Acne is a skin condition, which is many times called as pimples or zits. Although, acne by and large occurs during teenage on face and back, but it can occur anywhere on the body and at any age. Some reasons that cause acne, such as being in puberty, can’t be controlled, but you can take measures to prevent and forestall many other factors that cause acne or pimples breakouts. There are many ways to prevent acne breakouts by using natural home remedies that won’t cost you much. If you want to keep your skin clear and glowing then you need to avoid acne / pimples breakouts by following these ways and tips to prevent acne and pimples.
How To Prevent Acne Breakouts?
1. Keep Your Face Clean: You need to wash your face twice a day once at night and once during your morning routine. This will remove impurities, dead skin cells, and excess oil from your skin’s surface. Use warm, not hot, water to wash your face gently with a mild facial cleanser. The warm water temperature is better suited to clean than cold water as the heat can open your skin pores to cleanse properly.
Never use a harsh soap such as highly perfumed body soap as it may hurt the already acne-inflamed skin and create more irritation. Make sure your facial cleanser suits your skin type. Choose a hypoallergenic or a product that is especially formulated for preventing acne / pimples.
Try to wash your face gently using your clean hands or a very soft cloth. Never scrub your skin roughly with an exfoliating glove or a wash cloth.
Rinse thoroughly, and then pat dry your face with a clean soft towel.
Tip: Don’t wash your face with dirty or oily hands. For best results wash your hands properly before you begin washing your face.
2. Select Face Cleanser With Care: Be careful while choosing a cleanser if your skin is too dry or too oily, so that it’s according to your skin type. Whereas dry skin needs a facial wash that contains a moisturizer, too oily skin normally does not need extra moisturizer as it may cause your acne go worse. But take care not to make your skin too much dry either. If your face feels tight, the cleanser is having too much drying effect.
3. Moisturize After Every Face Wash: When you wash your face, it strips off oils and moisture, causing your skin to produce more natural oil – sebum – to make up for dryness. Your skin wants moisture. Moisturize after each face wash to compensate for the oil / moisture loss.
And if you are using some acne products to treat your breakouts, the need for applying moisturizer becomes more critical to prevent acne and pimples. The reason is that many acne products contain ingredients that dry out the skin, so moisturizing right after using them is critical. For best results hydrate your skin with water before applying moisturizer.
Tips: You need to select the moisturizer that is appropriate for your skin type. There are moisturizers made specifically for oily, dry, or combination skin. Look for “noncomedogenic” on the label as they reduce the chances of acne breakouts.
(i) For oily skin select a gel-base moisturizer. Such moisturizers work better for oily skin because they just provide the required amount of moisture.
(ii) For dry skin use a cream based moisturizer as they are heftier and last longer than the gel ones.
4. Exfoliate Once A Week: Exfoliation helps to remove dead skin cells off your face and unclog the skin pores. To exfoliate you have to gently wipe the surface of your skin. It also woks to improve your skin complexion. Take care not to over exfoliate, once a week is enough.
5. Use Makeup Thriftily: If you are going through acne breakout, stay away from using foundation, powder, or blush. The makeup that stays on your face can clog pores, resulting into acne breakout. If you do wear makeup, get into the habit of removing it at the end of the day.
Tips:
(i) Look for light weight and oil free cosmetics sans added chemicals and dyes. While buying, read the ingredients list on the product label and choose the ones that are noncomedogenic or nonacnegenic, which means that they won’t clog pores, so less likely to cause pimples.
(ii) Avoid heavy, greasy products that contain ingredients like mineral oils and cocoa butter as they can provoke pimples occurrence.
6. Stop Touching Your Face: As you touch so many things, your hands are breeding ground for bacteria. Resting your cheek or chin on your hands or touching your face with your hands can transmit bacteria onto your face, leading to further irritation of your already inflamed facial skin or triggering of breakouts. Keeping your hands and fingers off your face will keep it clean and healthy and help cut down on chances of breakouts.
Tip: Never pinch or squeeze pimples with your fingers, as it can cause infection and scarring.
7. Be Selective About What You Put On Your Hair: Stay away from using gels, mousses, fragrances, too much oils, or pomades on your hair. They can trickle down onto your face, get into pores of your skin, clog them, and create pimples. Use a gentle shampoo and conditioner. Oily hair tends to transfer oil onto your face, so wash your hair often, particularly if you have acne or pimples.
Tips:
(i) If you have long hair, keep it pulled away from your face.
(ii) Shampoos and conditioners with too much of fragrance and chemicals can irritate skin, leading to breakouts on your forehead, jaw, neck and back.
(iii) Make sure to rinse the shampoo out of your hair thoroughly to get rid of lingering shampoo and conditioner residue before washing your face in the shower.
(iv) Look for organic products with a natural fragrance; they are less likely to cause breakouts.
8. Stay Out Of Direct Sun: A little bit of the sun has been known to cut down the breakouts, but too much of it can increase inflammation, redness and provoke a breakout. Whether you have acne or not, always apply face specific sunscreen with SPF 30 or higher at least 15 minutes before you go out in the sun for a longer period. Choose a lightweight noncomedogenic sunscreen to prevent development of new pimples. Noncomedogenic simply means that the product will not clog your skin pores.
Tips:
(i) Look out for products that don’t have added oils, fragrances, and chemicals as they put a heavy layer on your skin and clog pores. And when you sweat with such heavy products on, the perspiration, oil, and dirt get trapped under beauty products and clog the pores, leading to occurrence of the pimples.
(ii) Some pimple medications can render your skin more sensitive to the sun rays. So make sure not to go out in the sun with such medications on exposed parts of your body. Consider wearing protective clothing like broad-brimmed hat, long-sleeved shirt, pants, etc.
9. Exercising: Working out improves blood circulation through your body that will keep your skin healthy and glowing. Moreover, it makes you perspire, which means the dirt, toxins, and chemicals get chucked out more effectively. Keep drinking water while working out. As you intake water and sweat more, the sweat gets cleaner and clearer, which will avoid pore blockages, oily skin and prevent acne breakouts.
Tips:
(i) While working out, never wear tight clothing or exercise equipment that rub your skin and cause irritation.
(ii) Shower or bathe right after working out as sweat may block your skin pores, causing acne breakouts or making your acne worse.
10. Change / Wash Your Pillow Case Frequently: All the sweat, dirt, grime, dead skin cells and make-up residues from your face trickle down onto your pillow case while you sleep every night. Basically, you sleep for about eight hours every night in the oil, dirt, and trash that get collected on your face all through the day and all that stick to your pillow case too. Consequently, your face remains dirty and oily, and the chances of your facial skin pores getting clogged with dirt increase fairly high.
So changing / washing your pillow case frequently is one of the best ways to prevent acne, or reduce its chances of occurrence at least.
Tips:
(i) Wash your face every night before heading to your bed.
(ii) Wash your pillow case at least twice a week, or more if you can.
11. Avoid Sharing: Don’t use things such as towels, make-up brushes, hair bands, handkerchief, bandanna, etc. already used by a person who is having pimples / acne.
12. Have A Healthy Hair Care Routine: This becomes more critical for those who are having oily skin. Your scalp emits natural oils to keep your hair healthy and shiny. Although, excessive oil in and around your scalp can be healthy for your hair, but can be bad for your skin – especially around your forehead.
Tip: In case you have oily hair, wash it every alternate day – particularly if you have oily skin as well.
13. Foods That Prevent Acne: Many experts believe that diet does play a role in whether you develop acne or how acute it gets. Eating a balanced diet comprising of vegetables, fruits, lean protein, whole wheat and grains, nuts and seeds, and healthy fats (omega-3 fatty acids) not only good for your health, but they are the foods to prevent acne as well.
Tip: Cut down on high-glycemic foods, French fries, pizza, greasy burgers and soda to help keep acne / pimples at bay.
14. Avoid / Reduce Stress: Some studies have shown that acne prone persons get acne flare ups under stress. Although, emotional stress does not trigger acne / pimples breakout, but it can worsen an existing skin disorder, including acne.
15. Using Over-The-Counter Acne Treatment Products: For some people the OTC products work as one of the best ways to prevent / clear up acne and you don’t need a prescription to buy them. It may take some time to find out which one works best for you. The most popular and effective OTC acne-fighting ingredient is benzoyal peroxide. The other effective ingredients are salicylic acid, glycolic acid or lactic acid. These acne fighting products come in different strength. Take care to start with a small amount first. Then you can adjust how much amount and how often you should use. Always read and strictly follow the directions given on the OTC product’s label.
Tips:
(i) Use these products with caution if you have sensitive skin.
(ii) Benzoyal peroxide can kill acne causing bacteria. It comes in different strengths. It has been observed that benzoyal peroxide with 2.5% strength is just as good as 5-10% and less irritating to the skin too. The bonus point about this acne fighting OTC product is that it helps in removing top layers of dead skin from the epidermis, leaving behind clearer and rejuvenated skin.
(iii) Just like benzoyal peroxide, salicylic acid too kills bacteria that cause acne and pimples occurrence. In addition, it works to make skin shed its cells more quickly, nurturing the growth of new skin.
When in doubt or if the OTC products don’t give results, it is best to check with a dermatologist. A dermatologist may prescribe some special gels or creams, pills, or a combination of them.
Best Way To Prevent Acne Tips
(i) Witch hazel can help in preventing pimples. Apply it with clean cotton swab after washing your face.
(ii) Chill! Emotional stress can worsen your acne condition.
(iii) If you get acne on areas like your chest or back, avoid wearing tight clothes as they can rub acne areas and cause irritation.
(iv) Never pop or squeeze a pimple. In fact it can push infected substance and pus deeper into the skin, leading to more swelling and redness, even scarring, which can sometimes be permanent.
(v) If you already have pimples on your face, don’t scrub your face. If you don’t have pimples then also scrub gently and avoid scrubbing too much or with too much pressure.
(vi) Cleanse your face very gently. Too much cleansing can worsen existing acne / pimples or develop new ones by damaging or over-drying your skin.
(vii) Consider sleeping on your back as much as possible to avert making contact between your face and pillow.
Useful Related Posts:
Home Remedies To Prevent Acne
Adult Acne Causes And Treatments
Gah, touching my face is one of my habits I have to break!