When I was dealing with acne, I tried A LOT of crazy things to help my skin clear.
- Toothpaste. (As a spot treatment? Nope. Tried it as a whole mask. Definitely don’t recommend!)
- Apple cider vinegar and tea tree oil. (Talk about OUCH.)
- Aspirin masks. (Destroyed my skin barrier.)
But there were some interesting things I tried that actually DID help.
The top 3 most interesting things I tried that helped me heal my acne were…. drumroll please!….
1) Caveman Regimen
For 3 months, I tried the strangely-named “caveman regimen,” which essentially means I didn’t wash my face at all or use any skincare products. Ever. At first my skin didn’t like it, but after a couple weeks, it was much healthier.
I noticed that because I completely stopped all topical skincare, I stopped obsessing about skincare. I stopped Googling which skincare products would be best for my type of acne, I stopped spending lots of money on new products that weren’t really helping, and I started spending less time thinking about my skin, which felt great.
To this day, I don’t wash my face in the mornings (just a quick rinse with warm water only) and only occasionally wash it at night. I still use moisturizers and a few key skincare products though.
This skincare routine (or lack of routine, I guess I should say) isn’t useful for everyone and some people do say that it makes their acne worse. And while I don’t think that the caveman regimen is good as a long-term approach, I’ve witnessed it be helpful in the short term to allow your skin barrier to repair itself without disrupting its healing with a whole bunch of pH-altering or exfoliating products.
However, most of my patients find that not washing their face in the morning has changed their skin for the better. (They will rinse with warm water and still apply moisturizers though, and wash with a cleanser at night.) Your skin works so hard to produce a fine layer of protective oils as you sleep–why wash this off in the morning?
2) Covering my mirrors
I covered my mirrors in an attempt to stop picking my skin, obsessing over every new pimple, and calling myself terrible names.
It worked. My compulsions to check my skin every 20 minutes stopped. My skin picking reduced. My name-calling got much better…and so did my skin.
3) Wrote myself love notes
I wrote myself little love notes that I’d put on my covered mirrors.
It felt a bit ridiculous at first, but as I’d read those notes infused with self-love and encouragement (instead of picking at my skin in the mirror and getting lost in my emotions of shame and frustration), I started to associate mirror time with feeling-good-about-myself time.
This is one of the best things I did for myself, and my skin.
What interesting things have you tried for your skin?? Contact me via email or my website, and let me know!
