12 Habits That Could Trigger Acne Flare-ups

Habits that could trigger acne flare-ups

Acne flare-ups can be frustrating. It brings down your confidence as you are embarrassed of your skin condition. The worst is you have to stop yourself from putting on make-up until your skin condition heals.

Your daily activities may trigger more acne growing on your face. Therefore, if you are suffering from chronic acne, you may need to control certain habits that may trigger your acne flare.

In this article, we will discuss some of the habits contribute to your acne flare-ups:

1. Over washing your face 

If you worry about bacteria buildup or airborne pollutants and dust, you may be tempted to wash your face multiple times a day.  Excessive washing depletes the skin oils and skin moisture. This may dries up and irritate your skin.

Lack of skin moisture will trigger an increase in oil production, which in turn contributes to clog skin pores.  More acne outbreaks may result from over washing your face.

2. Using wrong skincare products.

Latest branded skincare products may not always be the right products for you. Certain ingredients may not be suitable for your skin condition, especially those with sensitive skin type.

The rule of thumb is avoid any product ingredients that may clog your pores, such as natural oils and petroleum jelly. Similarly, avoid products containing alcohols as it may strip your skin moisture. Products containing fragrances may irritate your skin.

If possible, find ingredients specifically help to cleanse your pores, such as glycolic acid, salicylic acid and lactic acid.

To find the right ingredient for your skincare products, consult with your skin doctor to find the right product based on your skin type. Your doctor may prescribe certain medications to control the acne flare-ups, depending on its cause.

For example, if your acne flare-ups are due to hormonal instability, your doctor may prescribe medicines to stabilize your hormones.

3. Scrubbing your face too hard

It’s tempting to scrub vigorously, use brushes, or use textured towels to achieve the cleanest skin and eliminate dirt from pores. Some may say scrubbing your face too often and too hard may help your skin to renew very quickly. This is wrong information.

Scrubbing your face too hard and too frequently may damage your skin barrier. Damaged skin barrier may cause more skin issues, such as overly sensitive skin and signs of skin irritation such as itchiness.

For skin prone to acne flare-ups, over scrubbing your face may exacerbate acne as it strips your oil. Thus, your skin will over-produce more oil in response to oil loss.

4. Exfoliating too much.

Similar to over-scrub your skin, over-exfoliating has similar effects. Over-exfoliating may cause damage to your skin barrier.

Signs of damage to skin barriers are inflammation, peeled skin, redness and dryness. Your skin may feel hurt when you go outside under the sun.

Damaged skin barriers may be costly and take too long to fix as it requires attention from your skin doctor. Therefore, you should minimize skin damage by scrubbing and exfoliating once a week.

5. Reusing dirty washcloth or face towel

If you have a favorite towel to wipe your face, do not use it every day. Wash  the towel after several days of use. Dirty washcloths or face towels may become a dirty ground for skin bacteria to multiply, and cause more acne flare-ups.

Besides, in a warm and humid climate, your towels may accumulate dust and mites. This may not only trigger acne flare-ups, but also other skin issues such as itchiness and skin boils.

6. Constantly changing your acne medication.

Do not change your acne medication without a prescription from the doctor. Your doctor may suggest acne medication based on your health condition, such as acne flare-ups due to hormonal or usage of cosmetics containing mercury and forbidden ingredients.

Only change your medication when your doctor suggests you do so.

Certain acne medication such as Accutane will take time to show results. Similarly for acne medication related to hormones as it takes time to stabilize body hormone. Therefore, follow your doctor’s prescription until your condition improves.

7. Inappropriate usage of acne medication 

If you are on prescribed medication to treat your acne flare-up, you should follow the medication uptake as indicated by your doctor. This includes the correct dosage, timing and the amount to take.

If you are suffering any side effects due to acne medication, consult with your doctor to switch medication with lesser side effects.

8. Squeezing blackheads and popping pimples.

It may be tempting to squeeze blackheads and popping pimples. Squeezing blackheads and popping pimples may cause more damage to your skin.

Squeezing pimples and blackheads will cause your acne site to be infected, thus causing more acne breakouts on nearby skin. It is best to let the acne heal on its own.

However if you need to pop the acne and blackhead, do it with sterilized pimple popper tools and alcohol rub in ready. This will minimize infection on the surrounding skin.

9. Sweating 

Sweating can be therapeutic after you are doing your workouts. However, sweating can also contribute to your acne flare-ups.

The excess sebum secreted when you are sweating may clog your skin pore. The trapped bacteria cause inflammation on acne.

To overcome acne flare-ups due to sweating, have a shower immediately after workout. Use a clean towel to wipe your body.

10. Holding a dirty mobile phone to your face.

The facial oils, perspiration and sebum may remain on the screen of your cell phone every time you bring it to your face.

Similarly with the oil, dirt and bacteria from your fingers. It may remain on your screen and transfer to the facial skin.

Clean the screen of your mobile phone with sanitizer wipes to avoid contamination on your skin with dirt from the screen of your mobile phone.

11. Sleeping with makeup on.

Sleeping with makeup on will contribute to your acne flare-ups. This is even worse if you are getting drunk and roll to the bed without cleansing your skin.

The leftover makeup will clog your skin pores, thus worsening your acne. The makeup that stains your pillow case will be another source of your acne flare-ups.

Your skin should be properly cleaned until no make up is left. This will help your skin to breath, regenerate and to absorb skincare products while you are sleeping.

12.Eating too much sugar, oily food and processed food.

Your unhealthy diet can trigger acne flare-ups. Examples of unhealthy diets are eating too much sugary food, oily food, processed food, taking too much dairy products and not taking enough nutrients from vegetables and fruits.

Unhealthy diets contribute to skin problems as it leads to inflammation in the body. The inflammation triggers your skin to release more oil and sebum on your skin, which leads to more acne flare-ups.

To reduce your breakouts, make sure you are taking enough nutrients from fruits, vegetables, nuts, fish and meat. Supplements with nutrients for skin may help. The high quality nutrients from healthy eating will get rid of inflammation and clears your skin from acne, resulting in glowing skin in no time.