Well, you do need to wash your face twice a day, but dirt does not cause acne. In fact, if you try and scrub dirt away, you may make acne worse. Some people try and scrub away dirt, hoping that the friction they apply on their face will magically uproot those nasty blackheads and whiteheads.

Listen, you’re merely traumatizing your skin with the facial scrub, harsh soaps, and abrasive instruments. Here’s the thing: Acne cannot be scrubbed away. Acne isn’t dirt. The impaction known as a blackhead, which shows up on the skin as a dark speck, is really thousands of dead skin cells which have nested in the pore along with the skin’s own oil and other natural debris to create a small mass.

When the mass pushes to the surface, it turns black on exposure to the oxygen in the air and also darkens from the buildup of skin pigment in the dead cells. That blackhead is not dirt, but an actual anatomical impaction that may extend two millimeters (1/16 inch) below the surface of the skin. Did I just lose you in that scientific rambling? Basically, here’s the bottom line: No amount of soap and water will scrub your blemish away.

In fact, if you scrub too hard, you can break down the acne impactions and cause a flare-up. You can only cleanse the surface of the skin. It is physically impossible to go deep into the pores. I like to explain to my clients that your pore is like a drain in the sink. No amount of scrubbing the surface will clear the clogged drain. You must treat the clog in the drain, just like you must treat the clogged pore and try to prevent it from clogging your skin again in the future.

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