LPT: Cure your backne.
I posted this about a year ago in a different sub-reddit, but after receiving a few success story letters, I figured it was worth a re-post.
As a teenager I had regular teenage acne, and always really bad bacne. When I finally took the drug Acutane, it cleared up everything. But a few years later the bacne came back. I tried a bunch of home remedies and other drugs, but nothing really did anything. Except this.... It has a few steps, but the last one is the most important.
-Wash your sheets every weekend. If you are a sweaty oily dude (or dudette) clean them twice a week. Hell, just change them as often as possible. This might be enough to clear up many people's bacne.
-Don't wear dirty clothes.
-Shower before going to bed. Don't sleep in your filth. (this is important later on....)
-Get some nice acne soap to wash your back with in the shower. Some without perfumes and crap in it. Same goes for shampoo.
-And finally, use vinegar. Really. Every night before taking my evening shower I sprayed my back with vinegar (I used rice vinegar, but I don't think it matters). I just filled up a spray bottle and gave my back a good soaking and let it dry (usually while reading reddit). Wash it off in the shower.
After a while my back would get a little red as soon as I put it on, but after my shower it would be back to normal. I did it off and on for a year and now I don't have to do it at all.
I think the science here is:
vinegar kills bacteria.
bacteria is fussy about where it lives. Putting vinegar on your back messes with the PH balance just enough to keep the acne causing stuff away.
It didn't seem to dry my back out much, so I don't think it was that.
If you try and it works (or doesn't) please let me know. It should take about 3 weeks to clear up.
Well, they usually sell it at 5% acidity or whatever, that oughtta to just fine.
Upvote. They don't sell 100% vinegar. It's already a 2-5% solution when you buy it in the store. If your skin freaks out, then go ahead and dilute it some more.
Full strength. Like I said though, I used rice vinegar...and I'm not sure if it is stronger than white vinegar.
pls only diluted!! the full strength one is a really strong acid.
Actually it will help. One of the best things you can use as a toner is undiluted raw apple cider vinegar.
Thanks, so it wont dry out my face too much or make it turn red(er)
It shouldn't. What are you using to wash your face ? I found that I was using stuff that was too harsh, and so it was harming my skin more than helping.
Dove soap. Because it has a neutral PH and is moisturizing and has no added fragrance.
Dilution doesn't change the strength of an acid, it changes its concentration.
Please go back to 6th grade Chemistry.
I have a RES tag on you saying that you cut to the chase. I don't know why.
I'd just like to say thanks for cutting to the chase. Keep it up.
Interesting. I'm pretty sure vinegar would kick that shit out of that too.
I may have had that, but I also defiantly had bacne. Big nasty ones.
Can I ask exactly how you came to the idea to start doing this? Or did you just suddenly start deciding vinegar is the best thing ever (laundry, cooking, preserving, etc) and you were like I bet vinegar can help here too!
Don't mean to be critical, three weeks is just an awful long time to do this on a whim :)
I really can't really remember.... I think someone might have told me or I heard it mentioned in passing. I googled it and found a few posts about it and figured "what the hell" and gave it a whirl.
edit for spelling
Apple cider vinegar is supposedly fantastic shampoo too.
Really? I've read that it's a good natural conditioner when used after a baking soda wash. I've never had the guts to try it myself, though.
Yes. Lowering the ph around the hair follicle causes the cuticles to close, which makes hair smoother. I believe lowering the ph is also the main mechanism in most commercial conditioners, but apple cider vinegar does that without any added bullshit.
Also, coconut oil is one of the few hair conditioners that has actually shown to penetrate the hair shaft and affect it, so that's a great one too. Plus it smells much better than vinegar.
I always wanted to get into natural homemade remedies but my hair is so tricky I'd rather stick to my normal routine. I use products that don't test on animals and try to find ones that are mostly natural/organic.
Thanks for this--very useful. And ain't vinegar an amazing liquid!
It really is. I drink some apple cider vinegar whenever I get a sore throat and it's gone the next day.
Two things that worked for me:
Use shampoo that doesn't contain silicone (ie. not Pantene).
Every morning and night, use an alpha hydroxy (AHA) product on your back. I use Paula's Choice 8% AHA gel. It took a while, but my back cleared nicely. I now use the AHA once a day, probably every other day for maintenance.
I am personally convinced, that getting sunlight (or UV light in general) exposure on my back clears up any spots on my back. Whenever I go on holiday and get some sun, the spots clear up nicely, however this could also be down to the fact that I swim in the sea a fair amount, therefore the salts may play a part in it as well. Either way UV light does kill bacteria so it must have some effect, anybody else find this?
I find that the sunlight works, but it is very very temporary.
Using UV light to kill bacteria on your body kind of makes the bacteria the least of your worries. Putting that aside though, I've had similar findings with swimming in saltwater. I think the big idea with the saltwater is that while it alters the moisture balance of your skin, the abrasive nature of saltwater makes it a great exfoliant which helps skin turnover in the problem-region (which is a major function of AHA products and retinoid medications). Getting some sun on the skin might just add to this general positive affect on your complexion by deepening and evening out your skin tone a bit.
I just started using AHA about a four weeks ago and it has cleared things up for me too. Nothing else has worked for me except this. I get the AHA from acne.org.
I find washing my hair upside down works wonders! Stop the shampoo getting on my back and I've not had one zit since!
My Tip:
I have also heard to use a fresh towel each night on your pillow to sleep on each night because of the oils that get on your pillowcase. What I do instead is only use a pillowcase twice (one night on each side) before switching it out for a clean one.
well, changing your pillowcase won't really help bacne though...
hehe, but I realize you are talking about your face.
I was trying to make the same point by telling people to change their bed sheets often.
OP has some good advice, especially when it comes to just keeping everything clean, but if you don't have the time, are too lazy to be this thorough, or have to shower in the morning for hair styling purposes:
Unscented soap without any dyes in the morning and Noxzema deep cleansing pads at night cleared up the problem for me. Really, any exfoliating face wipe would probably do the trick. Also, make sure you wash your body after you use conditioner because conditioner can clog pores. I also use laundry detergent without any fragrance or dyes. Bacne free for over a year!
How do you make the star and swish symbols? I'm on Win7 with Firefox 10.0.
Just highlight it from his post, copy it and save it to a word document.
Getting a good tan on your back has worked for me.
I've never tried vinegar but using lemons worked for me. Squeeze the juice out and rub on your face. Stings a bit, especially if you just shaved, but it works. My face is still a bit more oily than other peoples' but the acne that plagued me for 5+ years is long gone.
A little something about rubbing lemons on your skin.
When my sister was little she rubbed some lemon on her arm while out in the sun in a kiddie pool. After some time some spots started to grow on her arms and my parents freaked a little.
After about a month of going to doctors and specialists, our family doctor (who didn't see her first) saw them and asked if she rubbed lime/lemon juice while in the sun.
I'm not entirely sure it happens to everyone, but my light skinned siblings and me get spots from rubbing lemons on our skin and exposing it to the sun. Just something to consider.
Well fortunately I do everything possible to avoid sunlight anyway so this almost undoubtedly won't be a problem.
Ive always heard that lemon juice on skin if left in the sun too long will cause very bad sunburns!
Kids squeezing limes in a bowl, in the sunlight = skin graphs.
True story, google it
I would assume so, but the skin on your face is probably a little more sensitive than the skin on your back.
I'm going to click on this. And I'm going to hate myself for it. And I just want you to know that.
I am not. Avoid them if you can, they're nothing but moan moan moan, may your children be cursed for 7 generations, bitch bitch bitch...
My head is firmly stuck to my shoulders thankyouverymuch! Well, as firmly stuck as ectoplasm can be
took me a minute to realize (thankfully) that you said popping and not pooping
Thanks for the advice. I've always had bacne. But one thing that bothers me most is just general body acne. I dont ever have bad face acne, but i am forever having body acne. Mainly on my forarms, belly/chest and butt areas. Would this tactic help me.
Yeah, I think so. It cleared it off my upper arms pretty quickly.
coconut oil can be good also. it's an antibacterial/fungal. it has like 1000 different uses
I will definitely be trying this and if it works I am forever grateful. I'm 22 and suffered from horrific bacne (I hate that word) for about ten years now. Bad enough that I don't go to the beach, I don't go to pool parties, and most of the time I even leave my shirt on during sex. I've recently started changing my sheets more regularly and showering at night vs morning, both of which have helped but the problem still lingers.
Why would you let something like that bother you so much? I have it pretty badly too, but seriously, it's not the end of the world and certainly not a reason to be so ashamed. Please, do yourself a huge favor and go swimming. Trust me, all those people who you think are judging your physical imperfections are most likely ignoring yours and worrying about theirs. And hey, if they are judging you, fuck 'em. Swimming is fun.
Ah if only it were so easy. I actually just moved from NJ to Myrtle Beach SC so I think I'm pretty much obliged to go to the beach at this point :P Hopefully I'll work up the courage to do it soon. Thanks for the kind words.
See, you do have to go to the beach :) Also, salt water and sunlight will probably do wonders for your back anyway, so shedding the t-shirts will help you more than you realize.
good luck! I hope it clears up. Make sure you get some unscented shampoos and soaps as well.
Thanks! i had posted a question over this in /askreddit/ and this was more helpful and concise then the answers i received!
I think I may have seen that and it inspired me.
another thing that worked wonders for me is sunlight. i had to buy a UV lamp for a couple years as a teenager and shine it on my back for 10 minutes at night. just that was enough to really really help. try exposing your back to the sun if you can, or go to a light tanning bed, for only like 5 minutes at a time. it works really well
What helped me with backne and chestne was a neutrogena body wash. I think it has 2% salicylic acid. Just use it every other shower.
Same here, been using Neutrogena for the past year or so to control breakouts.
It hasn't cured things for me yet, but it has been a lot better than the tetracycline regimen my former doctor had me on. About the only thing that cured me of was my ability to digest dairy (for which I fortunately eventually stumbled upon a solution to reverse).
I'd been curious about the potential effects of vinegar on acne lately, after reading a different post about controlling odors with it and it's general reputation as a cleaning agent. Just serendipitous timing to see this one here touting the very use.
I may have to investigate the suggestions for this LPT.
I find that it's really helpful to exfoliate your back well during showers, too. I scrub my whole body with a pair of shower gloves, and the amount of acne on my body has gone way down since I've been doing that.
I'm late to the party but this was the same tip I was going to share. I work in the construction industry in Australia (humid and sweaty) and I get my girlfriend to ex-foliate my back one a week and it works wonders.
I also agree about changing the sheets once a week as well and in general just being clean.
Oh, and dont forget to grab one of those back scrubbers wit the long handle. works for me.
I have to ask, what method did you use to spray your back? lol
OH, good question. I just got a spray bottle and filled it full of vinegar.
Well I mean like literally how? Did you just reach around your back with the bottle? I don't think my arms would be that flexible lol.
Oh, yeah, that:s what I did. I reached over my back, and around behind.
the spray bottles should have enough umph (spelling?) to get it everywhere.
Vinegar is one of those things that has a million uses, like duct tape.
You can even soak in a vinegar bath, it's very good for your skin anyways. Have you ever noticed how much your skin clears up after swimming in the ocean? Vinegar simulates the slightly acidic nature of ocean water, and the salt absorbs stuff from your skin also. If you take a bath once a week, alternate between vinegar and epsom salt each week and your skin will be bossin.
Have you ever noticed how much your skin clears up after swimming in the ocean? Vinegar simulates the slightly acidic nature of ocean water, and the salt absorbs stuff from your skin also.
Vinegar is acidic. Seawater is not.
"Seawater pH is limited to the range 7.5 to 8.4."
wikipedia.org/wiki/Seawater
Has anyone else found that simply not touching your back EVER, helps with bacne?
I used to have pretty severe bacne up until recently when I decided to just stop touching my back altogether. I wouldn't soap, wash, or scratch my back ever. I just simply never touched it with anything except for towels and clothes, and in a matter of weeks the acne part of it was gone (I still have plenty of spots though).
Can you use vinegar on your face as well then? And how quickly does it work on acne?
I would think so, but your face might be a little more sensitive.
Has accutane stunted your growth? I was 5'8" when I started it at 13 and am still 5'8" years later. I could have been over 6' tall by now if I hadn't taken it. I also have other side effects too.
I don't think so. I'm not as tall as my dad, but there are plenty of people in my family as short/shorter than me.
OK so I've got some backne on my shoulder, right in the proximity of a tattoo I got 4 years ago, it came shortly after the tattoo and has stayed since. It's not an infection, just very specifically located backne. Think the vinegar tip would work? or would that end up affecting the deeper layers of the skin (where the ink is located)?
I doubt it, it's a pretty simple weak chemical.
Also, it might not be acne at all. There is another comment talking about another condition that looks like acne...which this will clear up I'm pretty sure.
My dermatologist recommended a twice weekly vinegar bath. One hot tub of water to at least 1 cup of white vinegar. It's weirdly relaxing too and your skin feels so good after.
Alternatively, take your shirt off every once in a while and let your skin breathe and maybe even get a little sun.
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