Use the routine I have outlined twice a day. It will take time at first until you get in the swing of it, but you will find each minute worth your while. However, you may discover that you are monopolizing the one family bathroom. If so, arrange to schedule your beauty ablutions when the rest of the family has business elsewhere. Get up earlier in the morning if necessary and in the evening start your program before the family is ready to go to bed.
Actually, it is essential to take the time to do a good job. Furthermore, if you faithfully follow all the steps, you wifl have no need of complicated cosmetics primarily designed for adult skins. When you are a teen-ager, steer clear of tricky formulas and concentrate on the two fundamental aspects of cleanliness—inner and outer. You will find that these simple routines will be more than adequate to keep your complexion glowing.
There is one note of warning I would like to sound in connection with this question of cleanliness. Keep your washcloth fresh. Scrubbing with a dirty cloth will nullify all your efforts, no matter how heartily you work. Wash your cloth each night and hang it up to dry where it can get the fight and air. Do not crush it into a damp little ball and fling it in a corner where it will lie limply until the next time. A dirty cloth will spread germs and might cause infection.
Simple adherence to detail ought to keep any teen-age skin in shape. However, from time to time unfortunate major blemishes do occur. At such time, specific remedies are in order.
Let us suppose that in spite of your best efforts blackheads have begun blossoming. There is no getting around it, for there they are, the little devils. Blackheads are caused by blocked-up pores, clogged with dirt that has not been carefully enough removed from the skin. Oily skins are more susceptible than are dry ones, since dirt clings more stubbornly to an oily skin once it gets a toehold. To get rid of blackheads the remedy is twofold: reduce the oiliness and clean out the pores.
To reduce oiliness, you should, as you remember, be very careful as to your diet. Be sure to avoid rich and greasy foods. To remove dirt, there is nothing to do but to wash and wash and wash. Use very hot water which will steam open the pores (like the dentist who says "Wider, please"). With the pores open, the dirt can be dislodged more readily.
Oftentimes it is necessary to squeeze the blackheads in order to force out the little plugs of dirt. If you do so, squeeze them oh so carefully with your fingers protected by tissue. Warning—never use your bare fingers. Fingernails can cause infection if they are not antiseptically clean. It is far better to take the precaution of using the tissue and not run this risk. After squeezing, rub the skin with ice cubes. As I explained before, they will cause the pores to contract.
Once you have squeezed a blackhead, do not irritate it by picking at it. If an itchy finger starts to wander in the vicinity of your face during study period or during an idle hour when you are listening to the radio, stop it dead in its tracks. You can do immense harm by opening up an irritated skin area with a dirty nail. Infections can be introduced which will really make your skin a problem for the specialist.
Blackheads occur most often at the nose and chin, because those two areas tend to be the most oily and are the most inaccessible for a thorough cleansing job. Keep a close watch over those danger spots. It is easier to prevent a blackhead than it is to cure one.
Permission to squeeze blackheads, it must be understood, does not carry blanket permission to squeeze everything in sight. Pimples must never be squeezed. Unlike blackheads, they contain pus, which, if sufficiently irritated, can erupt in even more monstrous form and cause excessive damage to the skin, to say nothing of leaving ugly scars.
Whiteheads, although not as large an eyesore as pimples, nor as blatantly evident as a blackhead, are nonetheless unpleasant because they mar the smooth surface of the skin. These are caused by sluggish circulation of the blood and niggardly massage. Exercise your fingertips and rub away those little bumps, which only represent lumps of waste material collected under the surface of the skin.
Many times just plain oily skin is the bane of an otherwise good-looking complexion. Somehow the skin never seems quite clean. This condition is sometimes related to changes in the body patterns, but it can be corrected. It is not a phase you have to live through. Proper measures will help counteract it.
In addition to a careful diet I recommend a good cleanser-one that will dig down deep and get out the dirt. I also stress constant washing, not just twice a day, but in between times as well. Say once before lunch and once again after school. It is imperative to remember that you must change your makeup often so that it cannot get rubbed into the pores and clog them up. Never apply new makeup over old if you have an oily skin.
Teens with an oily skin can never scrub too much. Soap and water are their best friends. On the other hand, teens with dry skin should cut down on soap and water and use cream in their place, although they must be just as scrupulous with their cleansing routine. They should use castile soap and water twice a day and a good rich cream in between.
To help along a dry skin, teens so troubled should apply baby oil at night before going to bed. Baby oil is an excellent skin aid. In summer it can be used liberally to counteract exposure to the drying rays of the sun, which cause many skins to shrivel up like prunes. The rest of the year it need not be used quite so freely, but a thin layer of it each night will work wonders.
When it comes to skins that are part oily, part dry, sort of Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde skins, treat your face as if it were more oily than dry. Adhere to the frequent-washing routine outlined previously, and then, to soothe the Sahara areas, swab those spots with a little baby oil.
Some teen-agers complain of mysterious skin afflictions. They have pimples and rashes which do not seem to fall into any of the normal categories. These mysterious blemishes are sometimes caused by unhealthy scalps. If such blemishes break out at the temples, the forehead and at the nape of the neck, the chances are that it is your scalp that is at fault. Proper care of the scalp and hair will be treated in the next chapter, but it is well to point out here and now that the two problems are interrelated.
As a matter of fact, it is worth remembering that no single beauty problem can be isolated from any other. What you eat affects your figure, your skin, and (as you will find out later) your hair and even your nails. How clean you are determines how smooth your skin will be and also how glossy your hair will gleam. In beauty, as in geometry, everything correlates.
In the long run, it is a good thing to have all of your bodily functions so intertwined. It makes your beauty program so much easier. In a sense you are killing several birds with one stone. A salad does a good turn for your face as well as your figure—daily death-to-dirt scrubbing removes grime as well as stimulating circulation.
In actuality, then, beauty is lots more than skin deep. Beauty is as deep as you are. Beauty is all of you, your face, your figure, your skin. More than any other part, though, your skin will be the barometer of your beauty weather. It will tell you how well you are keeping to a beauty schedule. A broken-out complexion is a sure sign that you have slipped up somewhere. It is an indication that you have eaten too many sweets or skimped on cleanliness. Remember to be diligent in your daily habits, and your reward will be a smooth, silken complexion (and, not incidentally, a fine face and figure). , '7 cant do a thing with it."