Beauty Tips For Body Care
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, and your choice of birth control is between you and your GP.My skin has driven me batty for long enough.I have oily skin, the oil builds up and I end up with hard, yellow sebum plugs, no matter what I do. I get them on my scalp too, I have to wash my hair every second day because of how oily it gets; still, I get those plugs. It's not dandruff either, but it just doesn't look good with sebum plugs visible on my scalp (I have dark hair), and one hour after washing my face and moisturising, I can drag my finger down my cheek or forehead and see definite sebum on my finger. It doesn't look good, but it's resolved my blotting and powdering.Usually it manifests as just.. bumpy skin. Like sand-grains all over the areas that has the most active sebum glands (t-zone). Nothing's usually inflamed, so there must be an opening for the rest of the sebum to exit the pore. Sometimes they work their way out and stick out of the skin. The bump will not go away unless I squeeze out the whole plug that's creating the bump. If I don't get the whole plug or hardened sebum, THEN I'll get an inflamed response (I'll get a red whitehead). With ADHD, I can hyper-focus in front of my mirror and try to express every single one of these bumps. I'm just so tired of wasting hours on this, because I didn't do it when I didn't have bumps.I've been off the pill for about a year, since I didn't require birth control and my periods are very easily managed (I don't really PMS or bleed all that much, and the menstrual cup is amazing, gals). So I went off the pill, and my skin gradually worsened. I can handle a deep zit on my jaw once a month, sure, but the persistent mild sand-grainy skin was driving me fucking batty.I've tried skin care of course; changing cleansers, changing moisturisers, adding chemical exfoliants, retinoids, but nothing is gonna fix the underlying problem of there being too much sebum to begin with. It helped of course, but some of the skin care came with their own side effects (too strong exfoliants/retinoids) and it wasn't a guarantee that the skin care would resolve the bumps faster than they appeared (too mild exfoliants/retinoids-> bumps refill faster than they clear).For example: differin (adapalene). Yes, it helped my skin by increasing cell turnover and led to fewer clogged pores, but if I didn't use it perfectly (not too often/not too much at a time/often enough), I'd end up with burning, red skin OR irritated skin leading to rashes or bumps OR flaky skin OR the bumps come back because I'm not using it often enough.Another example? Washing my face three times a day instead of twice in an attempt to reduce the possibility of buildup in the pores, leading to increased sebum production to make up for it.Just ughh.The problem wasn't really the cell turnover, it was the sheer amount of oil that would inevitably lead to a bump and the buildup of these bumps, since they take a long time to work themselves out of the pore. And since I had this problem the year I was off the pill (a pill that specifically has a progestogen with anti-androgenic properties, not just low-androgenic properties), it leads me to believe that I naturally have a high testosterone serum level since high activity of the sebaceous gland is linked to high testosterone. It only resolved itself with an anti-androgenic birth control pill.(Anti-androgenic as in it antagonize the androgen receptors and display anti-androgenic properties = less sebum production in the sebaceous glands).So I've been back on the pill for less than a week, and I already see a reduction in the scalp sebum plugs and my face just looks normal-shiny (plump and healthy) at the end of the day. Now the salisylic acid will actually clear the bumps instead of the bumps refilling faster than they're cleared. Cleanser, exfoliant and moisturiser is finally gonna be enough.TL; DR: When the issue is hormonal, only hormones are gonna do the job.
Girls Blog 2015
Submitted by sw4ffles
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