:Clear Skin Blog

Sometimes you get a bump on your skin that’s not acne, but looks equally bad. It might be caused by an ingrown hair, or an irritated area of your skin that remains inflamed even after the acne pustule is gone. These spots can be a pain in the neck to get rid off, so what do you do?

First off, don’t pick at your scar tissue! I know everyone had heard the “don’t pick” line a few times too many, but it’s especially important here, sometimes even moreso than with genuine acne spots. Scraping away at a scar tissue bump can have exactly the opposite effect that you want, as the scar tissue will often grow back even bigger, thicker and more noticeable than before. So sit back and let your skin heal.

That said, there are some things you can do to speed the process along. Natural exfoliation is a good thing, and by natural I don’t mean shaving over your bump with a razor blade. Allow yourself a bit of sun, rinse regularly and use a gentle exfoliation scrub when you’re in the shower. Keeping a healthy circulation will also help, so drink plenty of water and take some vitamin C along with B5. A bit of Neosporin can help if your skin if inflamed around the region, but use it sparingly and remember that the best way to prevent inflammation is simply to keep your hands away.

Occasionally, if a bump is caused by an ingrown hair, the hair may need to be removed before the area will heal completely. Do not try to dig it out prematurely. Wait until the spot is no longer swollen and the hair is clearly visible. If you wait a very long time, your body will actually break down the hair, but this can sometimes take months. As long as the hair is clearly visible and near the surface, a sanitized needle can be used to free it, after which it should be removed with a pair of tweezers.

Scare tissue bumps can be a pain, as there’s no simple treatment and the fact is that they take time to heal. Patience is your best weapon. And of course, it’s a good idea to be gentle with your skin so as to prevent these blemishes from occurring in the first place.

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As any of you who have tried to order in the past few days knows, our shopping cart server is currently offline. I’ve contacted our hosting company’s tech support on multiple occasions and they are supposedly working on fixing the problem right now, not that that gives me much comfort since they’ve been saying the same thing for two days without any sign of progress. I apologize for the inconvenience this is causing. Obviously, we would like to accept your orders, but right now the site times out whenever customers try to access the secured server. We’ve received confirmation that this is a problem on the host’s end, and right now I can’t really do much other than wait for them to straighten their servers out.

Update: server is back online. Sorry again for the inconvenience. Hopefully our host will stay up this time.

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Trouble with body acne is one of those subjects I still get a lot of emails about. Clear5 of course helps put a stop to back and body acne, but if your lifestyle is working against you, you may be causing new breakouts without even knowing it. Since body acne is more likely to have surface causes than facial acne (which is more likely directly caused by excess oil), it’s important to keep certain factors in mind. So here’s a quick list of some things you can do to put a stop to stubborn acne on your back and body.

Shower regularly with a gentle body wash and a good bath sponge or loofah. Yes, showering may seem like common sense, but a lot of people either shower less frequently than they should, or simply take quick showers without bothering to give those hard-to-reach areas a good scrub. I know I’ve done the later on plenty of occasions. If you’ve got body acne, it’s not enough to just slather on a bit of soap and rinse it off. You need to use a bath sponge with some texture and gently scrub well enough to actually exfoliate that top layer of skin.

Wash your bed sheets regularly. For guys like me that hate doing the laundry, this one can slip under the radar. Don’t let it. You sweat during your sleep, and dirty sheets are a prime place for bacteria to build up. If you’re not washing those bed sheets regularly, you’re inviting bacteria to invade your pores every time you hit the sack.

Don’t lie around in tight, sweaty clothes. Working out is good, but make sure to change out of your exercise clothes afterward. Like sweaty sheets, bacteria thrive in sweat-soaked clothing, and the threat of acne can be even worse if tight clothing is pressed right against (potentially clogging) your pores.

Speaking of clogging your pores, is your back glued to the back of a chair all day? Yep, that can cause back acne as well. I know this can be a hard problem to deal with, especially if you have a desk job or spend all day sitting in class, but when you can, try to let the pores on your back breathe. Don’t come home and punish your skin even more by sinking into your favorite chair for hours.

Lastly, get a little sun. That’s right, forget the SPF-15 and soak up some good old UV rays. Now be careful, I’m not saying you should try and “tan away” your acne. That’s never a good idea. However, 15-20 minutes of sun exposure a day is actually healthy for you. It enhances your skin’s exfoliation (helping rid your body of acne faster), your circulation (speeding the healing of blemishes), and can even help prevent cancer. So go ahead and get some sun, it’s safer than the sunscreen sellers would have you believe.

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