What Happens When You Stop Washing Your Face? – Are You Ready To Give Up Your Face Wash For Good?
Skincare trends come and go, but you’ll see the same advice over and over again. You need to wash your face twice a day, moisturize, exfoliate, and use sunscreen daily in order to have healthy skin. If you want your skin to look young for as long as possible, you need to diligently follow a skin care routine that takes time and depending on what products you buy can cost you a pretty penny (though it doesn’t have to). Yet many people are throwing all this advice out the window and doing just the opposite – they have stopped washing their faces.
What’s The Caveman Regimen?
The skin care routine that involves not washing your face is called the “caveman regimen” or “caveman beauty” by some. Many people who follow this routine do not let both soap, cleanser, or water touch their face while other people rinse their skin with water, preferably distilled water.
In addition, people who decide to follow this regimen stop using moisturizer, serums, and sunscreen. Just as our cavemen ancestors did – nothing touches their face. There are variations on this routine – some people will use a washcloth and water to clean their skin. Other people combine this new, or lack of, skin care routine with also not washing their hair and overhauling their diet. When changing their diet along with stopping to wash their face people start to follow a paleo diet or try to eat clean, organic foods.
Why You Might Stop Washing Your Face
There are different reasons to decide to stop washing your face. There are those that feel they are just using too many products on their face and wonder if using so many skin care ingredients and chemicals is healthy for their skin and for their overall health as well.
Some people have tried every product and regime to clear their skin of acne, and it hasn’t worked. There are those who suffer from sensitive skin and want to finally find a way to keep their skin calm without using medications. All these different reasons lead to the same decision – not washing your face.
Even a few celebrities have confessed to not washing their faces as well.
The idea behind not washing your face or just using water to wash your face is simple – you allow your skin to heal itself. More than a few people go overboard when it comes to their skin care routine – they use harsh cleansers, exfoliate too often or with very strong products, they scrub their faces until they are red and irritated, and they constantly switch between products which doesn’t give their skin time to adjust to the products. All of these bad skin care habits can damage your skin. When you use harsh skin care products, you break down what is known as the “acid mantle” which is a very thin, acidic layer on top of your skin that protects your skin from bad bacteria, infections, diseases, and pollution. When the acid mantle is compromised your skin suffers. This could lead to sensitive and irritated skin, or if you are already prone to acne, it could lead to more acne. By stopping to use all skin care products you simply allow your skin to start healing itself and hope that it starts to function better.
What Happens To Your Skin When You Stop Washing Your Face
It turns out that the caveman regimen is not for everyone. There are those who tried the caveman regimen and reported that their skin has become clearer and more even toned. These testers came to the conclusion that not washing their face is the way to both get and then maintain healthy skin. Others enjoyed how their skin looked at first when trying this routine, but after a few weeks they became distressed both by the look, feel, and texture of their skin and gave up. Then there were those that found that a modified version of caveman beauty was for them but going cold turkey on all skin care products did not actually end up helping their skin in the long run. Over time many people who tried this routine found that they had a lot of dead skin cells build up on their skin which wasn’t attractive or pleasant. While there are some who have found that not washing their face clears up their acne, others experienced just the opposite effect.
Bottom Line
The caveman regimen might be something worth trying if you are a skincare product junkie and think that “if it doesn’t tingle, it isn’t working” when it comes to your skin care products. If you were constantly exfoliating and washing your skin taking a little bit of time, maybe a week or so not 30 to 60 days like many people do, to cut back on how many and how often you use your skin care products might be good for your skin. But for most people, this method probably won’t help their skin. Instead look over your skin care products – maybe you are using harsh scrubs, and you could switch to a milder exfoliant, maybe your cleanser is too strong for your skin, or perhaps you are layering acids and retinol which is causing skin irritation. Instead of throwing out all your skin care products make smart choices in order to have healthy, radiant, and calm skin.
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I’m Iskra Banović, editor of Blufashion and the voice behind its fashion, beauty, and lifestyle stories. Fashion, beauty, and lifestyle are my playground, but I’m just as likely to share the messy side of it all, like the time I tested a “must-have” skincare gadget and ended up with glitter stuck in my hair. I love turning trends and everyday finds into something useful (and fun) for real people.
