So for the past two years, I've had a smallish problem with acne that never fully went away. It never got very bad, it usually hovered between mild and medium, but the fact that it wasn't going away was starting to get to me. Now during the past two years, my parents, both of which are family practice doctors, have tried giving me a few of the common prescriptions - benzoyl peroxide, clindamyacin, etc. None of them had any noticeable impact on my acne, but the benzoyl peroxide managed to bleach anything it came into contact with (clothing, pillowcases, etc.). When none of those worked, they went on to say that it must be diet, stress, not getting enough sleep, etc, the usual culprits that they seem to blame every symptom that ever existed on. Well anyways, I was sure none of those were the cause, because I live a fairly healthy lifestyle. So I ended up just ignoring it and hoping it would go away, which it never did.
Now here's where the story gets interesting. At the beginning of June, I flew in to Texas to start my summer job. The first day there, I met a random stranger on a train who told me to just put some plain white vinegar on the inflamed areas once a day. It sounded like an interesting idea, so when I got back to my room that night, I looked it up. Sure enough, there were many testimonials and explanations of how it worked. The simplest way to explain it is that its slight acidity acts as a cleaning agent, and vinegar also acts to make rigid biomaterials more rubbery. Well anyways, I decided I'd try it, and picked up a 60 cent bottle of vinegar at the store the next week.
I've been putting it on every night for the past 6 weeks. I could tell after the first night that the inflamed areas were less scaly and more mild. As the weeks went by, the inflamed areas grew clearer and no new stuff popped up. Right now, it's mostly gone, and I've only used a third of the 60 cent bottle.
So here's the verdict. If you have an acne problem and the conventional methods aren't working, give vinegar a try. It's cheaper than bottled water, and since you don't need to use that much of it, it lasts quite a while. It doesn't burn too bad, doesn't damage skin, doesn't bleach clothes, and the vinegar smell goes away after a few minutes. I just thought I'd post this up in case anyone else was having similar adventures.