Do You Have an Anti-Acne Lifestyle?

Skin comes in three major types: oily, normal and dry. Which type of skin you have is largely a matter of genetics, rather than personal hygiene or diet choices. It’s pretty clear that people with oily skin seem to be particularly prone to acne. A major product in acne is sebum, the oil naturally produced by sebaceous glands in your skin near the hair follicles. If oily skin means more acne, normal skin should mean less acne, and dry skin should mean no acne, right? Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite work that way. Teens with dry skin can definitely get acne, and need to be especially careful about how they treat it.

Why Teens with Dry Skin Need to Be Concerned About Acne

An acne blemish, otherwise known as a zit, has a number of ingredients. One is sebum, the oil your body produces, which serves as a kind of glue to pull all the other acne products together. Another is acne causing bacteria.  A third, and what really makes up the “meat” of the acne, is dead skin. These dead skin cells combine with dirt and acne causing bacteria, all pulled together by the sebum, and the result is clogged pores and acne lesions. People with dry skin have no shortage of dead skin cells lurking on the surface of their skin, so they can actually have more clogged pores than people with oily skin.

Why Acne is a Particular Concern for People with Dry Skin

The problem that people with dry skin have is that many products that are effective at treating acne also tend to dry out the skin. These products unclog pores and get rid of that excess oil, with skin drying as an unwanted by-product. If you already have dry skin, this can make things much worse, and the result can be red, flaky, itchy skin that looks even worse than the acne did.

What People with Dry Skin Can Do About Acne

If you have acne and dry skin, you can still treat your acne with benzoyl peroxide, although you may want to consider salicylic acid instead. Salicylic acid improves the skin’s ability to slough off dead skin cells, so it may be especially helpful for those with dry skin. That being said, acne medication with salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide can increase dryness. For this reason, it is very important to combine your acne fighting medication with a moisturizer. You should use a moisturizer regularly for dry skin regardless of your acne care, but you should be aware that there are complete acne care systems that combine moisturizing, hydrating ingredients with ingredients that fight acne, like benzoyl peroxide. This may be the best thing for your dry skin.

Also remember that washing your face with soap and water and taking hot showers may be good for personal hygiene and general health, but excessive washing of your skin can dry it out even more. Remember, you can treat acne if you have dry skin, as long as you make sure to do it the right way.