The old adage of an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure has never been more relevant than when it comes to how to prevent acne. If you are able to stave off a dreaded outbreak of acne, then it’s a much easier and less expensive road than trying to cure an acne outbreak once it’s in full swing.
Once acne develops it’s going to be more problematic, frustrating and costly in the long run, so here we’ll explore some methods of how to prevent acne and save you quite a bit of grief.
Adopting a commonsense approach to the prevention of acne is the first thing that should be considered. At the top of this list is always going to be maintaining good personal hygiene. This should not be confused with someone being unclean, but more refers to washing thoroughly to remove excess oil which may build up, since this is a leading contributor to acne.
Acne generally develops because of an excess of oil, along with dead skin which leads to clogged pores. These clogged pores are a breading ground for bacteria, which in turn leads to the development of a full blown acne outbreak. So it’s worth restating: The first step on how to prevent acne is washing daily.
When washing your face, it’s important to consider the type of soap used. The soap composition should be a mild variant, with a sulfur base. This actually serves two purposes. Firstly it aids in the prevention of acne and secondly, it helps to minimize existing acne scarring. When using this soap, it is important to not scrub the face, as this will cause more harm than good. Instead, gently wash with a regular wash cloth. The effectiveness of this regimen is not in the force applied to a single cleaning, but the cumulative effect of consistent cleaning.
Another tip for how to prevent acne is, for women, to eliminate the use of oil-based makeup. The cumulative effective of oil-based makeup is it adds to the already excessive amounts of oil your body is producing. Don’t worry, there are still make-up options available, just be sure to stick with water-based products and if possible, reduce the amount of time that you actually wear makeup.
Moisturizers that are oil based should also be avoided as they have the same oil build-up producing qualities as oil-based makeup.
The next tip on how to prevent acne may be unacceptable to some people, but it’s your decision on what is most important to you. This tip suggests cutting your hair to prevent it falling onto your face. If cutting your hair is not something your are willing to consider, then possibly just ensuring that your hair doesn’t fall onto your face may be an option.
One other thing that you should know about how to prevent acne, is the affect of the sun on your skin and its contribution to an acne outbreak. There’s often quite a bit of confusion about whether the sun actually helps or hurts an acne condition. The answer is both! Limited exposure to the sun is fine, since the sun does provide a dose of vitamins. Excessive exposure to the sun can lead to skin irritation that can contribute to worsening an acne condition. So essentially, just limit the exposure and use a good non-oil based sun screen and you should be fine.
So now you know several methods for how to prevent acne. Keep these points in mind and you should be able to successfully manage the frequency of any acne outbreaks.