With the current COVID 19 pandemic, it has become important and necessary to wear face masks to protect ourselves as well as prevent the spread of the virus. This has led to an increase in acne especially around the lower parts of our face. For those of us with acne-prone skin, we have experienced a worsening of our acne breakouts and for those who aren’t used to getting acne, they are beginning to get breakouts for the first time. In this post, I share why we get face mask acne or ‘maskne’ as it is now popularly called, and how to prevent and get rid of maskne.
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How To Prevent and Get Rid of Maskne
You may be wondering how the use of face masks can leave you prone to acne breakouts.
Before we go into how to prevent and get rid of maskne, let’s look at what factors trigger acne formation when we wear face masks.
What Causes Face mask Acne?
Below are some of the reasons you may be breaking out from wearing face masks
Face mask acne or acne mechanica arises due to frictional forces on the skin.
Face masks are also occlusive. They trap oils, makeup, dirt, pollutants, sweat, and grime and this leads to clogged pores. In addition, this creates a humid environment that serves as a wonderful habitat for acne forming bacteria to flourish.
RELATED: Different types of acne and how they are formed
How To Prevent Maskne
Let’s look at ways we can reduce our chances of getting mask related acne.
1. Leave The Makeup Alone For Now
It’s pretty difficult to maintain clear skin these days when you are dealing with oily skin, sensitive skin, or any type of skin issue. If you have any of these skin concerns, then wearing makeup with your face masks will only worsen your skin condition by clogging your pores. Even for the blessed sisters with normal skin just skip the makeup when you wear a face mask, this will allow your skin breath, and your pores will say thank you.
Who sees our makeup under our face masks anyways 😊
2. Use The Right face mask
Using surgical masks or N95s are not necessary for non-essential workers. Use face masks that are smooth and non-irritating to the skin. Face coverings made from Silk or cotton have been shown to be less irritating on the skin and are breathable.
Getting the right size of face mask is also important. Your face mask needs to fit snugly but not too tight. Always ensure its comfortable when you put it on to minimize friction and irritation.
3. Wash Your Face masks After every Use
No matter how short a time you use your face mask do not reuse it. This reduces the spread of coronavirus as well as ensures you don’t transfer dirt, makeup, sweat, and bacteria to freshly cleansed skin. If it helps, you can get a face mask for each day of the week so it’s easy to stay compliant.
Another thing that causes skin irritation whilst wearing face masks is harsh chemicals in detergents. wash face coverings with hot water using unscented laundry detergents.
4. Wash Your face Before and After
Acne arises when the pores get clogged irrespective of the triggering factors. So it’s essential to keep your pores clean. Before you put on your face masks, wash your face with a mild cleanser for your skin type and then proceed to apply a toner to balance your skin’s PH and finish up with a moisturizer. After you take off the face mask, you repeat the same process over again.
How to Get Rid of Maskne
Acne caused by using face masks is treated like regular acne. The key here is to calm the irritated skin. This is not the time to try out new skincare products or skin actives. They would only exacerbate an already bad situation.
A simple skincare regimen to get rid of maskne should look like this:
1. Cleansing
Cleanse your face with a mild cleanser, preferably one with salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide. salicylic acid is a BHA(beta hydroxy acid) and has the ability to penetrate the pores and clean them out. It breaks down the glue that holds dead skin cells together.
Salicylic acid is also anti-inflammatory and so can calm down redness and skin irritation. Which is what we are here for!
Benzoyl peroxide fights the acne forming bacteria and does a really good job at it. Just ensure you are not letting this get on your fabric as it can bleach it Yikes.
2. Use a Calming Toner
I still love using toners. I think they are still beneficial in skincare. When dealing with irritated skin or acne, using a calming toner is very important. use toners with niacinamide, aloe Vera, salicylic acid, and Centella Asiatica. They will calm down the inflammation in little or no time.
3. Spot treat
You can apply a spot treatment directly to your acne spots to speed up the healing process. A quick note here; these spot treatments can be very drying so start out slowly and look out for signs of dryness.
Ingredients you should look out for in your spot treatments are salicylic acid, benzoyl peroxide, zinc, and sulfur.
4. Exfoliate
A build-up of dead skin cells could clog your pores and cause acne. So in your weekly skincare routine, you should be exfoliating about 2-3 times a week to keep your pores clean.
Avoid physical scrubs as they tend to leave micro-tears on your skin. Use chemical exfoliants instead. Exfoliate with either a BHA (salicylic acid) or AHA (alpha-hydroxy acids) such as lactic and glycolic acids.
5. Moisturize
Yes, you need to moisturize your skin even when you are going through a bout of mask related acne. Moisturizers provide much-needed hydration to the skin and maintain a healthy skin barrier. When you skip the moisturizer, your skin gets dehydrated and triggers more oil production from your oil glands to even this out.
The catch here is to use moisturizers formulated for your skin type so you don’t clog your pores or leave your skin thirsty as a result of not getting enough hydration
For oily skin use gel or oil-free moisturizers and for dry skin use creamy moisturizers.
Don’t forget to apply sunscreens daily. The sun rays can dry out our skin causing dehydration and a rebound oil production from the oil glands.
6. Consider a Retinoid
Retinoids are known for keeping wrinkles at bay. But they are also super effective at treating moderate to severe acne.
They are derivatives of vitamin A which gets converted to retinoic acid in the skin.
Retinoids treat acne by binding to specific receptors on the skin and cause an increase in cell turnover. This, in turn, prevents excessive dead skin cells that can potentially clog pores and cause acne.
Tretinoin the gold standard retinoid is a prescription medication in many countries. Over the counter retinoids include Retinol, adapalene, and retinaldehyde.
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Final take Home
Although wearing face masks have become the new normal since the pandemic, having our faces full of tiny bumps shouldn’t be. Ensure you are paying close attention to how your skin reacts while using face masks so you can promptly treat them.
Hope you found the post helpful, have a nice day loves 🤗
I’m Dr Janet, a medical doctor, blogger, Youtuber and a mother to two awesome kids. I help women achieve their natural hair, skincare and health goals.
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