Spotty congested forehead

[Needanewnamenow]

I heard there is some good advice on this board so giving this ago. I've never had great skin, I had a course of roaccutane in my late 20s but since then it's not been too bad. I'm now 40, and I've never really had problems with my forehead though. About nine months ago it started to get very spotty and congested and it's got even worse under lockdown despite not wearing make up and trying hard to drink enough water. I get little whiteheads and my forehead overall looks red and sore. Does anyone have a suggestion for anything I can use? The rest of my face is ok, I do suffer from congested skin with blocked pores, not blackheads, I can't remember the name of what these are called.

I'm currently using facetheory vitamin c cream cleanser followed by the Cera c toner. This seemed to suit me before the forehead got bad but doesn't anymore I suppose. I don't know if I should stop using this but am loathe to just randomly try anything else.

I try to use 'clean' products but would probably deviate if something could help. It's not my shampoo and I don't have a fringe, I'm at my wit's end on what to do about it.

Given your age, it might be due to your hormones fluctuating. Maybe see a dermatologist and also consider perimenopause/HRT.

I also recommend Caroline Hirons cheat sheets so you can overhaul your skin care routine. Double cleansing is great and really sorted out my skin. However, take her product advice with a pinch of salt.

Thank you, but I'm not perimenopausal and I can't afford a dermatologist

That sounds miserable. I use BalanceMe congested skin serum on breakouts - it’s very good: straight on clean skin before any moisturiser

@Needanewnamenow you can see a dermatologist on the nhs but it would likely be months before you got an appointment.

My first port of call will be going to the GP, they will be able to prescribe you some first stage treatments like benzoyl peroxide or adapelene which would hopefully help.

@cinnamonbuns yes, sorry, I know I could see Dermatologist on the NHS I just know I'll be so far down the priority list (and rightly so) that it would be months with no resolution. Plus I've been down that road before with roaccutane, and I couldn't take that again for various reasons. Stupidly I had forgotten about talking to the GP though!

I saw an nhs dermatologist at 41 with a 4 month wait list. Acne is surprisingly far up their priorities as they want to prevent scarring. My dr kept me going with antibiotics while I waited and I had accutane straight away.

If you’ve needed it before something otc isn’t going to work so go to the dr again and if they don’t send you straight back to derm, remember the treatments they tried before obviously didn’t work, get a firm timeline on how long to give each product.

My dermatologist told me to request a referral to them if I got acne again & she’d give me more accutane.

cks.nice.org.uk/acne-vulgaris#!scenarioRecommendation

This explains what drs ought to do for patients with acne.

How do you know you’re not perimenoapausal? Perimenopause brings a myriad of symptoms, including skin problems. You can still be having regular periods throughout, I know I did for the first few years. Obviously I am not telling you about your own body, but a change in your skin suggests hormones might be playing a part, and your age should be considered too. I went into perimenopause when I was 39.

That’s all.

Try Dermatica. You get a consultation with a derm and a personalised cream for about £25 a month with first month free (might be less now, been a while since I used the service)

@Stellarockafella. I don't really want to go into it on a thread about my skin, but I know I'm not perimenopausal, for more reasons than just having regular periods. I do appreciate hormones could be an issue though.

@Fluffycloudland77 I get what you're saying but taking accutane again isn't an option for me right now. This is also very different to the type of acne I took the accutane for so am hoping it's possible to treat it differently