Minimalist Approach To Fighting Acne With Neutrogena Products - Journal Entry # 4

Even though I had seen some improvement in 1999 by using the various doses of doxycycline oral antibiotic pills, I became frustrated with my overall condition.

It was a real pain for a teenager in college to remember to take two pills a day especially when the results were inconsistent.

My face always looked red because the antibiotics made my skin more sensitive to sun, which I couldn't entirely avoid while walking around on my university's large outdoor campus.

The doxycycline antibiotics never completely cleared up my face, didn't affect my body acne, and caused my skin to have increased photosensitivity. For all those reasons, I decided to give up on them and become an "anti-acne minimalist".

So I stopped taking the pills and instead focused on getting more sleep, eating healthier, and washing with gentle cleansers.

It was a relief in itself just to not have to stress about taking my prescription antibiotics twice a day. Two of my other gripes with the doxycycline pills were that they would upset my stomach if I forgot to take them with a meal and they would get stuck in my throat if I didn't wash them down with an entire glass of water. Sometimes I'd cough and the powder inside the stuck pill would come out of my mouth and it tasted terrible.

Basically the only product that I used during the year was Neutrogena's Oil Free Acne Wash, which does a great job of cleaning your face but can also be very drying. I may have been washing my face too often because the skin always felt dry but at the time that seemed like a lesser evil than having my skin covered in greasy clog poring oil. Later I learned that you should only wash your face two to three (2-3) times per day to allow some of the naturally moisturizing oils to stay on the skin.

Previous Journal Entry # 3 1999 Next Journal Entry # 5 2001

My Skin Pictures 2000
As the year progressed the positive effects of the doxycycline antibiotics started to fade and my face began breaking out with more and more pimples. During the brutally hot Florida summer months my face started looking extra oily. Having a bit of a tan did temporarily help a little bit, but my face would always seem to produce even more oil once the tan faded. By the end of the year, I began to see some "cystic" or "nodular" severe acne on my neck, chin, and cheek. Since I was worried about scarring and my self esteem had been plummeting, I decided to go back to my dermatologist for some more help.
Forehead - January 2000	Neck & Cheek - February 2000	Forehead # 1 - February 2000
Chin - February 2000	Forehead # 2 - February 2000	Neck & Cheek # 2 - February 2000
Neck & Chin - April 2000	Forehead - April 2000	Forehead - May 2000
Cheek & Neck # 2 - May 2000	Forehead # 3 - May 2000	Cheek & Neck - June 2000
Forehead - June 2000	Forehead - July 2000	Sun Kissed Cheek - July 2000

Chin - July 2000	Cheek & Neck - July 2000	Cheek & Neck - August 2000
Forehead - August 2000	Cheek & Neck - September 2000	Forehead - September 2000
Chin - October 2000	Forehead - October 2000	Forehead - October 2000
Neck & Cheek - Oct. 2000	Forehead - November 2000	Cheek & Chin - Nov. 2000
Cheek & Neck - Nov. 2000	Chin Nodular Acne - Dec. 2000	Forehead - December 2000

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