How to Stop Post-Workout Chest Acne and Fade Leftover Scars
Clean beauty industry maven Mary Futher founded kaia naturals® after spending 20 years working for global beauty companies. Mary now shares her weekly content series, delivering a quick fix, home remedy, or clean beauty product suggestion for a variety of human discomforts that some may find too embarrassing to discuss.
The sun is shining, you pop on your favorite gym set and start your workout. Afterwards, you may run a few errands, clean the house, put the dishes away and before you know it, you’ve been in the same sweaty gear for the past 4 hours. Finally, after your shower, you notice some small, (sometimes) painful little bumps… yes, chest acne. It can be very annoying; if you want to find out how you can rid yourself of them, then keep reading to hear my secret tips to keep pesky chest acne at bay.
How Does Working Out Cause Chest Acne?
One of the major causes of body acne is working out. Acne is caused by clogged pores filled with dead skin cells and oils. Your pores become inflamed, resulting in whiteheads, blackheads, and pimples appearing on the skin. The mixture of tight-fitting clothing with the gathered sweat trapped together is the ideal breeding ground for bacteria.
Staying in your sweaty clothes can allow for more time for bacteria to fester and clog your pores. If you suffer from dry skin and notice that your skin often flakes, that can be an additional factor clogging your pores, leading to body acne.
How to Easily Prevent Chest Acne
Use Powder Before You Sweat
Before you head out to the gym or for you to exercise, pat on some powder on the areas that you know you tend to sweat a little more in. This way, the powder can absorb some of the sweat instead of just pooling into your clothes.
Don't Delay Getting Out of Your Workout Clothes and Rinsing Off the Sweat
The key to preventing body and chest acne is to avoid the sweat, dead skin and oils from sitting on your skin and clogging your pores. As tempting as it may be to continue with your day or run a few errands, making a habit of getting out of those tight sweat-soaked clothes as soon as possible bodes well for your skin health.
Use a Cleansing Cloth on the Go
After your workout, if you can’t get to a shower right away, keep these vitamin cleanse cloths in your gym bag and wipe down your chest, back, and anywhere else you’re prone to acne. I like to put mine in the fridge before I take them with me to act as a cooling agent after my very sweaty workout. This will tie you over until you can properly shower, bonus, they smell and feel amazing.
Use Kojic Acid Soap to Fade Body Acne Marks
If you’ve battled with body acne for quite some time, chances are you have stubborn dark spots and marks left behind. While in the shower, use this kojic acid soap to fade the look of scars. Kojic acid is a natural ingredient used to lighten dark spots and tackle hyperpigmentation. Basically, for any acne scars, you may have, this soap will be your new best friend to help fade their look.
Use a Lightweight Moisturizer
After your shower, it’s best to opt for a non-comedogenic (means that it doesn’t clog your pores) moisturizer. Skip on the coconut oil and go for a lightweight moisturizer. For some people, the use of oil-based moisturizers is the cause of their acne. Look at the products you’re currently using to see if anything heavy or irritating may be causing chest acne.
Body acne is a pain, but hopefully, these steps will help improve them and help keep your body spotless (pun intended)!
Each week on my blog The Little Book of Human Discomforts I share clever solutions for seemingly embarrassing skin, body, and hair issues. Consider subscribing below to be the first to know when new content is live! I also share lots of body and skincare tips on Instagram @kaianaturals and on my TikTok page @madamesweat.
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