Fresh and healthy skin is an important part of your health. Healthy face skin is a symbol of your beauty. Face skin is too sensitive and it contains sebaceous glands that secrete oils. Dirt particles and bacteria may get trapped in these glands when you frequently touch your face. This will cause clogged pores and acne on your face skin. Touching or popping pimples is the worst habit of many people. Avoid touching your face too frequently to reduce pimples and acne formation.
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Resisting the Urge to Touch Your Face:
- Keep your hands busy: When your hands are free, i.e, if you are not working or sitting idle, you are most likely to touch your face frequently. To avoid touching your face, the best way is to keep doing some hand work or activity. Try to keep your hands busy every time. For example, play with a fidget spinner, stress ball, key chain, rubber band, pencil etc. Do a hand massage while watching TV or do some handicrafts like Knitting and doodling. These are the best ways to keep your hands engaged. Make these activities your habit so that you may stop touching your face frequently.
- Sit on your hands: Whenever you’re sitting idle in the classroom or on a dining table and you have nothing to work with then try to sit on your hands. Put both your hands under your hips to restrict hand movements. Sitting on your hands will stop you from touching your face. If you touch your face, it will damage your skin and cause pimples and acne.
- Post visual reminders to not touch your face: Sticky notes are the best method to remind you not to touch your face. Write “ Don’t touch your face” on sticky notes and paste them in your room, bathroom, office or even in the car. These sticky notes will remind you continuously to stop touching your face. When you practice this many times then this will become your habit. You can also set reminders in your phone to remind you to not touch your face. These reminders will help you to stop touching your face.
- Wear gloves around the house: Wearing gloves all day at home or work is a little bit awkward but it is a very useful method to protect your face from bacteria. If you touch your face while wearing gloves on hand will protect your skin. Make sure to wash your gloves properly for removing bacteria from gloves. Wear 100% cotton gloves and avoid wool or nylon gloves.
- Ask anyone near you to call you out whenever you touch your face: Your best friend, family member or roommate are very important allies to stop you from touching your face. Whenever they see you touching your face they stop and scold you from touching your face. As a punishment, you may make a jar of money and whenever you touch your face, put 1 buck into the jar. This will stop your face touching habit.
- Remind yourself the reasons not to touch or pick your face: Instead of reminding all good habits to stop touching your face, remind yourself of the consequences of touching your face. By touching your face, bacteria on your hands will contact the face oils and cause pimples and acne. If you pop pimples or acne it may lead to the formation of scars on your skin.
- Some meditations that manage your emotional triggers: Your mood is a major factor to touch your face. You touch your face more frequently when you are depressed, anxious, nervous or stressed. Meditation or yoga will calm your mood and relax your mind. There are many applications and websites available online such as Headspace, Calm, and Insight Timer and many more from which you can learn meditation easily.
2. Minimizing the Damage to Your Skin:
- Keep Clipping and clean your fingernails: Ensure that your fingernails are clipped so that you won’t harm your skin by touching your face. Keep your skin under the nails clean and dirt free because it traps bacteria. When you touch your face, bacteria under your skin gets in contact with your skin oils and causes pimples and acne. Fingers are the dirtiest and unhygienic part of the body. Make sure to clean your hand with antibacterial soap or use sanitizer to remove bacteria.
- Use antibacterial soap regularly to Wash your hands: As you know, your hands contain germs and bacteria which are harmful for your skin. Take care of the hygiene of your hands and fingers. Clean your hands and fingers with antibacterial soap and warm water. Wash your hands daily for at least 30 seconds. After applying soap you should rinse your hands with warm or hot water. You should wash your hands with antibacterial soap before and after touching your face.
- If necessary, Follow skincare routine to treat acne: If your skin is sensitive then you may face some complications of skin problems like acne and blind pimples. It’s better to treat your acne and pimples and take care of your face daily otherwise it will lead to scars and damage your skin. Best way to take care of your skin and treat acne is by using herbal and home-made skin care routine. For example,
- Touching or pooping pimples and acne will damage your skin. So protect your acne by applying acne stickers. Acne stickers are a type of bandage that contain anti acne chemicals such as salicylic acid, benzoyl peroxide, and retinoids with help to treat your acne.
- Topical antibiotics kill acne causing bacteria and prevent pimples and acne. Apply topical antibiotics skin products on your pimples and acne to treat them.
- Use Aloe Vera on your face to give nourishment to skin cells and protect bacteria from entering into your pores. You can use Aloe Vera gel or skin care products containing Aloe Vera gel in it will be very beneficial for your face skin.
- Applying apple honey face mask on your face daily. Apples have malic acid while honey has antimicrobial properties that kill acne causing bacteria. You can buy this mask from your nearby stores while you can also make this mask at your home easily. Extract apple juice by putting it into a juicer machine then add honey into apple juice until it becomes thick and viscous. Now apply apple honey mixture on your face and leave it on your face for 10 to 15 minutes then wash your face with water to get the proper result.
- Consult your doctor if you suspect you have skin picking disorder (SPD): Skin picking disorder (SPD) looks like an obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). For the treatment of SPD and OCD, you should consult a doctor. They will give you cognitive behavioral therapy to treat skin picking disorder. The symptoms of SPD are:
- Skin picking habit.
- Skin picking causes bleeding and bruising.
- Pick pimples, acne or scars to get rid of it.
- Picking skin is normal for you.
- Picking skin when you suffer from depression or anxiety.
- Use metal objects like pins, tweezers to pick your skin.