that this new cream or tablet that the doctor had given me would make me back to "normal", that's all I wanted; to fit in.

With acne, you wear the condition on your face, the first thing that people see is your face. What do people see? They see clusters, lumps, bumps, cysts, pigmentation, scars, redness, they see an unhappy face and a young boy looking down with no backbone to face the world. What do they think? Oh he's just a teenager with acne, believe me it's worse than that.

As human beings we thrive to connect with people, to be accepted and be part of a group. Having acne makes you feel excluded. The amount of parties, sleepovers, walks with my family, days out, chances to meet new people and photos that  I missed out on in the time I had acne was dreadful. I remember looking around constantly scanning people's skin with my eyes to see if they had a single blemish, that way I could somehow connect with them; I then wouldn't feel left alone.

Small story 


Many people don't understand what it's truly like to have a bad skin condition, it changed my life. People would comment "Have you ran out of cream" or "Your skin looks bad"- that was the worse thing I ever heard. I remember the day I came back from Christmas break of 2012, my skin developed a much adverse type of acne; Severe cystic acne, covering almost 95% of my face. Starting at my chin, either side clustered with sizeable lumps, then receding across both cheeks, progressing up my temples and then to the forehead (Which was like a mountain). It was painful, not only emotionally but physically and I couldn't bare to squeeze them...who doesn't?

So I was sat there in my room, on my bed, legs crossed. It was the day before school, looking at my self in the mirror and dreading going into school. I felt incurable,  a failure and unwanted. In a desperate reach for hope, I grabbed my over-sized tube of benzyl peroxide(BP) 10% (Any acne sufferer will have encountered BP before), exhausting the bottle of its contents. I felt like a drug addict, it had to work. It was like starting all of your revision the night before an exam; it never really works that well. I applied the cream to my face, I spent over 10 minutes massaging the thick, unpleasant paste into my skin. Slowly the BP began to dry, it was a mask and I hated the agonising pain; it made me feel stuck, it became tighter and tighter. At this point I couldn't break a smile, I couldn't even move my eyes without the mask feeling discomforting. I slowly fell asleep, not knowing what to expect.

*Buzz buzz buzz* my alarm was screaming at me to wake up, I switched it off.  I didn't feel tired, my skin was moistureless.  I felt my skin, still I could feel the lumps...everywhere. There was no hope. I entered the bathroom, looked into the mirror; I felt like breaking down, my skin had erupted. White heads and red lumps masked my face. Running parallel to my nose was a colony of spots, they aligned perfectly with the shape of my nose, it was awful. I squeezed my nostril and out like cheese the puss oozed from my skin. Then I had to do the same with my chin, cheeks, sideburns, temples, forehead, it was a strenuous task to do every day and night. I then cleaned my skin and applied a moisturiser, at that point I stopped wearing BP to school as it was too uncomfortable and made me look unreal.

I clothed my self, styled my hair and headed down stairs for breakfast. I made my eggs and dipping toast(My favorite) then sat with my head down. My step Dad said to me "What are you doing today?" (He does every morning) and I would sit staring at my egg, avoiding any possible eye contact and reply with "I don't know". All I wanted was for someone to not make a comment about my skin, so I made minimal conversation and eye contact. I continued with my eggs, sat there at the table scared and felt like crying. My mum spoke to me, I responded with minimality. She knew there was something wrong. I had that feeling that you get before crying, then I felt the cold tears began, my face shrivelled, my hand met my forehead. I had been so strong for so long, I kept it inside "I can't do this anymore"I said. My mum hugged me and we moved to the living room to sit on the more comfier sofa.

"I can't do it anymore mum, I can't put up with it" I cried for a long time, it was the first time since my uncle Phill had died that I had cried. It felt good to cry, it released my true feelings and was an opener to my mum. She gave me some advice and I pushed on, she gave me a lift to school. "Have you lost your spot cream Will?", "Your skin looks bad", "You had it bad a year ago, it got better and now it's really bad, what happend?". The repeated comments really got to me, I am a sensitive person as such. I did what most people would do as a first reaction; hide. I wouldn't walk in the corridors, too many people, I would spend most of my lunch walking about on my own and pretending I had something to hand in or had to see someone. I had changed completely, before i'd spend my lunch time chatting to my friends, making jokes, feeling a sense of happiness and a sense of part.

The people around me changed; there was a prejudice towards me, I was an outsider to the world.

Anyway, comment if you think I should continue this story, as it's pointless writing anymore if people don't like this set up in my blog; some people prefer simple structure, but I felt that I had to express my emotions and hopefully this bit of text put your through my feelings. Please comment what you would like me to write about next. Thank you, William.

Shaving with acne

Shaving and acne

I personally think that this is a very important topic; an anonymous user posted the question on the last post about shaving. Here is my take on it, Happy New year to everyone as well!

To start, i'm only 15, which means I don't have a massive experience with shaving in my life, but I have had experience with shaving with severe acne.  I have noticed that the less severe my acne has been, the better experience I have had with shaving; less bleeding, less after-math of inflammation and ingrown hairs, there is a whole list of things that shaving can cause.

As a point of reference I message Susanne Williams (My Danné dermatologist) what she thought about shaving.

        "It is not a good idea to grow a beard as this could cause folliculitis and the dead skin cells don't   exfoliate. Best to shave, but not ever day as this will irritate the skin. I like to get patients on to the Alkaline wash as soon as possible if they normally shave everyday. Having the alkaline wash will kill the bacteria in the hair follicle. Also it will give the skin a few days with out having to shave." 

I think that is great advice and I couldn't agree more. If I shave too often then I tend to get the odd spot where my sideburns tend to grow. Before I had my Danné treatment, I would shave and have a break out the next day without a doubt breakout, I put this down to the products I was using (And I have used a lot of products in my time) a standerd Clearasil or Neutrogena cleanser didn't help at time; which was depressing *Sigh*.

Side note for new comers: The alkaline wash will remove the hair from the hair follicle, thus a much safer alternative to physical shaving.

Me and Susanne followed the same strategy mentioned in the quote; Alkaline wash, at the start of my treatment when I had very severe cystic acne I would not shave (I did before finding Danné)  until my skin got to a point where there was no more large inflamed pustules covering large amounts of the skin. This was around 2-3 months into my treatment I could begin to shave.


How to shave acne-prone skin:

1) Wash your face with lukewarm water, removing anything that's on your skin and preparing it for step 2.

2) Put a small amount of Danné cleanser onto my palm, start to rub your hands together and after 10-20 seconds the cleanser becomes a lather, it should look white and feel more like soap(See photo below). This is perfect to use as shaving foam.

3) Cover the part of the face you intend to shave with the lather that you just made in step 2.

4) Begin shaving, I tend to go over the skin 3 times just so I get really smooth skin.

5) Rinse the razor blade every 10 seconds.

6) Once you have shaved your face to your ideal, again wash the face with the Danné cleanser.

7) Apply your standerd products.

Side note: I tend to shave on the days when I am not using Retosin, this is just because I then have safety using all the other products which will help battle any spots that could be offset by shaving.(Which I will get to). I always wash before a shower, then use my hair products and once again use cleanser as the hair product may get onto my skin (Which will make acne worse).

Razor blades:

From my experience today, a 1 blade razor is not a good choice. It felt like it ripped the top layer of my skin off and I was sat for 15 minutes waiting for the blood to congeal on my face! (Everyone has been in this situation lol!).

From what i've heard using a 2 blade razor is the best for acne-prone skin, anything more is going to agitate the skin even more.

In conclusion; I will let you experiment, to be fair I cannot offer your great advice apart from the fact that I tend to use 2 blade and so do a lot of the Acne.org community.

Please post comments below if you have any further advice, any ideas of what I should next write about or to talk for advice.


Than you and as always take it easy. William x


Contact- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WTTR2597
               Email: Wttr2597@gmail.com
           

Translations.

This site now supports the following languages.

• Afrikaans
• Albanian
• Arabic
• Belarusian
• Bulgarian
• Catalan
• Chinese (simplified)
• Chinese (traditional)
• Croatian
• Czech
• Danish
• Dutch
• English
• Estonian
• Esperanto
• Filipino
• Finnish
• French
• Galician
• German
• Greek
• Hebrew
• Hindi
• Hungarian
• Icelandic
• Indonesian
• Irish
• Italian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Latvian
• Lithuanian
• Macedonian
• Malay
• Maltese
• Norwegian
• Persian
• Polish
• Portuguese
• Romanian
• Russian
• Serbian
• Slovak
• Slovenian
• Spanish
• Swahili
• Swedish
• Thai
• Turkish
• Ukrainian
• Vietnamese
• Welsh
• Yiddish

This will hopefully mean that anyone with acne from across the globe can now read this blog, thank you Google translate!! 

aknee
puçrra fytyre
حب الشباب
акне
ব্রণ
粉刺
粉刺
acné
Akne
にきび
좌창
акне
pattanás
ακμή
finni
akne paikalla ihon hoito
痤瘡現貨皮膚治療
痤疮现货皮肤治疗
aknee plek vel behandeling
traitement de l'acné peau tache
Aknepunkt Behandlung der Haut
acne macchia trattamento della pelle
leczenie trądziku skóry spot
akne plats hud behandling
pinnes vietas ādas ārstēšana
मुँहासे हाजिर त्वचा उपचार
טיפול בעור אקנה נקודה
acne paggamot ng balat ng lugar
лячэнне акне скуры месцы
نقطه درمان آکنه پوست
tratamento da pele acne mancha
punto del acné tratamiento de la piel
fan a'r lle acne triniaeth croen
điều trị da tại chỗ mụn trứng cá
tratamento da pel acne Mancha
punt de l'acne tractament de la pell
лечение акне кожи месте
acne spot behandeling voor de huid
acne spot hudbehandling
akné místě ošetření pleti
akne mjesto kože tretman
лячэнне акне скуры месцы
Leku aknea azala tratamendu
ακμή θεραπεία του δέρματος spot
akne plas po tretman
лікування акне шкіри місці
akne leke cilt tedavi
จุดรักษาสิวผิว
cóireáil craicinn acne láthair
unglingabólur blettur húð meðferð
tempat jerawat perawatan kulit
여드름 스폿 피부 치료
spuogai vietoje odos gydymas
акни место кожата третман
ацне спот третман коже
akné mieste ošetrenia pleti
مںہاسی جگہ جلد علاج
మొటిమల స్పాట్ చర్మం చికిత్స
முகப்பரு இடத்தில் தோல் சிகிச்சை
acne doa ngozi matibabu
acne spot hud behandling
akne kura tal-ġilda fuq il-post
tempat jerawat rawatan kulit
акни место кожата третман
ຈຸດປິ່ນປົວສິວຜິວຫນັງ
akne plas po tretman
აკნე ადგილზე კანის მკურნალობა
tratamento da pel acne Mancha
akneo lokon haŭto traktado
aknee plek vel behandeling
puçrra fytyre trajtim lëkurë spot
acne spot dəri müalicə
ব্রণ স্পট ত্বক চিকিত্সা