Taking a look at teen skin

Teenagers’ faces are all different. Your skin may be dark or light
complexioned. You may have dry skin, oily skin, combination skin,
sensitive skin, or be “thick-skinned” (I’m talking blowtorch-resistant,
here). I can’t generalize, but there are a couple of tendencies that
make your skin different from that of adults:
 More oiliness and less sensitivity: Teen skin tends to be a
little oilier, and that’s probably a good thing because many
treatments that are effective for teenage acne can be some-
what irritating to the more sensitive skin that commonly
affects adults. The extra oil serves as a waterproof barrier
between you and the outside world and protects your skin
from irritation. In Chapters 7, 9, and 10, I list some of the dif-
ferent medications that can be used to treat acne-prone skin.
 Easier to heal: Your skin tends to be more “forgiving” and to
heal more completely after experiencing acne. This is espe-
cially important when it comes to avoiding permanent scars
and those dark spots that tend to appear in people of color
when their acne lesions heal. I go into physical scars of acne
in Chapter 16 and the dark spots and other issues related to
acne in dark complexioned skin in Chapter 12.
Exploring teen acne
Good ol’ acne vulgaris, teenage acne. If you have it, you have an idea
what it looks like (or you can take a look at the color section of this
book for a photo). But there may be more in store. Plus, if you
skipped over Chapter 3, getting a handle on some of the terminology
here can help you out if your dermatologist starts throwing it around.
So, without further delay, here are the main features of teen acne:
 Centered on the T-zone: Typically, teenage acne tends to flare
up on the forehead, nose, and chin. Take a look at Figure 4-1 to
see a picture of this T-zone. Sometimes however, acne can
have a mind of its own and it can pop up anywhere on your
face or trunk.
 Blackheads and whiteheads: We dermatologists call these
two unwelcome visitors comedones. Actually we call black-
heads open comedones and whiteheads closed comedones.
(You have to turn to Chapter 3 to find out why, though.) These
black and white bumps are largely the upshot of teen acne
and aren’t so common in adults.
 Inflammatory lesions: These acne lesions are called papules,
pustules, nodules, and cysts. These are the red, pus-filled,
lumpy, inflamed, and sometimes sore, painful zits.