This morning, as I lay on the mattress, opposite the bedside mirror, I noticed how a spot on my face which had held a rather large pimple just a day before was now flat and almost dried out. In that moment, it returned to me how once upon a time, for many consecutive years, there was hardly any spot on my face that was acne free.
Those days, when every day of my life was pure hell. Non-stop taunting, so much so, I often fantasized about scraping my face free of all the ugly bumps, using a razor blade. And this fantasy was not borne out of creativity, no; I started to consider it from the day a particularly 'resourceful' classmate recommended it as a solution.
Nowadays, the worst I have to deal with is a couple of bumps scattered around my face. By habit, I treat my pimples the same way I have, since I learned to care for my face in the dark ages. I will offer a few tips below for caring for an acne-ridden face, of which the first one is really the most important:
Let your face be
This simply means to not touch your face except you are cleaning it. I remember those days when I would station myself against a mirror, and get to work attacking my pimples, one after the other. Probably only to end up with a face that looks twice as bad as it did when I started. Blood leaking from left and right from the pores on the fragile skin of my face. I would squeeze, push, pull and scrape the living daylight out of my face until I thought I had done a good job. Oh lord God in the heavens; thank you for the great internet.
I did all of the following - which can be classified as aggressive attacks - to improve my facial situation, to no end:
- Using Nixoderm, Sivoderm, facial scrub, facial wash and all the horrible inventions which make you look forward to a light at the end of the tunnel, the tunnel of the torture of the sting that they usually come fully loaded with. Alas, most of the tears that came, either from having my face burn night-after-night or being called a Nixoderm masquerade were to no end
- Attack them physically (heat, creams, squeezing, scratching) prematurely, inadvertently introducing germs and aggravating the situation
To be honest, I did not see any instant results from applying any of the tips, but hey, it doesn't hurt to be healthy, and until today, I would never know what led to the demise of my once flourshing pimples paradise.
- Wash your face regularly, especially if it's very oily like mine
- Wash your bedspread, or in the least, your pillow case, at least, once a week
- Drink lots of water
- Resist the urge to touch your face, let alone, attack a pimple
- When a pimple/blackhead is, beyond all observable doubt, ready to be released (you will learn from experience), pull at the skin around it, instead of pushing at/squeezing it. A pimple or blackhead that is ready to go will not swell when you release it. It will just go flat and thank you for the release, that is how you know. Also, if it's not ready to go, pulling around it, instead of squeezing it will most likely not lead to any observable deterioration in its condition. Just remember to wash your hands properly before commencing.
