All About Breakouts Of The Back, Chest, Arms, Legs and Behind
Breakouts on the back or chest are most often caused by excess oil plus friction. Here are a few tips and suggestions on clearing up body breakouts and keeping them away :
•Exfoliation – use exfoliating body gloves or bath brush every time you shower.
•Use a Benzoyl Peroxide (BPO) wash three times a week, daily if the breakout is severe (stop when the breakout clears up, start again if you break out again).
•Treat individual pimples with 5 or 10% BPO lotion, unless the area tends to get dry, in which case a 2.5% BPO should be used.
•Wear breathable materials that are not too scratchy, or too tight.
•Switch to detergents, fabric softeners and drier sheets that are totally fragrance-free.
•Avoid body moisturizers, because there are very few that don’t contain pore clogging or pore blocking ingredients. If you must use a moisturizer on small areas, it is best to use the same one as you use on your face, one recommended by a licensed skin care professional. You can also use a body moisturizer created specially for body breakouts and even ingrown hairs that contains Alpha Hydroxy Acid and powerful hydrators to soften skin and loosen up dead cells and solidified oil.
•For breakouts on the back, monthly back facials are a good idea to control dead skin cell buildup, add hydration, soak up oil and heal acne lesions until the problem goes away. Then continue the recommended skin care regimen noted above. For breakouts elsewhere, an exfoliating body treatment is recommended at least once every two months.
But what’s with the bumpiness on my arms, and why do I break out on my butt all the time ?!
It’s a condition called Hyperkeratosis Pilaris. Skin cells die a little before they are meant to, and build up during their hardening stage before they are supposed to stack up to form the normal, protective top layer of the skin. What results is a prickly mess building up in many pores, resulting in that “goose-bumpy” feeling, and occasionally prevention of hairs from coming through the follicle properly, leading to a few pimples. On the behind and thighs, pressure and friction from sitting, and from rough clothing like jeans, pushes more dead skin cells and oils into the pores, causing clogging and irritation.
The answer to all of this is EXFOLIATION. That is, both inside the pores using Alpha Hydroxy Acids (AHA’s) and Benzoyl Peroxide (BPO), and outside on the skin of the affected area using exfoliating gloves. Treatment also involves hydrating and moisturizing the area as well, so the skin releases its dead cells more easily. The overall treatment would be as follows:
Step 1) Use exfoliating gloves every shower with a BPO wash on affected areas.
Step 2) After your shower use an AHA lotion over the area, rub in thoroughly, let dry.
Step 3) Apply sunscreen to the area religiously unless you are certain the area will have absolutely no sun exposure. If there is no sun exposure, no other moisturizer is needed.
It is also a good idea to avoid body washes with artificial fragrance. If you do not moisturize with an AHA lotion, body lotions should not contain any avocado, olive, palm or coconut oils. You should also avoid products that contain mineral oil, petroleum or petroleum jelly, so your skin can begin to shed its dead skin cells and allow the free flow of its own oil. Most moisturizers out there are clogging, so really you should only use a lotion recommended by your skin care professional.
