High on Health Writers
Fran
I first started getting pimples when everyone else does, when I was a teenager. I seemed to only get them on my forehead, but I had a lot of them. Every morning I would wake up and run my fingers along my forehead in the hope they’d disappeared during the night. Of course they hadn’t. I remember going to a hairdresser once and asking for bangs. My hair was all the same length then so I was wearing it scraped away from my face. I remember the hair dressers remark when she cut my hair so that it covered my pimples. She said, ‘There we go, that’s much better now’. All I could think about was how hideous my forehead must look!
After I left high school my parents moved to Malaysia to work so I went with them for a year and had a bit of a break. My skin got a lot better although I always had at least one pimple on my face at all times, and the occasional breakout. The following year I moved back to Australia to go to University. I was only just eighteen and for the first time in my life looking after myself, so you can just imagine how bad my diet was. It wasn’t so much that I wanted to eat junk food, it was more that I didn’t have the right education as to what eating well meant, and how you could do it on a students budget. So my skin responded to the bad diet and stress and I started to break out, a lot worse then I ever had before. It got to the point where I took myself to the doctor and they prescribed antibiotics.
The antibiotics worked really well, but I had to take them for a long time and they made my skin very sensitive. My skin would blush really easily and go red if I was too hot. I still have this problem today, but I never had it before I took the course of antibiotics.
When I went off the antibiotics, the pimples slowly returned. I started to panic so raced back to the doctor but she wouldn’t give me any more antibiotics because she said they were not as bad as they were before. I gloomily agreed. A year or so later I decided to go on the pill. Once again, my skin cleared up completely but my body rejected the pill and I had to stop taking it.
I put up with always having at least one pimple on my face at all times until shortly after my 27th birthday when my boyfriend and I split up after almost eight and a half years of being together. The stress of the split made my face break out really badly. I also got a lot of cystic acne around my jaw line and cheeks which is something I’d never had before. I was horrified to learn that I had what was classed as severe acne. It got to the point where I would stare at my reflection in the mirror literally for hours just examining my face. A few times when I woke up in the morning and looked in the mirror I burst into tears. I was depressed out of frustration. I tried going to the doctor but he just gave me an antibiotic gel that didn’t even work. I tried Proactiv and different cleansers and moisturizers, Chinese Herbs, supplements and vitamins but nothing helped, and some even made my skin a lot worse. My skin was consistently bad, and would be for another nine months until I finally found a solution that worked.
Today I feel as though I’m getting my face back. I look in the mirror now and I can see Fran again, instead of just red spots and pimples. I used to hate staying over at friends houses because they would see me without my make up. Now I can confidently spend days without wearing any foundation at all.
I started High on Health as a natural health blog but I spent so much time researching how to cure my own problem skin that it has turned into a natural acne treatment and skin care blog. Now that I’ve managed to finally fix my own skin, I want to help as many people as I can to fix their own problem skin without the need to take oral medications or use harsh skin care chemicals.
About High on Health
In Australia and the US, almost any ingredient may be allowed in cosmetics and perfumes.
With the exception of color additives and a few prohibited ingredients, a cosmetic manufacturer may, on his own responsibility, use essentially any raw material as a cosmetic ingredient and market the product without approval.
This means manufacturers can put whatever chemical they want into cosmetics, skin and body products including chemicals that are both toxic and harmful to our bodies.
Although not prohibited by law or regulation, in addition, the manufacturers of cosmetic fragrance products have voluntarily agreed to not use or to limit maximum use levels of certain selected ingredients which have been found to cause depigmentation, irritant, neurotoxic, or phototoxic or other allergic reactions.
High on Health is all about alternatives to skin and body care. I’m determined to find the best products for managing all your skin, body and beauty needs. In particular, my aim is to find healthy natural treatments and cures for acne. In the process of finding and trialling the best solutions, I’d love your input and experience to help discover what does and doesn’t work. I’d love to get your help as much as I can help you.
