It's finally time to discover some facts about acne and it's affects on skin of color. With all the misunderstandings about acne as a whole, it is important to understand how and why we get acne pimples in order to more effectively address this very common skin condition.
Contrary to popular belief, most acne causes are not the result of eating chocolate, fried foods or anything like that, so relax. However, more so than not, the acne break outs can also have a lot to do with and may be the result of an internal culprit called hormone imbalance. This can be the result of a congested liver.
No one's immune to this condition. Men, as well as women can experience hormone imbalance. If the liver functioned to it's full potential, hormone levels would become more balanced and acne break outs would be less of a problem. This will be discussed later in an upcoming article.
Now externally in many skin types, including skin of color, the most common causes of acne are:
- Excessively oily skin
- Skin inflammation and irritation
- Bacteria
- Dead skin cell build up
Facts about acne: An overview of the causes
1. Excessive oiliness
The sebaceous gland within the skin produces a natural material called sebum (oil). Sebum is what provides our skin and hair natural and necessary moisture. This is a good thing. However, too much oil is what you don't want.
When the oil gets trapped inside the pore due to inadequate shedding of dead skin cells, the sebum or oil then fills the pore and mixes together with the dead skin cells. This causes bacterial infection and inflammation, resulting in acne bumps.
2. Skin inflammation and irritation
We have a tendency to over stimulate and irritate our skin by using harsh skin care products. This activity can contribute to break outs which are only one (although very common) of many acne causes.
Also, we sometimes over cleanse our faces in an effort to rid our complexions of oily shine, and dirt. You may not believe it, but dirt is not the culprit either. However, it doesn't hurt to maintain a clean pallet.
More than likely, many of us with acne break outs have clean skin because we over cleanse thinking this is going help. In actuality, this doesn't. Over cleansing or harsh scrubbing only makes matters worse by causing unnecessary skin irritation which usually results in acne break outs.
This is your skin's natural response to inflammation and irritation. This can be a common acne cause. Skin of color is highly reactive (negatively responsive) to irritation. Unfortunately in darker skin types, acne often leads to dark spots, because it imposes irritation to our skin. This is due to the hypersensitive nature of our skin.
This is the same thing that occurs when your skin becomes injured, or inflamed and responds to this irritation by producing more increased levels of melanin to cause dark spots and other skin discoloration. Only this time, your skin is breaking out in acne bumps as a result.
Remember, all irritation is not painful. Even if you don't feel your skin is irritated, it may very well be. In this case, instead of signaling you of it's irritation through pain, it's signaling you of it's irritation by forming acne bumps on your skin's surface.
3. Bacteria
Bacteria is formed when the pores get filled with oil and is not able to be released, due to the presence of dead skin cells that haven't been shed from the skin's surface. Dead skin cells block the pores so that the oil cannot escape.
The oil then builds up within the pores, mixing with skin cells, causing the formation of bacteria. The skin becomes inflammed and soon after, acne break outs begin.
4. Dead skin cell build up
Another external cause of acne break outs, are the blockage of skin pores by the build-up of dead skin cells. Your skin's cell turnover occurs approximately every 28 days (give or take a day or two).
What this process does is help your skin to do it's job of bringing fresh, new, healthy skin cells to the surface. Also, when dead skin cells are removed from the skin's surface, sebum or oil build up is minimized, resulting in less acne break outs.
But first, you must exfoliate your skin for this to occur. To exfoliate, means you're starting down the path toward clear, acne-free skin. Exfoliation or removal of dead skin cells is the second most important skin care step after sun protection.
