Home Remedies and Skincare Products as Forehead Acne Treatments
Facial acne can run down your confidence especially when they flock on your forehead. That’s I think everyone’s the last thing they want to happen. Acne spares no one and can happen from the puberty stage to adulthood. You may have tried several forehead acne treatments but if they keep coming back, you need first to know what seems to be the factor in your life that’s making it worse and start the right treatment from there.
If you’ve been going down the rabbit hole looking for the best acne treatment for foreheads, this article can help, plus, knowing all about acne, what causes them, and how to prevent them, are your key takeaways from this article too.
All About Forehead Acne
Types of Forehead Acne
What Causes Forehead Acne
Why the forehead?
Controlling Forehead Acne Breakouts
How to Prevent Forehead Acne
Best Acne Treatments for Foreheads
Home Remedies
Medicines and Products You Can Use
Summary
Acne is a condition where the skin pores are clogged due to the overproduction of oil and bacteria that build up in the follicle. Forehead acne is the inflammation of the skin that forms into swollen bumps or breakouts, in the forehead.
No matter which part of your body your acne develops, the cause is just the same: excess oil, dirt, and dead skin cells trapped underneath your skin. It’s the factor that causes these to appear, that varies from person to person.
All About Forehead Acne
Our face’s t-zone including the forehead is the common place for acne and other blemishes to form. This area tends to produce more oils than other parts of the face that’s why forehead acne is quite common. Causes that lead to forehead acne are no different from other acne but it does have unique triggers for them to appear on that portion of the face, which I am about to discuss below.
Types of Forehead Acne
Proper treatments start with identifying the right causes and the type of acne you have. So it’s of no use if you just randomly take in medications or apply skincare substances directly to the area with acne. Below are the types of acne you might have encountered or have known already:
- Comedones
Healthline.com defines comedones as small flesh-colored acne papules that usually develop on the forehead and chin. They are a type of acne that develops in different forms such as blackheads and whiteheads.
- Pustules and papules
These are the tiny red bumps that form on our foreheads. The difference is that pustules have a white or yellow pus-filled tip, while papules don’t. Papules can also develop into pustules later on. They are both less frequent than comedones.
- Milia
According to byrdie.com, milia is technically not acne but they are often mistaken for it. Milia or a milium cyst is a small, white bump that often occurs in groups. They happen when the protein found in skin tissues called keratin, is trapped beneath the surface of the skin.
What Causes Forehead Acne
Acne presents itself in different forms such as open comedones and closed comedones popularly known as the blackheads and whiteheads, respectively, red-swollen and pus bumps. Acne develops where there is too much oil called sebum, which gets into the surface of our skin along with dirt and dead skin cells making our pores clogged.
Why the forehead?
Acne frequently develops on the body parts where the oil glands and hair follicles are prominent, these are the face, chest, and back. Our forehead is part of the t-zone where there is a higher production of oil. The forehead, in fact, has the highest concentration of oil glands in the body.
Apart from the sebaceous gland that produces oil (sebum) in our body, the below factors can increase oil production and will likely cause or trigger forehead acne.
- Hormones
- Stress
- Medications
- Hair products
- Touching the face
- Skin irritation
- Make-up products
Controlling Forehead Acne Breakouts
If you have now identified what could be the possible cause or triggering factors of your acne, the next big thing you can do now is to look for the proper forehead acne treatment. But before they ever happen, prevention is still better than cure. The below steps can help you suppress forehead acne or prevent them from coming back.
How to Prevent Forehead Acne
Regardless of your age and hormonal condition, the best way to prevent forehead acne is to develop a skincare routine that suits your skin type to address all the main causes of acne. Proper hygiene is essential but the key here is to avoid the main causes of acne listed above. To learn more about the simple ways in preventing acne, read my previous article here.
Best Acne Treatments for Foreheads
Acne is our skin’s natural response to some significant changes within our body such as growth (puberty stage), hormonal changes/imbalances, exposure to toxic products, etc.
Depending on the severity of your forehead acne, it generally can be treated at home.
Home Remedies
- Skincare routine
With or without acne, anyone should have a skincare routine done every day. But when treating acne breakout, you have to be extra and religiously follow a more elaborate routine. A basic skincare routine must be able to have these 5 steps: cleanse, exfoliate, hydrate, treat, moisturize and protect. For acne cases, cleansing is more important, thus, you must use facial cleanser soap, clearing toner and clear pore serum.
- Control Oil Production
Since forehead acne is primarily due to the overproduction of oil, it’s best to use skincare products that can manage excess sebum formation such as oil-absorbing moisturizers and sulfur-based masks.
CETAPHIL DERMACONTROL Oil Absorbing Moisturizer:
Organic Sulfur Detox Mask:
- Warm compress
Applying a warm compress to your forehead twice daily can help lessen the excess facial oil and improve recovery. Make sure they are clean and soft, as you don’t want further irritation to cause acne.
- Use natural products
There are several products we have at home that we don’t realize can help treat acne. Below are some of them:
Aloe vera. Clean the plant and peel off the green part to get the gel. Apply the gel directly to the forehead.
Aloe vera oil Tea tree oil. Mix both substances and apply them on the forehead using cotton.
Apple cider vinegar. Apply a cotton pad to the forehead with a solution of one-quarter diluted apple cider vinegar and three-quarters water.
Zinc. Great as a supplement to enhance the skin. Zinc can be taken orally.
Medicines and Products You Can Use
Apart from the home products that are surely available near you, you can try some store-bought products for quicker results. The key substances you should look for in a product are:
- Retinol / Retinoid – For comedonal acne, topical retinoid/retinol is the best treatment.
Differen Gel is a retinoid treatment for the face and is gentle on skin. Great for acne-prone users too.
Affiliate link: Link
- Benzoyl peroxide
- Salicylic acid
Products with benzoyl peroxide and salicylic acid are great options for papules and pustules kind of acne. These products aid in reducing bacterial growth in the follicles, facilitating acne healing.
- Prescription treatment – For more severe acne breakouts seek a dermatologist’s consultation. They will most like prescribe medicines such as
- antibiotics
- benzoyl peroxide formulation
- retinoids
- birth control pills (for women)
- anti-androgen agent
Summary
Now that you have come to know the types of acne that may happen to anyone, it’s also important to know the possible causes of acne and the triggering factors for acne to develop. Although not all factors apply to everyone, it still matters to know the most common ones for proper and immediate forehead acne treatment.
Proper hygiene with the right products is the key solution for acne-related problems whether it’s on your forehead, chin, or on your back.