My brain has decided I wanted to document this so I can randomly link this to other people if they ever asked me about my skincare routine. This was probably motivated by the charity door-knocker that asked me about mine when he thought I was younger.
I don’t think I do anything particularly special, and there’s certainly more that I could do, but nonetheless I can imagine other (growing/young/adult) men being in a situation where they’re like “Where do I even start?”
These days I get relatively minimal acne, and for me the reasons are pretty clear and easy to treat, but there was undoubtedly a lot of experimenting & figuring out along the way.
Face Wash + Toner + Moisturize/Sunscreen
Face Wash
Two generic categories that I’ve seen:
- basic/light/uncategorised – if starting out, go for one of these, feel free to grab whatever’s cheapest at the supermarket or pharmacy that doesn’t give you any adverse reactions.
- strong – only grab one of those if you know your face gets very oily, or you tend to do stuff that makes you sweat a lot
I have one basic/light for mornings where I wash my face after sleeping, and one ‘strong’ version for when I shower in the evenings and wash my face at the same time (because you can imagine being outdoors and doing day-to-day things would end up with my face being more dirty and oily).
Toner
I don’t have any strong opinions about type/brand. You could probably skip this, or just grab whatever’s cheapest. Spray is recommended here, because the alternative is to put on a cotton pad and rub all over your face, but I’m not a fan of using anything disposable.
Moisturiser
Again, grab whatever’s cheapest that doesn’t give you any adverse reactions. I’m still working through a bulk pack of tubes that I bought several years ago.
As of writing I usually only moisturise in the evenings after I wash my face in the shower.
Sunscreen
There are different types of sunscreen and the cheaper ones are likely to make your face more oily. However daily sunscreen EVEN if you’re not like, going out to the beach, etc., is recommended if you want your face to look more youthful many years down the line.
In the mornings I skip the moisturiser because the sunscreen tends to make my face pretty oily, and moisturiser + sunscreen just makes my face extra oily. I’m aware there’s sunscreen that doesn’t make one’s face less oily, but they’re a tad more expensive, don’t come in convenient pump bottles, and I’m a cheap-arse.
Regularly swapping pillowcases/old shirts
Basically, when you sleep, you’re rubbing your face all over your pillow. Any leftover grit on your pillow will undoubtedly accumulate, and can cause acne if not replaced regularly.
But because I’m too lazy to get special/fancy pillowcases, I just use old shirts that are slightly worn or shirts that I don’t really wear anymore as my pillowcases.
Each shirt/pillowcase is good for two nights. Put on one side, then take off and put on the other side for the next evening, then put in the wash. You could make an argument for turning shirts inside out and then using them, but I have enough old shirts.
Food
Food/diet is a tricky one because it differs for some people. For some, cutting dairy out of their diet was key, but I’ve not noticed a difference.
The only obvious one for me is that when I eat something that’s obviously cooked in not-so-great oil (e.g. KFC), then I can expect some acne to appear the following day.
What people generally do on the food front is designate periods (e.g. 2-4 weeks) where they purposely don’t eat a specific type of food category and then see what happens.
Other Tips
- Watch where your hands go! If you scratch dirty places then put your hands on your face, then, well, no surprise that acne would appear there.
- Stress acne is definitely a thing. Work/study stressing you out? Acne can happen.
- Body acne can happen for similar reasons, but also if you’re e.g. wearing the same pair of jeans for too many days in a row. So don’t be too lazy about washing your clothes.
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