i have a decent amount of acne after starting T. I wash my face every night with a cleanser scrub thing but still get lots of blackheads and pimples. Any tips at how to minimize this?

  • FoxyFerengi@lemm.eeEnglish
    6·
    2 months ago

    Are you moisturizing after the cleanser? Skin sometimes reacts to being dried out by over-producing oil, and it’s already producing extra oil because of your hormonal changes. It’s also possible the scrub is causing abrasions in your skin where bacteria can gather and form pimples. Chemical exfoliation (aha and bha are common terms to look for) is generally recommended over physical exfoliation (like St Ives apricot scrub).

    Fresh pillow cases every night can help, same with an elimination diet to see if any food is a trigger for acne.

      • Pieisawesome@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        2 months ago

        Stop shaving for a bit or use a hair trimmer to keep the fuzz in check.

        Your skin could be reacting to the shaving.

        Stop for a week or so and see if the acne improves.

        If so, it’s probably the shaving

  • duckythescientist@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    5·
    2 months ago

    Welcome to teenage boyhood. Other than what you are doing, the advice I was given growing up was that I’d eventually grow out of it. And luckily I did. If it’s really bad, talk to a dermatologist. Hopefully other people have more in depth advice.

      • duckythescientist@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        4·
        2 months ago

        The evaluation of acne severity showed that “mild acne” was the most frequent form in all subgroups (92% in adult females, 82% in adult males, 89% in teenage females, and 77% in teenage males, respectively). Additionally, the least frequent form was “severe acne” (1% in adult females, 3% in adult males, 1% in teenage females, and 1% in teenage males). Finally, “moderate acne” was observed homogeneously in all subgroups, though both male groups showed a little higher prevalence of such in comparison with the female groups (15% in adult males and 22% in teenage males versus 7% in adult females and 10% in teenage females) - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5788264/

        Still somewhat more of a boy thing, but it’s less of a difference than I thought. Also since OP is transmasc, I was hoping framing this as a boy thing would be comforting.

  • SGforceEnglish
    4·
    2 months ago

    Try cutting out sugar for a bit just to test. Sebum (the wax like stuff that accumulates from your pores) is stimulated by insulin (also a hormone). So cutting out things like pop or chocolate helps with oily skin.