Taking better care of my skin was a
major New Year’s resolution for me in 2013. Why? Because ever since I hit puberty around age
11 or so, I have had relatively bad skin and have been battling with it for
almost 13 years. Although my skin has improved
dramatically, it remains to be less than perfect. I believed my same old skin care regimen that
I had followed since I was about 14 or 15 was probably to blame, so in January,
I began my mission to educate myself about my skin.
First off, let me tell how my skin
changed during puberty. The first sign
of change that I noticed was a general increase of redness, which I later
learned to be a sign of sensitivity. The
redness seemed to be focused mostly in my chin and the middle of my face – my
nose and inner cheeks.
Secondly, my skin became extremely acne
prone. I would consistently get large,
painful, cystic pimples all over my face.
They were not specific to any one region, and I would normally have 2 to
3 in various locations over my face. My
skin everywhere else on my face was always quite red. Because I was getting these large, cystic
pustules, my mom decided to take me to the dermatologist to see what I could do
to help my skin. The dermatologist
believed my skin was overly oily (yet, thinking back, I do not believe my face
was oily as I really do not remember having issues with “shine” in those early
years), so he suggested washing with either a salicylic acid wash or
antibacterial soap, followed by an astringent and another topical cream that was
meant to really dry up the excess oil on my face. By soaking up all the excess oil on my face,
it was hypothesized that the surface oil causing my acne would be gone and
therefore so would be acne. Both were
truly meant to be a spot treatment I believe, but at this point my whole face
needed to be spot treated!
I remember the very first time I
washed with the salicylic acid wash and then followed up with my creams. My face felt tight after washing; then, after
applying the astringent, I remember how badly it stung. I remember it felt like putting a fresh
scrape into hot water. I then would
apply the benzoyl peroxide cream to my entire face. That first night after following my doctor’s
steps, I remember reading a book and touching my face every now and then
because it was so dry. I had never felt skin that dry before! I was so excited that my acne was going to
clear up!
It didn’t. Well, some of it did, but I would still get
the large cystic zits. I was then
prescribed doxycycline. That helped a bit
more, but my acne was still there.
However, at this point, I was able to apply what I had learned about
makeup to try to cover up as much acne as possible. I continued to use both creams (still,
basically all over my whole face). Fast
forward about 6 years to my first year in college. After forgetting to apply my creams a few
nights in a row, I noticed that my skin had actually improved. I decided to go without a few more, and only
put the topical medications on that places that really needed it. Fast forward a couple more years, and I never
use them at all. However, I really
believe that using those topical solutions have dried out my skin so thoroughly
that it may be the reason why my skin is the way it is today.
Today, my skin is very dehydrated at
its base - it is so dry my skin produces a layer of sebum trying to hydrate
itself, except the sebum is never absorbed.
It just sits in one thick layer on top of my skin, waiting to be sopped
up. My skin remains to be very acne
prone; I don’t get the cystic pimples very often anymore, but I do typically
have a few noticeable spots around my chin area, most likely due to hormone
levels. In addition, my skin is still very
sensitive and becomes a vivid red rather quickly. So, to sum it all up, I now have
so-dry-its-oily, acne-prone, sensitive skin.
Or as an aesthetician I spoke to at a local department store called it,
“difficult and complex problem skin”.
Lovely.
Now, how does one handle skin like that? Slowly but surely, I’m figuring that out.
xoxo,
Alena
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