My Experiment on Home Made Remedies for Teen Acne

• A couple of weeks ago, we had a family reunion and I had a nephew who was about 15 years old and he suddenly had this outbreak of acne all over his face. Normally, I wasn’t that surprised because his father, who happened to be my brother, also suffered from the same affliction as he did. I also suffered from acne when I was a teen, but it wasn’t that severe. I decided to help my nephew by doing some experiments on homemade remedies for acne, instead of relying acne treatmentproducts.

  

  I interviewed a dermatologist who specialized in skin problems like acne. She told me that acne is a result of an overproduction of sebum, which is an oil that lubricates the skin. The production of sebum becomes affected because of hormone related problems, or in this case, puberty. Sebum will then clog the pores of the skin, trapping bacteria and dirt inside them. Infected pores will start to swell, thus leading to acne.

  Before I decided to shop around for the acne treatment products, I wanted to try out the different kinds of homemade remedies for acne on my nephew. This was done every couple of days.

  

  1. The oatmeal therapy – this was the first experiment that I chose because it was supposedly effective against acne. Livestrong, a health and fitness website, posted a similar article about the effectiveness of oatmeal against acne. Oatmeal can be used as a face mask if you decide to treat acne with it. I blended bulk amounts of colloidal oatmeal along with some cucumber and cooked it according to the instructions. After cooking, I cooled it down for a bit and applied it all over my nephew’s face. You can also use oatmeal as a facial scrub for your acne. All you have to do is mix the oatmeal into lukewarm water until it becomes damp and rub it all over your face with a washcloth, just like you would with a facial cleanser.
     1. Results: 2 days later, my nephew still had acne and I think some of them were still new, while the older acne was already healed and they did not leave a scar. Although effective, it does not provide us with a long term remedy.
  2. The lemon therapy – Lemon therapy involves the use of lemon because of its antiseptic properties. Acne can also be caused by the presence of bacteria, and the citric acid of lemons can kill bacteria. This therapy was relatively easier to prepare than the oatmeal therapy. You only have to cut a lemon in half and squeeze the juice into the affected area. Leave it to dry overnight and wash it off in the morning.
     1. Results: 2 days later, my nephew’s acne was now at minimal, in terms of scarring and presence. I decided to wait for another day if it was indeed effective. On the third day, there was hardly any acne present at all, although there was some scarring.

  Final findings: I asked him to use the lemon and oatmeal therapy at the same time; the lemon therapy for its antiseptic properties and the oatmeal-cucumber face mask for the removal of scars caused by acne.