Taking care of your skin is essential during any time of life, but it becomes even more critical during puberty. During this time, your body experiences significant internal and external changes, resulting in acne breakouts or redness.
However, by following these tips on taking care of your skin during puberty, you can ensure that you look your best even during this time of transformation.
1. Wash Your Face Twice a Day
Washing your face with a gentle cleanser is essential at any time, but it is especially critical during puberty. You will likely produce more oil than before, and this can cause acne breakouts.
Washing the dirt and impurities out of your pores will help to prevent these breaks outs from occurring. Additionally, washing your face regularly allows the skin on your face to clear up by eliminating all the impurities that can cause redness in some people.
2. Moisturize Regularly
While washing your face in the morning and evening, you should also be applying moisturizer to keep your skin hydrated throughout the day.
If you do not moisturize regularly, you might find that your skin will become flaky and irritated. It will help if you use a gentle, fragrance-free moisturizer designed specifically for the face.
3. Don’t Pick at Your Pimples
While you might be tempted to squeeze or pick at a pimple on your face, this can damage the skin around it and cause more acne breakouts. If a zit happens to pop up during puberty, do not touch it—let it run its course naturally without picking at it.
This will help prevent scarring from occurring and further skin irritation in that area because picking at acne can spread bacteria and debris into the surrounding skin tissue, leading to additional breakouts and scars.
4. Exfoliate Once a Week
Regular exfoliation is essential for keeping your face’s skin looking polished and clear, but it is especially critical during puberty. You might find that you are producing far more oil than usual or that your pores seem to be just as clogged as they were before puberty began.
Regularly exfoliating the top layers of your skin can help remove this excess oil buildup and prevent acne breakouts. It will also keep blackheads at bay by eliminating the impurities that block up the pores in some people. It would help if you used a gentle, fragrance-free facial scrub or cleanser to do this every week.
5. Drink Plenty of Water
Your skin is the largest organ in your body, and it needs to be hydrated to stay healthy. If you do not drink at least 64 ounces of water each day, you will likely start to notice that your skin feels dry and flaky and does not seem to look as good as usual.
Drinking plenty of water will help flush out impurities from your system and keep your skin feeling fresh throughout the day.
6. Take Care of Your Facial Growth
Proper facial growth is essential for achieving the best-looking face possible. One of the most common problems during puberty is the overjet—this is when more of your lower teeth show than usual because the upper teeth have grown too far forward.
This problem tends to occur more frequently in children who have a narrow jaw and a large overbite, which often goes away on its own as your child matures. However, you might want to look into dental appliances like Herbst if you are concerned about how long this process takes or need some help to correct an average-sized under-bite.
7. Examine Yourself for Skin Cancer
During puberty, you might find that moles and other marks on your skin begin to change in appearance or get more prominent. This is normal as your body undergoes various changes during puberty—even if the new mark on your skin looks a little concerning, it likely will not be anything to worry about.
However, any mole that begins to bleed or has a waxy, scaly texture should be examined by a physician right away. In addition, any mole that is larger than a pencil tip in size should be checked out.
Your skin is susceptible during puberty, so you will need to do everything you can to keep it healthy and clean. You might not have been prone to acne breakouts before puberty kicked in, but now you could find yourself with a face full of pimples—especially if your skin leans toward the oily side.
During puberty, you will want to use gentle products made for sensitive skin because these tend to be less likely to cause irritation or clogged pores. In addition, try avoiding products with additives such as fragrances since these can trigger breakouts in some people, too.