These days with the prevalence of Instagram beauty stars and YouTubers alike, we’d like to think that beauty junkies everywhere are “woke” when it comes to understanding their skin and its concerns.
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While acne may often be associated with the pre-pubescent phase of a person’s life, the truth is, there’s no such thing as growing out of an acne phase.
According to Doris Day, dematologist at NYU Langone Medical Center, as many as 50 per cent of women will suffer from acne at some point in their adult lives.
This myth is only partly true. While a good skincare routine is excellent to have, adult acne can happen for a variety of reasons.
“The cause of adult acne is often multi-factorial. However, genetics are the largest determinant of who is and who is not affected,” says Dr Kearney. “This does not necessarily mean a relative has to have suffered from it, but it means that the tendency is pre-programmed into your genes. Having had teenage acne can be a factor. However, a large number of women who are affected by adult acne have had no significant teenage acne.”
Then there are hormones. According to Dr Chris Kearney, from Sydney Specialist Dermatology, adult acne is much more common in women than in men.
“About 10 to 20 per cent of women suffer from adult acne, compared to 3 per cent of men,” he says. “The hormones do not need to be out of balance to any serious degree, but slight alterations can lead to adult acne in some. Often, patients notice an effect on their skin with the menstrual cycle, pregnancy and use of the oral contraceptive pill. Things that affect the hormones, such as weight, diet, exercise and stress, can also affect adult acne.”
While getting a little bit of sun is perfectly fine, long exposure to the sun can do more damage than good for acne.
Long sun exposure can lead to dry skin and increase the production of oil on the skin. UV rays too, can increase the risk of sun damage and pigmentation.
Contrary to popular belief, there’s no such thing as the opening and closing of pores. Instead, steam and heat does nothing but to loosen the sebum and debris that happens to be trapped in your pores.
While toothpaste does have the ability to dry acne, it’s not the best solution.
Instead, using toothpaste could lead to dry and more aggravated skin. Plus, if you leave toothpaste on your pimples for too long, it might just burn your skin.
Spoiler alert: You can’t.
However, you can reduce the appearance of your pores instead. Just remember to exfoliate often and cleanse your skin everyday to prevent your pores from looking even bigger than they actually are.