I've always had acne, but it was somewhat under control until I moved
to San Francisco. I've heard Sf has hard water.

Can that aggravate acne?

artvandelay wrote:
Hard water reacts with soap to form a waxy substance that is very hard
to completely rinse off your skin.

So if you bath with soap and have hard water, there is some amount of
this waxy stearate coating your skin. Whether or not that aggravates
your acne is avery individual thing.

Try bathing with a very small amount of dish washing detergent instead
of soap. It helps to thin it with an almost equal volume of water in
the bottle to make it hard to use too much. It takes a lot of water
to get it all rinsed off, but at least you can feel the residue till
it is all off. With soap, the moment it reacts with hard water it no
longer feels soapy.

--
John Popelish

Get to france boy, that'll make it worse! Especially the acne....

Jesus H maybe sometimes the advice given in here is SO far-fetched people
actually do it....

Artvandelay hard water can sort of cause problems with soap, but try usual a
facial cleanser instead.

Don't pay $$$ for it, $2/$3 should be enough!

In the UK we have things called 'simple' products. At the moment they're
white with green caps but they change the design a couple of times per year
it seems.... If you could find them in a pharmacist or whatveer (they're not
only available in pharmacies but that's probably your best bet......)

I've used it for a while, I used to use 'dove' soap and it did help for a
while but it still dried out my skin, where-as this facial wash is much much
better.

On a side note as i mentioend somewhere else in this post, go to your docs
and see what they say - ask if a new exercise routine would help, they
always say yes (well in most cases...) as this actually helps to break up
acne, believe it or not!

Also, a good sleep pattern is recommended.

Take Care

Me

"John Popelish" <jpopelish@rica.net> wrote in message
news:3FC53939.D3A86795@rica.net...

I personally thought that adding a small amount of detergent, so you can
actually feel the residue was a very good tip. Just my opinion though...

Jesus.


"Gordie" <anonymous@for.a.reason.com> wrote in message
news:bzFzb.1479$sx6.10841@newsfep4-glfd.server.ntli.net...

Detergent?? Detergent that washes clothes? Dirty clothes?

If you don't wash clothes properly - an after wash, then it usually
aggravates the skin.

It's because of the enzymes (unless you use non-bio washing powder, in which
case it's the substitute they use) which irritates the skin.

You can buy sort of 'gritty' tube's of 'soap' - but it's 100% not soap and
has no ingredients of soap in it.... something like 'apricot scrub' is a
good place to start...

Best bet is go to a reliable shop like Boots in the UK, or elsewhere in USA
or wherever and have a browse...then try one if you like it continue
otherwise look to another.

Superdrug do a good one... It's like Vitamin E scrub with the VITAMIN
vertical...so the M in vitamin looks like a capital 'E' - white tube... tis
muchly goodeth.


"Barrie Phillips" <home@barrie-phillips.spamhell.fsnet.co.uk> wrote in
message news:bqncvj$fm$1@news8.svr.pol.co.uk...

Gordie wrote:
A detergent is a surfactant that helps water molecules encircle oily
bits, and carry them off a surface. Soap does the same thing, except
that it reacts with hard water by forming a waxy stearate (the stuff
that collects as a bathtub ring). I have quite hard water (from a
well in a limestone formation). I haven't had a bar of soap in the
house for 20 years. I bathe with either a liquid soap like Dial (a
mild detergent, not a soap, at all) or just use liquid dish washing
detergent (sparingly).

The stearate coating left on skin by soap and hard water is very bad
for some people. A residue of detergent left on the skin is very bad
for some people. The big difference is that you cannot rinse the
stearate coating off with any reasonable effort. You can easily rinse
well enough to remove essentially all of the detergent from your skin,
because it stays soluble in water. But if you use detergent to wash
your skin, and neglect the rinsing process, it is silly to blame the
effects on the detergent residue you should have rinsed off completely
but didn't.

--
John Popelish

I can't use bar soap, either. The tap water here is horrible as far as
that goes, I can't use any castile soaps (bronners etc), even they leave
a film.