Why do breakouts happen on your skin? Tips to avoid it
Acne is a skin condition that shows up as different types of bumps externally on your skin. These bumps can be blackheads, whiteheads, pimples or cysts. Effective acne treatments are available and hence, bumps can also be healed slowly. Before talking about how we can avoid breakouts, let’s see why breakouts happen on the skin.
Causes of Acne
Acne can be caused due to various factors. However, the four most dominating factors are:
- Excess oil (sebum) production
- Hair follicles clogged by oil and dead skin cells
- Bacteria
- Inflammation
Acne generally appears on your face, forehead, chest, upper back and shoulders because these areas of the skin produce the most oil from the glands. Additionally, certain things can also trigger or worsen acne such as hormonal changes that can lead to more sebum production. Even diet plays a major role in contributing to acne. Carbohydrate-rich diets such as bread, chips may worsen acne further.
Tips to avoid breakouts
Acne is a treatable skin condition and a little precaution can help you deal with them. Following are some tips to avoid breakouts:
- Keep your face clean: Irrespective of whether you have acne or not, it is very important to wash your face at least twice daily to get rid of impurities, dead skin cells and extra oil accumulated on your skin. Avoid scrubbing and rubbing your face harshly instead pat dry with a clean towel.
- Moisturize your face: Many anti-acne products contain ingredients that can dry out your skin. Dry skin leads to peeling off the skin. Hence, make sure you moisturise your face that helps you hydrate the skin and also minimises skin peeling.
- Get your hands on over-the-counter products: Most of the over-the-counter acne treatments contain ingredients such as benzoyl peroxide, salicylic acid or retinol as well. All of these ingredients are quite active and prevent acne from forming. Acne-clarifying face wash and serum help get rid of all the impurities from your face and prevent your skin from breaking out.
- Watch the products you use on your hair: Avoid using any kind of strong artificial fragrances, oils or gels on your hair. If they get on your face, they can block your skin’s pores and irritate the skin. Excessively oily hair can add oil on your face as well. Hence, make sure you wash hair properly.
- Avoid touching your face too often: Avoid touching your face or propping your cheek or chin on your hands. Not only can you spread bacteria, you can also irritate the already inflamed facial skin. Never pick or pop pimples with your fingers, as it can lead to further infection and lasting scars.
The Takeaway
Improvements take time and so does fading away acne and acne scars. It is important that you follow certain tips and tricks to avoid breaking out and also keep a check on how your skin behaves according to the weather conditions. Acne is a skin condition that is treatable through over-the-counter treatment as well and you do get the desired results.