What To Do With Acne Prone Skin

What is acne prone skin, do you have it, and is there anything that can help? If you are finding yourself with regular outbreaks of acne, not only on your face, but on your neck, back and even other areas of the body, there is a good chance that you do have acne prone skin. This is nothing to be embarrassed about. Some people are simply more genetically predisposed to acne than others. Although good hygiene can help with acne problems, having acne definitely does not mean that you have bad hygiene. If you have acne prone skin, you are going to develop some acne no matter what you do. That being said, there are certainly things you can do to reduce your magnitude and duration of acne outbreaks.

What Is Acne Prone Skin?

Skin can be particularly prone to acne for any number of reasons. The most common is an overproduction of sebum by your sebaceous glands. Sebum is a natural product of your skin created to smooth the passage of hair through the skin. When the sebaceous glands are overactive, more sebum is produced that necessary, and some of that sebum sits in the pore around the hair follicle, where it “glues” together dead skin cells and dirt. Acne causing bacteria gets into this mix and pimples, blackheads and whiteheads can result.

Is There Anything You Can Do About Acne Prone Skin?

Absolutely. While you can probably expect some acne until the end of your teenage years, or whenever your body decides to slow down its production of sebum, there are remedies you can pursue. One of the most effective is benzoyl peroxide. Benzoyl peroxide clears out that sebum, those dead skin cells and that dirt and allows oxygen to penetrate the pores. The acne causing bacteria die as a result, and your acne fades away faster and comes back less frequently.

Using Benzoyl Peroxide on Acne Prone Skin

Because you have acne prone skin, a single application of benzoyl peroxide, such as you might find on a trip to the drug store, will probably not help you much. It may cause a single pimple to fade more quickly, but it will not help you with your overall acne problem. What you will need is a complete acne care system, with several products containing benzoyl peroxide, designed to fully treat your skin. You will want to apply the system as directed, usually once in the morning and once at night, and you may need to use the system for several weeks before you start to see significant results.

Since you have acne prone skin, you will need to keep using the system for as long as you wish to remain acne free. Your skin keeps producing sebum, so when you stop using the benzoyl peroxide, the acne causing bacteria will have something to work with, and acne will return. However, once you get into the habit of using the system, it should become second nature to you.