Help!! Washing face with hot water ruined my facial skin

Chitra asks:
I have an oily skin prone to occasional pimples. On the advice of a friend (or should I call her my foe), I started washing my face with hot water and followed this with a massage every morning. 

The result was that I developed wrinkles and open pores. Later on, in the hope of improving my damaged skin, I started using Vitamin-E oil and buttermilk, but this has caused pimples. 

Please suggest home-remedies and DIY beauty aids to heal my skin.

Response:
Hot water is never used on the face as it has drying effect on the skin - as you have already noticed. Even for the rest of the body, the water should always be lukewarm, otherwise the result will be shrivelled skin and open pores.

Also you have said that you followed it up with a massage. Possibly you did not do it properly. Pulling and stretching your delicate facial skin (already parched with the use of hot water) with incorrect strokes and without proper lubrication probably messed up everything.

Since you cannot undo whatever has happened, be more cautious in future and don't follow the advice of all and sundry.  Do your own research or consult a dermatologist if you have the slightest doubt about anything.

Now facial massage isn't exactly a bad thing, if done the correct way. You should know the right techniques - one should always massage the facial skin gently with outward and upward movements. (See this anti-aging facial massage videos  part 1 & part 2 on YouTube) and it shouldn't be done everyday - once in a week is okay.

If done wrongly, massage can do more harm than good and can even result in sagging skin. But in the present condition, I highly advise you not to go for  any type of facial massage or facials.

As of now, stop using vitamin -E oil, buttermilk or milk on your face. At this point of time, it is highly imperative that you should avoid all greasy and oily preparations on your face as these will only encourage blackheads and pimples by blocking the tiny skin pores.

Clean your face with Besan (chickpea flour) and  cold water. No soaps,  no cleansers and certainly no scrubs.

Apply pure aloevera gel (buy from here) on your face thrice a day. This will provide the much needed moisture to your damaged skin and help it heal quickly. Application of pure organic honey (buy from here) will also help and also heal existing pimples and acne.

Application of sandalwood paste will work beautifully in your case. Sandalwood (Chandan)  (buy from here) is very cooling and it's just the perfect thing to soothe your skin.

Prepare fresh  sandalwood paste by rubbing a piece of sandalwood with pure water on a round stone slab and apply this paste on your facial skin for around 10-15 minutes but not more than that.

Then wash it off with cold water. However do not prepare a paste by mixing sandalwood powder with water as sandalwood powder might prove to be slightly abrasive for your already botched up skin.

If you can procure red sandalwood (Raktachandan) (buy from Amazon), use its paste in a similar way. Red sandalwood is also used in sunscreens; additionally it is also used to treat sunburns, pimples, blemishes and rashes - so it will provide relief to your skin.

Aloevera, honey, sandalwood and red sandalwood - all these four ingredients can work magic on your skin. Now this doesn't mean you should slather all the 4 ingredients on your face one after the other.

I suggest you use aloevera (twice or thrice) one day,  followed by sandalwood paste application an hour before you go to bed.

The second day apply organic honey instead of aloevera and instead of sandalwood paste use red sandalwood.

Skip using aloevera and honey one day and apply only sandalwood or red sandalwood paste twice a day.

Try different combinations and see which one works best for you.

Other than the above mentioned DIY treatment, do not use any kind of face pack /mask, oils or creams. But if you still insist, you can try this excellent sandalwood mask as mentioned in the sandalwood beauty post.

Just add 1/4 tsp of turmeric (buy from here) and 1 tsp of honey to freshly prepared sandalwood or red sandalwood paste and let it stay for around 15 minutes. Wash off with cold water and gently press an ice cube wrapped in a hanky all over your face.

Now this should certainly refresh your skin. Do this only once in a week. Be patient and don't worry too much. Just give it some time and your skin will heal completely.

Now one thing is certain, henceforth you will never use hot water on your face all your life. But even if you use cold water, remember one thing - do not overwash your face. Experts say that you shouldn't wash your face more than 2-3 times a day irrespective of your skin type - oily, normal, dry or combination.

In case of oily skin, overwashing dries up the skin and overstimulates the oil glands; this in turn increases the sebum production and the result is clogged pores, pimples and blackheads. Instead, use good quality blotting paper such as this & this or facial wipes such as this & this to remove the excessive greasiness and shine from your face or simply to cleanse your face.

Let the skin recover fully before you apply or use anything further. Drink fresh lemon juice mixed with honey everyday. Eat more of  fruits, particularly citrus fruits like oranges, grapefruits etc and drink several glasses of water everyday.

Now it's highly debatable whether drinking water helps to keep the skin moist, but nevertheless drinking water moderately (6-8 glasses) has other health benefits - so  at least to cleanse your system of toxins and for other gains drink adequate water.

Eat healthy food and avoid all kinds of junk food,  fried foods and foods high on glycemic index.

Furthermore do not venture out the hot sun, especially avoid the sun in the peak hours from 9.30 am to 4 pm. Too much exposure to the sun will not only fry your skin but also exacerbate your acne. If you must go, then don't forget to use a sunscreen of SPF 30 or more.

Also use umbrellas, wide-brimmed hats and sunglasses to protect yourself.  Though sunscreens protect your skin from the harsh rays, on the flip-side, physical barrier sunscreens make the skin oily and can clog the pores and that's bad for acne-prone oily skin - so be aware.