Welcome to our Body Talk series where our in-house Nykaa editors cover educational and important conversations on body health.
Pesky, pus-spitting bumps making you swear each time you make a humble attempt at lying down? Mousree Paul unveils some gory and some not-so-gory deets about bacne.
Constantly cursing yourself for being ‘blessed’ with an oily face that’s prone to breakouts? You’ll thank your stars very soon. Imagine the horror of not being able to explore the world of backless cholis. Frightening, eh? Did you know that our back ranks only second to our face when it comes to acne-attracting areas of our body? As if we didn’t resent them enough already.
One gruesome bacne incident (read accident) that I’ve witnessed left me scarred for life. This goes back to my first time I went to Goa with the girls. While the rest of us were busy giggling and selfie-ing like schoolgirls, one friend looked visibly tense. After a little probing, we understood why. She was scared to don her brand-new bikini, thanks to a ghastly bout of bacne. Two hours and numerous pep talks later, she slipped into her latest purchase and strutted off in confidence towards the beach. We regretted it instantly. Ten minutes of sun-baking transformed her bacne into painful, red blisters that spewed blood at any kind of contact. Goes without saying, the rest of the trip was all about finding a doctor and taking turns at ice-packing the poor soul.
If you wore an all-knowing frown all this while, switch your concentration mode on right away because we’re coming back to the work at hand – the back acne causes and back acne treatment.
The triggers for back acne are pretty much the same as facial acne – hyperactive oil glands, accumulated layers of dead skin, and proliferation of acne-causing bacteria. Clearly nothing new there. Sadly enough, the upper half of our body has more sebaceous glands than the lower half. More sebum means more oil which in turn translates to greater chances of pore-blockage. Add sweat to the equation and the problem gets aggravated as rapidly as a forest fire.
Time to call out the elephant in the room – much of this is primarily caused due to the lack of personal hygiene. Skipping that mandatory shower after a workout session can wreak havoc on your already-clogged pores. Other common irritants are fitted clothes, especially material with zero-breathability (polyester, nylon), and grimy bed linen that isn’t washed regularly. Cases where genetically predisposed acne plays the villain are also not uncommon.
Tips on How To Get Rid of Back Acne
To put a glorious end to upsetting tales about your bumpy back, here’s what you need to tick off.
- ‘Can’t reach my back’ is no longer a good enough excuse to give that acne hotspot a miss? In fact, body washes high on Salicylic Acid, like the Neutrogena Rainbath Refreshing Shower And Bath Gel or the Natio Acne Daily Purifying Body Cleanser, could just be your knight in shining armour. Slather some on the The Body Shop Bath Lily Olive afterwards and break up with sweat-inducing bacteria.
- Next up on the anti-acne squad are our pore-fessionals, The Body Shop Fuji Green Tea Body Scrub and Biotique Bio Nut De-Toxifying Body Scrub. Get rid of pore-jamming dead skin cells with a gentle scrub-scrub-scrub spree.
- All hail, the Tea Tree. Mix two drops of Nykaa Naturals Tea Tree Essential Oil with a suitable carrier oil and dab onto the affected areas before hitting the bed. Not too fond of a business that messy? Put the Nature's Touch Tea Tree Shower Gel to effective use.
- Have a long, lustrous mane? No need to flaunt it during those sweat sessions. Keep sweaty hair off your back; put it up in a topknot with the help of an Elite Models Fashion Hair Scrunchie. Also, ensure that your neither your shampoo nor conditioner runs down your back. You never know what might just intensify the issue.
- Digging up your long-forgotten halter tops already? Then better not limit your sunscreen to just the face. Squish a little of the The Body Shop Vitamin C Glow Protect Lotion SPF 30 PA+++ on to your palms and rub it on your back before heading out the door.