What to Do About Body Acne

It’s bad enough when acne breaks out on your face. But when acne breaks out on your scalp and neck and chest and back and buttocks, it’s just plain unfair. Even worse, the methods that treat facial acne usually are not strong enough to take care of acne elsewhere on your body. This article will tell you why acne breaks out on the body and what you can—and can’t—do to get rid of it for good.

Summary:

• Medical surveys have discovered that about 98% of people who have acne somewhere on the body other than the face also have acne on the face.
• The basics of treating body acne are the same as for treating facial acne, except that stronger products are needed.
• The first line of treatment for most cases of body acne (except acne conglobata) is benzoyl peroxide, in a stronger concentration than can be used on the face.
• Benzoyl peroxide foam works on body acne, but benzoyl peroxide washes do not.
• If you break out when you work out, be sure to take a shower within four hours of perspiring heavily, and use a shower mitt to exfoliate dead skin that can clog pores.

What Are the Types of Body Acne?

Most people who have acne on the chest or back also have acne on the face. A survey of Canadians who were referred to dermatologists for acne treatment found that 92% had facial acne, and 45% and 61% and acne on the chest and back, respectively. An American study found that 47% of acne patients had blemishes on the face alone, while 52% had acne breakouts on both the face and back. When people who have acne see their doctors, however, they usually forget to mention that they have back acne or chest acne. Acne that is not on the face does not get treated because people don’t seek help for it.

Acne on the torso, the neck and the scalp, and even the buttocks can be mild to severe. The type of acne that breaks out on the body, however, is usually the same as the kind of acne that breaks out on the face.

• Acne vulgaris or common acne forms in the same way on the body as it does on the face. The difference between acne vulgaris on the body and acne vulgaris on the face is that the skin on the body is tougher and less flexible around pores.
• “Friction” acne most often breaks out on the skin where straps or pads in uniforms or jerseys rub against the skin and trap sweat. The friction between the skin and clothing breaks down the lining of pores. The trapped sweat over-hydrates the skin so that it wrinkles and the topmost layer of skin dies. Flakes of skin get lodged in the openings of pores and oil and acne bacteria accumulate inside, making blackheads and pimples break out. Most people who get friction acne also have facial acne, but in about 2% of cases the problem is limited just to acne on the body where skin is constricted by clothing.
• Acne conglobata is a “burrowing” form of acne that can appear on the face, neck, shoulders, chest, or buttocks. Pimples pop out in groups of two or three, and then coalesce into a large, painful, dark red lesion.

Acne conglobata is a kind of acne is not really due to clogged pores. It’s caused by fluctuating hormones and usually has to be treated medically. Acne vulgaris and friction acne on the torso, however, can be treated with the same kinds of treatments used to treat facial acne, only at a stronger concentration.

Benzoyl Peroxide for Body Acne

Benzoyl peroxide is the world’s most commonly recommended product for facial acne. It is available in over-the-counter and prescription products. Usually over-the-counter products contain 2.5% to 10% benzoyl peroxide, while prescription products are 5% benzoyl peroxide or more.

There is no doubt that benzoyl peroxide can kill acne bacteria, but that’s really only part of the process of healing acne. Killing acne bacteria stops new inflammation and gives the skin a chance to heal itself, but it does not “get the red out” and it does relatively little to break up hard, waxy sebum deposits in blackheads and whiteheads on the face—because the skin of the face is too delicate for the higher-strength formulas of benzoyl peroxide that can get rid of whiteheads and blackheads as well as pimples. The skin on the neck, chest, and back, however, can stand up to a much stronger benzoyl peroxide product.

A 5% benzoyl peroxide foam will kill bacteria in pores on the chest, back, and buttocks. It will also break up hardened skin oils that form over whiteheads and blackheads. About 10% of people who use 5% benzoyl peroxide foams may experience slight itching when they start using the product, but stinging, burning, and peeling of the skin on the torso with this strength of benzoyl peroxide are rare. (They are nearly universal when the product is used on the face, however.)

It’s easy to use benzoyl peroxide foam. Just point and spray. Even if you are a man who has a hairy back, the foam will find the pores where it is needed for disinfection and exfoliation. Leave the product on acne-prone skin for five minutes and then rinse thoroughly with warm water, taking care to use a clean towel when drying off. It is important not to put dirt and bacteria on your skin after you have rinsed them away.

There are also 8% and 10% benzoyl peroxide washes that usually don’t work, because they are rinsed away too quickly for the product to do its work. Only benzoyl peroxide foams are effective on body acne.

What About Other Products for Body Acne?

There are many other great products for acne on your face, including tea tree oil, alpha- and beta-hydroxy acids, and medications that have to be prescribed by your doctor. They almost never work for body acne. The toughness of the skin and the difficulty reaching the skin of the back makes them impractical for treating blemishes on the back, chest, and buttocks. Benzoyl peroxide foams are your first choice for treating body acne.

If you are in that small minority of people who have only body acne without facial acne, however, there is another approach to getting blemishes under control. If you have friction acne, then it is critically important that you shower after you work out in tight uniforms or gym clothes. Scientific studies have found that acne bacteria and oil begin to accumulate in pores about four hours after the skin is placed under restrictive clothing. That means that if you work out for an hour, or you have a gym class for an hour, you have a maximum of about three hours to get a shower to keep pimples from breaking out on your back and chest.

Body acne also responds to benzoyl peroxide, but if you use a shower mitt when you clean up, you’ll remove the dead skin that can accumulate in pores and cause breakouts. It also helps to loosen straps and pads whenever possible as you work out to give your skin a chance to “breathe.”

Body acne tends to be easier to control than facial acne. For the best facial skin care, consider a complete treatment such as Exposed Skin Care.