Won't my skin get oily?

There is nothing fun about having oily skin.

From highschool through most of my 20's I was the queen of oil removing pads. I would constantly run to the bathroom to get things “under control.” Living in the humid swamp of Florida… let’s just say I was in the bathroom a lot. 

I thought the key to minimizing my oil production was to use oil free everything, to cleanse my face religiously, and to use all kinds of astringent toners. While this seemed like an obvious solution, if I was really being honest with myself, it only seemed to make things worse. 

It was hard to acknowledge this reality when I had spent thousands of dollars on these “solutions,” desperate for something to work. 

When I came across the idea of oil cleansing, this was one of my biggest concerns. For one, doesn’t oil clog your pores? Isn’t oil the enemy? My association with oil was akin to “grease,” something icky to get rid of.  

So the notion of putting EVEN MORE oil on my already oily face seemed like a recipe for disaster. I didn’t understand how this could possibly be a good idea, at least not for me.

Luckily my curiosity (and desperation) got the best of me. 

After hours of researching, I started to realize just how little I really understood about the skin. I realized how I had been treating my skin as if it were a piece of clothing - something to be washed, something that I wore. I realized I wasn’t looking at it as a living organ. Something porous and permeable. 

I realized that every single product I had been using could be seeping into my bloodstream. That fact alone was hard to take in. I wanted to believe it was harmless because, well, everyone uses these products! So they had to be “safe,” right? 

That is an entire rabbit hole in itself. Moving on. 

I learned that when the skin's oil (sebum) was stripped from the skin the sebaceous glands (the glands that produce oil) would crank into overdrive, working to replenish the skin with it’s own moisturizing agents. Then it would be strpped again. So they make EVEN MORE… A never ending loop that resulted in excessively oily yet dehydrated skin. 

No wonder I wasn’t getting any results - I was making it worse! 

By not stripping the oils, the sebaceous glands have a chance to regulate at a normal rate and eventually stop overproducing. 

So, I tried it. I put all of my cleansers, toners, and any other potentially stripping products under my sink. 

Two weeks later, I noticed I hadn’t needed to get oil blotting papers. Within a month, my skin was barely oil. I was astonished! 

This was in 2014. I haven’t used any type of soap since. 

Not only did my oil imbalance disappear, but so did my acne! To read more about how oil cleansing can help with acne, see my post here.