“How Do I Properly Wash My Face to Clear Acne?”

Ray J. Wang Teaches You How to Properly Wash Your Face to Clear Acne.

The following is an real email that I’ve received from a reader about face washing.   Her name has been changed to protect her identity.

hi ray,

i’m really excited about your website and starting your regimen, it’s a bit daunting (i am addicted to sugar) but it feels doable with time. i’ve had acne for about 5 years now (i’m nearly 19) but it shows no signs of stopping. i’ve quit dairy completely and that cleared up my cystic acne (woohoo!) but anyway, i haven’t looked through your site thoroughly enough to be positive there’s nothing on this but- i feel like you should have a section (if you don’t) about how exactly to wash your face. i’ve found that using the cetaphil cleanser and just barely using pressure to wash has dramatically improved my skin. i think a lot of people believe if they don’t use pressure and get all the oil off, the face wash isn’t doing any good. i think the real point is to be as gentle as possible and not upset the natural state of the skin too much. if you agree i think it would be great to share with others because, while it seems obvious to be gentle i feel that many don’t realize it and need some real emphasis put on it.

thanks for everything you’re doing! (and for free!) if you don’t know it already it is absolutely wonderful of you to dedicate so much time to this. also you’re improving the overall health of people as well as skin :]

-Julie

My Response:

When it comes to acne, face washing is usually done in the wrong way.  People either wash their face too much, too little, use the wrong face product, use too many products, or just do it wrong altogether.

Here are the steps:

1.) Identify your skin type

2.) Wash your hands

3.) Wash your face

4.) Wash your neck

5.) Dry gently

STEP #1: Identify your skin type.

Do you have oily skin?  Do you have dry skin?  Do you have a combination of the two?  Or is your skin pretty regular?  Generally, you’ll know what your skin type is if you’ve suffered from acne for a while or have paid attention to your skin.  But if you don’t know, try asking your friends who may know what they’re talking about or even your mother what your skin type is.  Actually, when I was in junior high, it was my mom who told me that I my skin type was oily.

You can generally tell what your skin type is by the middle of the day.  If you wash your face in the morning, and by the middle of the day it’s usually oily, you most likely have an oily skin type.  If it’s the middle of the day and your skin feels dry, you most likely have dry skin.  And when I say dry, I’m talking slightly uncomfortably dry.

STEP #2: Wash your hands.

Make sure your hands are clean because you don’t want to irritate your skin anymore if you already have an acne problem.

STEP #3: Wash your face.

Don’t wash too hard, generally you want to wash more gently.

Wash in a circular motion around your entire face.

Go over your face roughly 2-3 times which should take no longer than 5-10 seconds.

You just want to make sure that your face is clean without drying it out so don’t wash too long.  That’s a big mistake a lot of acne sufferers make because they need to “feel” like their face is clean so they often wash their faces extra long.  This may end up irritating your skin.

STEP #4: Wash your neck

Don’t forget to wash the front and side of your neck because sometimes acne also gets to those places too.  Our goal here is to target a little bit around the jawline.

STEP #5: Dry gently

When you’re done, dry gently with a clean towel.  Pat your face dry instead of rubbing it so that you don’t irritate your face.  You don’t need your face completely dry as a little moisture will dry when you walk around so don’t worry about getting it to perfection.

A QUICK TIP

The important thing to remember here is that if you suffer from acne, most likely if you were like me, you probably got to the point where you REALLY wanted to clear your face so you were washing your face to the excess.  So while I THOUGHT I was getting my face cleaner, I was actually causing more problems than I knew by irritating my skin.

And that became a problem because when you have acne, you do NOT want to irritate your skin.

So remember to get your face clean “enough,” because any “cleaner” than that and you might be washing your face a little too hard, too much, too long.

If you like this article or found it helpful, please check out my YouTube video channel here for more videos and demonstrations of how to clear your acne.

-Ray