I had severe acne. As a consequence of which, my peers at college gave me the most remember able and highly sickening name of ‘Acne king’. When I look back at those days, to be truthful, if only to myself, I had dreadful acne. And I also remember how despairingly I attempted to concoct acne remedies to rid myself of the acne and the demeaning name!
The first of these acne remedies sprung from a much favored myth. Like millions of others all around the planet, I assumed that my acne was a consequence of poor cleanliness and did everything I could to bathe the bad skin off.
What this meant in acne cure terms was that I washed my face upwards of 10 times a day! While I now know that poor cleanliness is a parable and that washing my face consistently, instead of being helpful as any kind of acne cure possibly made a contribution to increased acne, I continued to do so under a delusional belief in its efficiency.
An alternative remedy for acne came from my granny. She decisively thought that acne was a consequence of bad eating habits, which to a large degree it’s not. And she recommended her own acne remedies, including the generous use of basil, turmeric and yogurt to rid my skin of its oily qualities. While the combo did a great amount to cool me down from the blistering heat, it probably did little else. And this acne cure too found displeasure with me after having tried it for some time.
Another thing this particular acne cure did was to give my skin a yellow tint, thanks to the generous use of turmeric. It only made me that much more of a giggling stock with my peers. I come to be the acne king with a homemade turmeric acne remedy! Yet one more an acne cure had its origins in my sister’s lotions and potions. Being bestowed with much less acne than me, she didn’t need to use too many acne remedies. That however did not do anything to stop her from continually fiddling with me!
Her acne remedy consisted of trying a thick paste of a popular acne lotion available at the local dispensary and then sealing it onto my face by employing a bag of ice cubes. Perhaps it was an inferior acne remedy or maybe it was just the numbing coldness of the ice, but the moisture and the humiliation mixed together to make my acne worse than it had ever been.
My sister shortly beat a hasty retreat from advocating any more acne remedies. Yet the best remedy for acne by far was simply time. No sooner had I finished my teen years than the acne amazingly vanished. No scars. No revealing signs I had been the acne king! And though my special acne solution had worked out for the best, I was very upset. If I had known this was going to happen, I wouldn’t have wasted time, money and effort on all those agonizing remedies!