Are you ever tired of trying so many unsuccessful acne treatments that you don’t think about washing your face at all? Well, believe it or not, not washing your face might be the best acne treatment! Not washing your face is often called the “caveman diet,” and many acne sufferers have found great success using it.
How can you not wash your face clean your skin? For many people, skin care products — even the gentlest ones — only aggravate acne by upsetting the skin’s natural pH balance and stripping away the acid mantle that protects it. When we leave our skin alone (No makeup, soap, moisturizers, and even little to no water), our skin naturally reverts to a slightly acidic pH. This acidity is protective because bacteria have a hard time growing in an acidic environment. However, most detergents tend to be slightly alkaline or even very alkaline. In order to try to restore its acidity, your skin secretes sebum (oil), which if overproduced eventually causes acne. Thus, it may be best for you to simply not wash your face at all and let it do what it naturally wants to do.
If you want to try the caveman diet, there are several guidelines you’ll want to follow:
- Do not use any products. This means no cleansers, moisturizers, oils, or any other products.
- Don’t use makeup. Aside from the fact that it contains chemicals, you’ll need to wash it off somehow, which you can’t do, of course. If you must use some makeup, use only eye or lip makeup, which you can safely remove without affecting the surrounding skin.
- Don’t even let the water touch your face. Even water upsets your skin’s pH balance and acid mantle. This can be a little tricky, especially while in the shower. Just do your best. A little water won’t hurt – just try not to soak your skin.
be patient. When you first start a caveman diet, you are likely to get hacked. When you start the caveman diet, it’s as if your skin kicks off a treadmill. It used to produce extra oil to replace all the oils your cleaners remove. So, even when you’ve stopped using cleansers, your skin continues to overproduce sebum, and things might be a little greasy for a while. But take heart, your skin will eventually learn it doesn’t need to produce as much oil. Give your skin 3-6 months to rebalance oil production.