Venture in to anyone’s bathroom cabinet and you’ll be sure to find some pads, possibly a tea tree oil sticks, a daily exfoliator and maybe a little tub of Sudocrem. They’re the hallmarks we all have to help fight against pesky blackhead and pimples that pop up from time to time.
What happens though if you’re a person that consistently has to deal with acne?
With recent findings from the British Skin Foundation that 60% of Britons are affected by some sort of skin disease & that there has been a 200% uptake in the last five years from adults actively seeking some form of acne treatment, what was once a very embarrassing issue and problem has now become a very adult and easy thing to deal with.
And helping to treat acne has become a very popular service offered by cosmetic clinics and private consultants across the UK. While the NHS can give advice on the use of antibiotics for treatments, seeking out a more permanent and quicker solution is getting easier. In this blog post I’m going to highlight some of the treatments you’ll get in clinics, what they do and how they can help fight acne.
1. Hydration Facial
If you try to imagine what a hydration facial is based on the name, it simply sounds like someone rubbing water on your face. That isn’t the case though with this treatment. A hydration facial is designed to give the skin on your face a chance to breathe properly.
Getting the treatment is a three step process. Firstly, a therapist will want to get your face primed by applying an enzyme cream on your skin. This cream will exfoliate and get rid of any dirt just like a good scrub in the shower does.
The second step is to apply hyaluronic acid gel on the face. Having acid rubbed on your skin sounds really scary, but it is quite harmless and is used to tease your pores in to opening up widely. Why would we want to do that? Because the third step is where a low voltage wand is pressed on the skin to fully open pores in a process called deincrustration. When it opens up fully, all the oils and dirt sitting deep can be fully extracted before the current gets pores to tighten up and stop oils from seeping back in.
The treatment is meant to help people who have deep set acne on their cheeks and deep blackheads around the nose.
2. Pore Brushing
If the idea of acid sounds little too much, then a bit of brushing might be in order. Pore brushing is where a big circular pad that looks like the head of an electric toothbrush is rubbed all over your problem areas. As it moves, it is supposed to brush any surface dirt from your pores and use its bristles to really get in there and break up congested pores.
You can get electrical versions in clinics that will come as part of a multi-acne treatment plan, but you can also do a quick search online and find manual ones you can use at home. I’d recommend looking for one that has a plastic handle as the wooden ones are a bit prone to clinging to bacteria, especially if you plan on using it in the shower.
3. Microdermabrasion
If you want to avoid any lasers or chemicals, then you have to look to the future and embrace this technological wonder. Microdermabrasion is a bit of a weird treatment simply for the fact that is uses crystals (no joke) to exfoliate your skin. A wand device is held over the acne and blasts out the crystals in to your pore, lifting up any dirt in sight. It simultaneously pulls the crystals (with that dirt) back up in to the wand and leave skin feeling as refreshed as possible.
A microdermabrasion facial is best for people with oily skin. A big reason skin feels oily for some people is because pores are permanently blocked. Oil loves to get in there and not budge, but when your pores are all blocked, your skin doesn’t know what to do with oil and just leaves it on the surface.
4. Jessner Skin Peels
Some people just get to the point where they really want rid of their acne and will try things that do work, but can feel a little painful. This is what a Jessner skin peel is like. Anytime I think of a peel two images comes to mind: when Samantha had one in Sex & The City, and that famous selfie Kim Kardashian took right after getting one.
A Jessner peel is one of those peels that will leave your face looking very red and feeling a little sore for a few days after as it essentially gets rid of a few top layers of skin. Why would it do such a thing? Because for some people it’s the only way to fix broken pores that acne can create. Getting one does mean that few about a week you wouldn’t be wearing any makeup, not be allowed to get water on your face for at least 48 hours and not exercise to avoid any sweat giving your face a burning sensation.
A treatment only for the brave, it would seem.
5. Vacuum Treatments
Don’t fancy a sensitive? How about the idea of someone holding a vacuum over your cheeks or forehead then? Some clinics in the UK are now offering treatment that essentially brushes up your skin like you would hoover your living room.
In a vacuum treatment a consultant will put a device over your acne and it will start sucking to lift impurities in your pores closer to the skin’s surface before blasting it with a quick dose of intensive light energy. This light has a heating effect that destroys bacteria in your pores. With that then cleaned out, the vacuum goes back to pulling on your skin and applying gel to help cleanly close the pore.
It definitely isn’t just a case of holding a hoover up to your cheek.
There you have it. Five different ways you might never have heard before on how to treat adult acne. While some are a bit intense (I’ll never get a peel!) there are some out there that might work for you.
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