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Anonymous
Hey /fit/,

Zit question for you, wondering if anyone else might have any suggestions before thinking about oral acne medicine.

I don't have complicated acne, but it's annoying enough that one or two huge ones come to hang out once a week.

I lost a lot of weight. I wash my face twice a day, followed with toner. I dropped sugar/coffee from my diet. I drink lots of water. I use the aspirin mask (which works, but to a certain extent). I would rather not fork out $50 a month for proactive, and adult femanon here on the pill. Still the same.

Am I stuck? I don't really want to go through a 6 month process of depressing side effects and/or spending a lot of money.
>> Anonymous
Duac topical cream
>> Anonymous
you'll have acne all your life. everyone does. get the fuck over it. unless you look like the guy in your pic i wouldn't even bother with it. shower, wash, stay as clean as possible, wear clean clothes and change bed linen at least once a week. i say this because when i have to live outside for a week or so (tramping) i always get large acne. and i'm 30 something. it's something the human body does.
>> Anonymous
>>45871

I would think this is common knowledge. It goes away with some, stays with others, and I gather my body type is just extremely picky. I'm just wondering if there might be another cost-effective technique I could try other than the norm before trying the extreme since my problem is not that bad. If I could find something else that worked, then I would rather use it.
>> Anonymous
id stay away from the oral meds too. ive friends who tried them and it really played with their moods. i was in the same situation as you. not bad acne but a couple every now and then, enough to be annoying. i got proactive. it worked. i suggest dishing out the money if a couple zits here and there bothers you that much.
>> Anonymous
>>45873
if your acne is 'not that bad' then 'why the fuck' are you are thinking about 'trying the extreme?
>> Anonymous
>>45879

Given the option I would rather it be gone completely. Because it's continuous, I would probably qualify for the medication. I don't really want to use it, but I am still considering it a few years down the road.

I don't see anything wrong with trying to ask for alternatives.
>> Anonymous
Eliminate caffeine from your diet, thats it. Chocolate is bad for acne because it has caffeine, sodas have caffeine, sport and energy drinks have caffeine. Caffeine makes the skin swell and pores close.
>> Anonymous
Proactive is just cleansers with over the counter benzoyl peroxide and salicylic acid.
You can get the same crap at the dollar stores.
>> Anonymous
doxycycline. or minocycline. works. take with food or it'll feel like you're having a heart attack.
>> Anonymous
jacking off onto your face will clear it up pretty quick if you do it a couple times a day and let it soak in and dry on before you rinse it off
>> Anonymous
Try cutting dairy from your diet for a month. My stepdad used to have terrible acne on his back... he just recently stopped all dairy intake, and it went completely away.
>> Anonymous
Any oral acne medication will effect your body in other ways that may be more important than your face. At the worst when I used to take them, I would have to sleep for 10-12 hours a day, lost alot of stamina and had to give up sport, became sensitive to sunlight and depressed, but that may have been due to the side-effects rather than the medication. I am now 25 and still having at least one cystic acne and some red scars on my face/neck on any given day, I have made the choice that I would rather lift weights, cycle, swim, do things I enjoy and be able to socialise than to undergo another drug regime.

That said, medication is worth trying just to see if you like it, and it can be very successful. My face would most likely be worse without having taken it, but it never made it fully clean.
>> Anonymous
Dietary fixes are unlikely to help unless you have a pre-existing condition, such as lactose intolerance. While eating 'healthy' is better than not, stressing over food will make things worse. No acne is due to one type of food magically causing the problem, even chocolate/sugar/caffeine myths seen on TV.

Food myths start when a person tries lots of solutions and the problem fixes itself at that particular time when it would have done so anyway.
>> Anonymous
>>46414
I've been on minocycline for about 6 months now. it works great honestly.

a bit of history: I used to have really bad cystic acne which ravaged my back and chest (pix of chest are available in the prog. thread) which eventually required accutane due to the severity. after a 6 month period of that in my youth, which severely calmed down the acne (although, it also had horrible side effects which I would never repeat), I still had periodic acne. later once I reached 17 and was starting to work out a bit more my acne got a bit worse due to hormones. I tried medicated ointments, and benzoyl peroxide(10%) worked relatively well but applying that to large parts of my body was a bitch and I still was getting large cystic pimples which would take weeks at a time to go down (they wouldn't be big, but they would be painful and red, usually on my shoulders).

anyway, I eventually got prescribed the minocycline and it's been greatly reducing the severity and amount of acne I get. I still get flare ups due to some of the supplements I take, but I also don't use the benzoyl peroxide anymore... I'm sure if I combined the two I wouldn't have any acne (but after a while you just stop caring... as long as it's not on your face). and I'm lazy and hate applying creamy shit to my back morning and/or night, where I will proceed to roll half of it off onto my bed or onto my shirt, leading to discoloration of the fabric.
>> Anonymous
Acnefag here,

I've had moderate acne on my face and back since roughly age 17. I've tried all sorts of OTC things, Proactiv, various strengths of doxy/minocycline (Solodyn), 1% and 3% Differin Gel, and Finacea.

Solodyn does help with stopping some of the bigger pimples, but doesn't do much for the smaller ones. Differin helped a lot initially, but drys the shit out of your skin. I don't think it's that useful unless you have pretty harsh acne, in which case a few months of it does help.

The most effective topical I've used by far is Finacea. It's more for acne scarring, since now my acne is pretty light. It lightened up my back considerably and worked pretty well on my face too.

I think the best things I've tried is washing my pillowcases and sheets whenever I do laundry, washing my face 2-3 times per day (more is bad), and using a light sacyclic acid wash and benzoyl peroxide cream for zits (you can get both at the drug store). Don't believe the crap about food. Your BODY might have bad reactions to certain foods, but not one doctor I've ever talked to said that chocolate, caffeine, fatty or fried foods directly give you zits. Lastly, sleeping a solid 8+ hours a night and/or sleeping on your back helps A LOT. I had surgery that required me to sleep on my back for 2 1/2 weeks, and I had roughly 50% less zits.

I've also noticed if you're thin and muscular, and dress well, people notice the acne a lot less. Anyways, good luck.