Bacne: Back+Acne Treatments

Whether you're an athlete, a teenager, or just like everyone else, you may be afflicted with acne or pimples on your back. It is classified as zits that come up on your back, chest and shoulders inclusively. There are some mechanical ways to make sure that you don't breakout or contain your current breakouts. If you notice that you are starting to get some, you may want to wear loose clothing which is newly cleaned because you want only soft cotton fibers on your skin as they will remove excess sweat and skin flakes. If you're a girl and you wear a bra, try to wear a new one every day for this same hygienic reason. Your straps should fit well and not chafe against your skin throughout the day, but if you find that you get breakouts regardless, then try to switch to a strapless bra. Sometimes your acne can be an allergic reaction to your laundry detergent or the fabrics you are wearing, so try to eliminate any possible allergens. Bacne is formed when your pores get clogged by when excess sebum formed by your sebaceous glands and dead skin cells attracts bacteria. The reason why your back is so prone to acne is that there are more sebaceous glands here than most other places on your body.

Washing regularly
First and foremost, this should go without saying but it is definitely worth reiterating: if you want to get rid of your bacne, you must wash every day. Using anti-bacterial soap during your daily (and even twice daily if you have the time) wash will help eliminate the bacteria in your pores. Don't over-scrub or over-wash the area because you can irritate your skin and cause it to become too dry. If your skin is too dry it will go into panic-mode and release too much sebum to cover itself up, leading to more acne. You want to maintain a balance of moisture on your skin. Gently use an exfoliating sponge, loofah or washcloth during your shower (yes, you want to shower unless you are having a salt-water bath because soaking your skin in a pool of still water can increase your chances of getting more bacteria in your pores). Because the skin on your back is generally a lot tougher than the skin on your face, you can exfoliate gently every day and not just once a week, it is safe to do so as long as you're not worsening your irritation. Make sure that you wash your body with a medicated body wash that has two percent salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide, specifically letting it sit over the area which has pimples before you rinse it off.

If you can get near a beach - alternative treatment
The simplest method to get rid of your breakouts is to visit the beach. Having your skin submerged in sea salt water for approximately ten minutes can drastically help your skin. No cream or cleanser will help your skin the way the ocean can because it has natural anti-bacterial properties. The warm temperature of the water helps to cleanse the skin. Sand also can act as an exfoliating agent and improve your complexion if you gently rub it on your afflicted area. If you can't get near a beach, then you can achieve the same effect by boiling a mixture of salt and water and letting it sit to the side until it has cooled. Use this solution to wash your face and body to get rid of dirt and oil.

Infuse moisture
Use a moisturizer after you wash your skin to increase the hydration level of your pores. However, make sure that the product you use is oil-free and medicated if your acne is severe. If you are already using a medicated soap or treatment, then use just a regular moisturizer without medication in it that is highly hydrating and is noncomedogenic, which means that it does not block pores, because this will reduce the incidence of pimples and will not allow the salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide (pimple treatments) in your other products dry out your skin.

Medicated treatments
If you use medicated creams or gels, try to go for ones that say they contain benzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid but do not use both. If you use both of these substances together on your skin they can have negative effects on your skin and may burn your skin pretty severely. The burns from these products can be worse on sensitive skin than any acne, so you may want to consult with your dermatologist if you have a history of negative skin reactions. It is important that you use a hydrating cream over top of these treatments or after you clean them off because your skin will be dried out. These treatments are also bleaching, so make sure you don't put your clothing right over top immediately because you won't be able to repair the color.

The rule-of-thumb is that if you're using one product that is medicated, whether it be soap, treatment or moisturizer, you want them to either be from the same line of products or stick to just one of them so that there are no negative interactions between the chemicals used. You don't want to overload your skin with chemicals, it may have an adverse reaction to this. Rather than experimenting on your skin with harsher treatments if you don't know how your skin might react, I suggest going to visit your dermatologist. Some problems are too severe to take care of with over-the-counter treatments and regular body washes. Some treatments may take weeks to work and others may have no effect at all on you so you may want to seek help especially if you have deep, painful cysts on your back. If you have a serious affliction or problem, you may need an aggressive topical treatment or antibiotics, to avoid scarring and for the best possible results visit your dermatologist.

How to pop your pimple the right away

This is a controversial topic because you are definitely not supposed to be popping your own pimples, but we still can't help ourselves and I know that my readers do it because I can't help myself, either. It's human nature to touch things we're not supposed to. So I'm going to discuss with you the proper method for doing so, and I feel as though I've gained important insight after much research on the topic. What you will need: a magnifying mirror (so you can get a good look at what you're doing, I prefer 5-10x magnifying), a kleenex, antiseptic wash, cleanser, and your fingers (or someone else's fingers if you can convince someone to do this for you).


For an enflamed zit on the surface of the skin

This is the wrong way to pop your pimples

First, you want to sterilize the area you're about to abuse. Use rubbing alcohol on a cotton pad, makeup cleanser or sanitizer wipes and let it dry. You don't want to do this on top of makeup or on dirty skin because you will just be creating an opportunity for bacteria to re-enter your pore and create more of a pustule than you had in the first place. Afterwards, you should gently exfoliate the skin around and on top of your pimple to gently move the dead skin cells and prepare the area before you go in to extract. You should wrap tissues around your fingers like tiny little finger-mitts because you don't want the bacteria from under your finger nails (and trust me, there is a lot in there) to work its way into the pimple. Pimples are basically havens for dead skin cells, sebum and white blood cells, which to the naked eye just look like the filthy pus we associate with them. Place your index fingers, which should be wrapped in kleenex by now, on either side of your pimple and wiggle the skin towards the pimple and in the opposite direction, pulling away from it. The skin will tear just enough for the pimple to come out, and if not, I just apply a little pressure towards the middle and it comes out completely. Try not to pinch so hard that blood comes out because you will be more likely to develop a scar.Dermatologists suggest that you use benzoyl peroxide as a pimple zapper, but I have first-hand experience with the solution and if you have sensitive skin, it will quickly burn, so I recommend staying away from it unless you have already used it and know that your skin will not be adversely affected.

What to do with your blackheads

Proper method of zit removal

Follow the exact same cleansing and exfoliating techniques mentioned above, also be sure to do a proper finger preparation. Using your bare fingers and nails to press skin together is the absolute worst thing you can be doing for your face because you will break the skin, alter your pore, perhaps even creating a scar, and not necessarily removing the blackhead. The proper way to do it is to place your fingers on either side of the clogged pore and gently pulling the skin apart (away from the blackhead in either direction) and then gently rolling your fingers back together. This will coerce the blackhead to raise itself to the surface, and only then can you gently push your fingers together and extract it on your kleenex. Continue doing this for all of the blackheads you want to remove. Since you have brought bacteria onto the surface of your skin, you will want to use an antiseptic wash or rubbing alcohol to clean the area after you are done.

For those big painful nodules stuck inside the skin
You will either have to wait these out and conceal them with antibacterial concealer, or you will  have to visit a dermatologist to have them zapped. However, there is another method that might work for you. If you take a damp cloth or towel which is warm to hot in temperature, you can place it above the pustule and rub it on top until you see some movement. This make take quite a few minutes or until the next day, but eventually it will come to the surface. Some say that wet and warm green tea bags work in much the same fashion, so you can experiment with them if the towel method isn't working for you. Once the pustule has formed a white head you can use the steps outlined in the first paragraph of this article.

There are old wives' tales about using toothpaste or baking sode to dry out the pimple, but you should stay away from these substances because your skin will release even more oils from the abuse these chemicals cause (and you'll get an even worse break-out). If you've tried everything you can and you simply can't get it out, don't attempt to gouge your fingers into your skin because the abrasive and harsh actions will be painful and unsightly. If you are suffering from acne, you will NOT want to use any of these methods because the reason you're getting pimples isn't as simple as a little dirt trapped inside your pores and you should see a dermatologist rather than cause yourself harm. If a pimple is not ready to go, then don't force it, just cover it up and move on with your day. At the end of the day, it's just a pimple, we all get them all the time, nobody's going to judge you. Own it!