Acne or pimple can look entirely different on different skin types - oily, dry or combination; at different stages - blackhead, red pimple, a red pimple with pus or a big lump under the skin.
First let us understand that what is basically a pimple. Pimple is a blocked or clogged pore. Our skin contains oil glands aka sebaceous glands which are present 3-4 mm under the skin surface, these oil glands drain or pour out the oil via an opening present on the skin surface which is seen as pores on our face. So, obviously more is the oil production , bigger the size of pore.
Now, why does the pore gets blocked?
Just imagine draining a heavy amount of oil through a narrow pipe, what will happen eventually? The size pods the pipe is too small to pour so much of oil out , so the opening will get blocked similar to our skin pores. When we achieve puberty, our hormones pour at rage - there is a steep rise in amount of androgens or sex hormones and guess what, these sex hormones control the oil production in our skin. Hence, the oil production in our skin increases and there begins the story of acne in our lives.
The other reasons why pores get clogged are
presence of dandruff over the scalp
Application of thick occlusive make top products
Thick heavy skin care products
Oiling scalp can occlude pores over the forehead
So this is Stage 1 of acne - clogged pores - blackhead or white heads - aka open and closed comedones.
When the passage stays closed for long time, a bacteria called as cutibacterium acnes assumes it be its house. Because cutibacterium acnes is an anaerobic bacteria *meaning the bacteria which does not like oxygen, the clogged pore is just the perfect spot for it to multiply. The bacterial population increases causing redness and pain in the acne, that is stage 2 of acne - a red, raised bump seen on the skin surface.
Slowly, the bacteria happily keeps on multiplying, which leads to collection of pus and this pus eventually becomes visible on the skin surface leading to appearance of stage 3 of acne. Satge 3 is when you see red pimples with pus in the centre.
If not treated at this stage, the bacterias present in and around the oil glands starts to form a team and unite together. Normally each gland and its pipe is surrounded by a sheath which doesn’t let the bacteria move out , but when the load of bacteria increases, it ruptures the sheath and joins the neighbouring gland bacteria and this gives rise to formation of nodular or cystic acne , which is labelled as stage 4.
You might be suffering from any 1 or multiple or all the stages of acne , but do not worry, there is a treatment to every stage acne. Stage 1 can be handled only with creams and face washes or in general topical treatment. Stage 2 requires some antibacterial tablets sometimes but stage 3 and 4 definitely need tablets along with creams and facewash.
All in all, what you need is to unclog the pores - which can be done with the creams containing retinoids and benzoyl peroxide or acne buster complex and a antibiotic regime which works well for your acne bacteria.
But what you need most is patience , because good things take time.
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