I've been on T since april and all of a sudden my acne is awful. I'm in college I'm to old for this ->-bleeped-<-. For the first time in my life I feel I have really awful acne. Any ideas tips and tricks on making it less ->-bleeped-<-ty?

Mine was already annoying before T but it's really started to flare up. I use St. Ive's apricot scrub twice a day and it does an awesome job. Most important thing for me is keeping the oil at bay and keeping myself from touching my face.

I'm in the same boat and nothing is working. I'd say 75% of my back, shoulders and chest are acne now. I can't get it to go away and it's become painful to say the least.
If anyone has any suggestions that I haven't tried or medications to recommend to my dr I'd be happy to hear them.

I use Dark Angels from Lush. It does a fantastic job.

Pay attention and see if you pick at it. I compulsively pick, and it makes things much worse. The best I've managed to do is redirect myself to mostly pick anywhere but my face, not like folks are going to see my shoulders and back since I keep my shirt on in public.
Any washes I've tried on my face ultimately make it worse, only thing I've found to help is avoid touching it at all and wash only by sticking my face under the water in the shower.

Unfortunately for me nothing worked until I saw a dermatologist about the acne and got accutane prescribed. That did the trick for getting the acne under control and once it was I stopped the pills and use apricot scrub to maintain clear skin, especially when I get a flare up. It seems to have gotten a lot better post hysterectomy even though I'm on the same dose of T. I'm beginning to wonder if acne isn't E fueled in our cases? Maybe too many hormones in our systems battling it out or something. 

Sebryn, for accutane did you have to also be on 2 forms of birthcontrol? I was reading up on that medication and it seemed like they wanted persons on 2 forms of it before prescribing it. I was going to ask but I refuse to get on BC

Pro tip: get cake. It won't make your acne better but at least you'll have cake.

What I do: use a salicylic acid scrub on my face, back/shoulders and chest. I use biore pore strips on my nose once a week.
After I scrub or use a pore strip I'll use an acne fighting moisturizer. This has worked well for me.

I have tried a few different approaches with hit or miss success.

Best so far is shaving every single day with a clean razor blade each time (I get the packs of disposal razors made by a name brand that are inbetween the quality of uselessness and overpriced).

I think it works because:
1. When I have facial hair going on, I touch it all day long without even meaning to. My hands are straight up all over my face. Then, the oil and whatever else that builds up on my hands would just be smeared on my pores, and I am sure the bacteria clings to stubble at least somewhat and helps to grow zits

2. I think the fresh blade is a good way to scrape all the gook off each morning without worrying the blade built up bacteria when it sat in the cabinet.

3. I don't wash my face with acne soap in the morning if I shave in the morning, so it doesn't dry my face out. I tried using a bunch of combos of scrubs/washes and while they worked at first, in the end my dry skin just made more painful acne.

Other tips:

1. Don't try to pop the ones that come in way under the skin. You know the type - painful, large and sometimes it seems like they are not even really zits. I have never once been glad I popped one of those. An inevitable break out follows right next to it.

2. I will admit I risk scarring and do pop the easy to get ones. It seems to help them go away faster, and I always wash the spot where I got it with antibacterial soap right afterwards.

3. You can track what you try and your general outbreak each morning so you can isolate what works and what doesn't.

4. Drinking copious amounts of water seems to help

Obviously shaving as a solution is not helpful if you are growing your facial hair out, but I hope some of this is helpful

Actually the BC thing is true but not at the same time. You can choose to be abstinence from sex on the options for your form of BC. Abstinence from sex with a male of course. You will have to get a blood test before each refill to prove you aren't pregnant also, but given the birth deformities the drug causes I agree with these safety measures.

I didn't have to take any BC while on accutane. It's definitely worth looking into if you are having serious acne issues and other methods aren't working.

I've never not had acne, but it's never been bad. On T it did migrate to my shoulders and upper arms and a little bit to my chest and butt and thighs.

I like salicylic acid soaps (or shampoos when that's cheaper), and I feel like drinking a lot of water does help. My acne gets worse if I wash too frequently or not frequently enough, but I suspect that goldilocks timing is different for different people. Trouble spots do tend to get worse for me if I touch them too often. Changing my pillowcases and sheets frequently is useful. I like tea tree oil when it's really bad but I usually have to add hypoallergenic moisterizer afterward to avoid scaling or scabbing.

Quote from: spacerace on September 15, 2014, 09:28:59 PM

1. Don't try to pop the ones that come in way under the skin. You know the type - painful, large and sometimes it seems like they are not even really zits. I have never once been glad I popped one of those. An inevitable break out follows right next to it.

These are the worse kind. I call them troll spots  You're right it's never a good idea to try and pop them....I do it anyway...the whole time telling myself that it's better just to leave it be.

When I had my first puberty I had all kinds of fancy acne specific scrubs and some cream from my GP and all of them made it worse, all they did was dry out my skin.

Shaving gives me mad breakouts but I only do it like once a month to get rid of the tiny bit of scruff I grow.

your reaction to shaving could change if you do it often and regularly.

dry skin makes for horrible acne, oily skin isn't very good either.
salisylic acid sounds like a good idea.
cleaning your face should be done twice, first to wash off dirt, then to clean your skin.
if cleaning makes your skin dry, pure shea butter would be the best skin cream. mixing in a little coconut oil makes it slightly antibacterial, just don't use pure coconut oil because it will kill the good bacteria that help keep the bad ones at bay. mineral oils are bad for the skin, avoid them like the plage. most (other) plants oils can be irritating to the skin, and should also be avoided unless that's all you have.

isotretinoin/accutane is a last resort medicine that should be considered if nothing else helps. some dermatologists recommend starting aggressive treatment sooner rather than later, in order to prevent scarring and unnecessary discomfort. it can have severe side effects, but one's psychological well-being might still be worth it. seems only in the us are women required to use contraception while taking this drug.

Those deep zits are called cystic usually and very painful. They're the reason I opted to get professional help with my acne and am very glad I did. One thing to remember is that when you're on accutane you'll scar very badly if you get injured, it's one of the side effects, so make sure you get off of it before getting any tattoos, piercings or surgery. For at least two months if I remember correctly.

It's also interesting that not all countries require the BC when you're on accutane.

My tips:
*Use one of the facial scrubbers. They sell them in two packs at walmart for about 3 bucks, but I'm sure you could get them cheaper elsewhere. I don't know what it is, but they work REALLY well for me.
*Change your pillowcases frequently. Oil will build up on them over time. Rotate what pillow you sleep on throughout the week.
*Don't touch your face if you can help it. Oil, dirt, and all sorts of other crap will get in your pores and fill them with nastiness.
*Wash your face at least twice a day, once in the morning and once before bed. It'll help reduce the crap on your face that accumulates in the night as well as the crap that migrates from your face to your pillows.
*Use one of the brushes on a stick for your back. The bristley kind. I've always had good luck with them.

I've generally had good luck when I follow all those rules (which, admittedly, was for about the month of July). My doctor did prescribe me a gel antibiotic (clindamycin phosphate), which I was able to stop using for about a month and a half while I was practicing REALLY good hygiene.
What you put into your body will also affect your acne, I've found. When I was eating healthy (again, wasn't for a terribly long time) I noticed fewer breakouts, and an overall better skin quality. I was much less oily.
I use a neutrogena facial soap when I shower, as well.

Lots of things have been mentioned but I'll recommend washing your face at least twice a day with a nice wash. I have bad acne and I'm not on T yet so I can only imagine what T will bring for me.. lol. Anyways remember your diet and try to eat clean and stay away from any oily foods like chips and fries and also drink plenty of water and stay hydrated. Something that can also help sometimes is to keep your pillowcase clean and machine wash it every 1-2 weeks or so or sleep on a small towel if you need something simpler. Also keep your hands away from your face (i have a problem with this ugh) and that's about all I can recommend in terms of tips. I buy from acne.org it's a really helpful site and my acne's gotten a little bit better.

During the many years that I had testosterone flowing through my body my acne was terrible on my face. My nose acne was so bad that I earned the nickname of Rudolf the red nose reindeer in middle school that stuck with me until I graduated high school "kids are so dang cruel". It didn't matter what I tried to do, the acne would never go away. I saw many dermatologists over the years to no avail and I tried just about every acne regiment under the sun with no results to show other than money thrown down the drain. Once I started HRT and got rid of my testosterone in place of estrogen my acne 100% disappeared without me doing a darn thing.

This might be a case of genetics throwing you a mean curve ball with the way testosterone reacts with your skin and causes you to have acne no matter what.

Quote from: Nygeel on September 15, 2014, 09:18:19 PM
Pro tip: get cake. It won't make your acne better but at least you'll have cake.

The cake is a lie. But never the less. Cake is also the answer to everything!

I find scrubbing works really well. I know it kinda sounds obvious, but what I do (my acnes not as bad as it used to be, but I still get it on my arms and shoulders) but I have taken to scrubbing my skin with one of those bath scrunchies before I soap myself up in the shower just to help move dead skin. I give it a real good scrub until I'm red. Then I'll wash the areas and then scrub just as hard with soap. Any old soap. And that seems to help me

Any recommendations for black heads? I only get a couple zits but they like to rotate so I always have a few giant ones on my face.

I'm trying that scrub. I can't imagine what my acne is going to be like when I finally get on T. I didn't have any acne until I turned 19. I just got my hormone levels tested and the doc didn't have anything to report, but the acne is in all of the places that are notoriously related to hormonal issues. *sigh* If it wasn't such a hassle to even get to the docs I'd schedule another appointment. Better wait this out and see if it goes away with scrub. Maybe my body has extra testosterone? That can't be bad.