How to Get Rid of Whiteheads. Or Do You Have Fungal Acne? Update

I always thought I suffered from a severe case of whiteheads. No matter how strong the AHAs or acne treatment was, the whiteheads on my forehead just wouldn’t budge. But all blog posts that I visited all pointed to whiteheads, which left me dumbfounded.

They were small little flesh-like bumps. They rarely grew into a whitehead and they were almost impossible to pop. I tried everything but the whitehead or milia just wouldn’t go away no matter what I tried.

Nothing made sense till I watched a video. But the thing was…the video wasn’t talking about whiteheads, the video was about fungal acne. Yep. I know. It is not something you wanted to hear.

But the thing is, fungal acne get misdiagnosed often as acne because they are so similar. Fungal acne look like little bumps on the forehead almost like whiteheads. After finding out that these “whiteheads” feed on oil, everything made sense.

Update: I recently found out, not just oils but many other ingredients might feed the fungal acne, which in turn makes your skin look worst. Check simpleskincarescience.com for a full in-depth article about what to use and what to avoid. Also, you can check out sezia.co to see if your particular product is fungal acne safe. In this post I might have listed some products that aren’t fungal acne safe, I have updated the post so I will only list fungal acne safe products.

Hints That You Might Actually Have Fungal Acne

Does it feel itchy?

Although, I knew fungal acne made your skin itchy. I just never connected the dots. I didn’t feel itchy constantly, maybe once or twice max. That’s why I thought I had dry skin or my skin was just reacting to the retinol that I was using. So if your skin felt itchy, even once, you should consider switching to fungal acne safe products. Check out some of my favorite fungal acne safe product listed below.

you get More whiteheads after using a Face oil

I thought the reason why I got whiteheads, was because my skin was too oily and everyone knows that oily people shouldn’t avoid oil. Instead, they should embrace it. That’s what I did. But… Whenever I used a face oil, the little bumps on my forehead would turn angry and would look even worst. The reason why these bumps grew was that these “whiteheads” feed on the oil making it multiply in numbers.

Using Salicylic acid helps reduce the whiteheads

Another clue that I had fungal acne rather than whiteheads is when I used a  salicylic acid cleanser. After using any type of salicylic acid product the amount of “whitehead” would dramatically reduce. This is because fungal acne can not thrive in an acidic environment.

So do you have fungal acne?

What is Fungal Acne?

Now that you know that you have fungal acne, what is the difference between fungal and whiteheads?

Fungal acne is an infection of the hair follicle caused by bacteria or yeast. These yeast are quite common, it is found in almost 90% of people’s skin.

Because they aren’t acne they won’t respond to normal acne medication like retinoids and antibiotics. Although they might seem like whiteheads, they seem smaller like a pinhead and more uniform in size. It might be a little itchy as well.

How to Treat These “Whiteheads”

Use Salicylic acid

As I mentioned before, these “whiteheads” hate acidic environment. Some of my favorite salicylic acid items that have been working for me are:

vichy noraderm corrective anti-acne treatment 24h hydrating lotion, vichy normaderm deep cleansing purifying gel

I love this combo, especially the cleansing gel. It has a nice scent and it doesn’t leave my skin feeling dry.  The lotion is great as well. It is a light lotion that doesn’t feel too heavy. I sometimes like to slather a thick layer of the lotion and use it as a mask.

Edit: I can’t find the ingredient list for the Vichy treatment, to see if it truly fungal acne safe. However, the Vichy purifying gel is still fungal acne safe. 🙂

Use aloe mask

I love using masks, and aloe is no exception. The one I’m using is The Saem Jeju Fresh Aloe Smoothing Gel. I like to slather aloe gel on my face and this really helps calm my acne. There isn’t any scientific reasoning as to why the fungal acne reduces in the presence of aloe but it does show results.

The Ordinary Salicylic Acid 2% Solution

Even if you are not on a budget I would definitely recommend The Ordinary Salicylic Acid 2% Solution. I love how effective and affordable it is but the drawback might be just getting your hands on the product. Most of the time, the salicylic acid is sold out online, so make sure you buy it when you see it in stock. Other than that, this product really helped clear my acne.

Update: The Ordinary Salicylic acid contains an ingredient that feeds the fungal acne. Use sezia.co/ to check which product is fungal acne safe. Currently, I am using SAL3 soap. It has sulfur and salicylic acid which are ingredients that fungal acne hates.

Nizoral Shampoo

Edit: This actually worked really well for my skin. It contains ketoconazole 2%  which helps get of the fungal acne. Like I mentioned below I didn’t like this at first because it is very drying. However, I noticed a significant difference after using it. After leaving the shampoo for 10 minutes, I noticed how much my fungal acne calmed down. Really make sure you hydrate your skin after. I recommend you layer Hadalabo Gokujyun Premium Hyaluronic Acid Lotion, which is also fungal acne safe and contains urea to prevent the growth of fungal acne.

What Didnt Work For Me and What to Avoid

Tea Tree Oil

Probably the most recommended product to use for fungal acne is tea tree oil. It did initially help clear up some acne but after a couple tries my acne got worst. I don’t really know why but I think it might be the carrier oil that the tea tree was mixed with or that the acne got used to the tea tree and started feeding on it.

Dandruff shampoo

Some sites also recommended using dandruff shampoo like Selsun Blue or Nizoral. I tried out the Nizoral first since it has the most potent ingredient to get rid of fungal acne, ketoconazole. Many sites recommend you to let the shampoo sit on your face for at least 10 minutes, which was what I did. After waiting 10  minutes, and rinsing my face my forehead became incredibly tight. The next day, my skin was dry and peeling. Even if it is potent I don’t think I would be using this again. The other dandruff shampoo Selsun Blue was less drying but I think I prefer the Vichy Purifying Cleansing Gel better. If you have a severe case of fungal acne (not just on your forehead), I would try the Selsun Blue Shampoo.

Update: I really recommend the Nizoral shampoo. Like I mentioned before, it is drying. But it is super effective. Just make sure you hydrate your skin after. I recommend layering the Hadalabo Gokujyun Premium Hyaluronic Acid Lotion. it is a great hydrating product.

Dont use yeast products

If you are a skincare addict you probably have yeast ferment products like SKII. Having too much yeast is what caused you to have fungal acne. Try to avoid anything with Galactomyces, especially if you have fungal acne all over your face. If you have it on certain spots but you can still use it but try to avoid it on the area with fungal acne.

Dont use oil

I thought I had normal acne, so I thought oil could be good for my skin. Like I mentioned before, the fungal acne feed on the oil which makes them multiply in number. If you really need oils to hydrate your skin, opt for squalane like from Timeless or The Ordinary. Squalane oil and mineral oil is fungal acne safe.

Still, want to try more products for acne-prone skin? Try out the Medicube Red Centellaca Mask.

Edit: recommendations – affordable fungal acne safe products

Since it is very confusing to find good fungal acne product, I thought I would list some affordable products that I have tried out and are fungal safe.

Cleansing oil: Sadly you can not use cleansing oils anymore. Try opting for micellar water. Garnier Micellar [waterproof version]  is safe and does a good job removing your makeup.

Cleanser: I believe most cleansers are fungal safe. Luckily my favorite cleanser, Vichy purifying gel is still safe.

Toner: Hadalabo Gokujyun Premium Hyaluronic Acid Lotion is a great hydrating product. I like to layer this toner, really makes your skin mochi-like. Plus, it contains urea, which helps prevent fungal acne growth.

Moisturizer/oils: The Ordinary Squalane, is a great option. Affordable and simple. [Make sure you get the normal one and not the hemi-squalane. The hemi-squalane feeds the fungal acne.] If you don’t want to use oils you could opt for aloe gels like the Benton Aloe Propolis Soothing Gel. If you are getting acne scars, you could try Cosrx Snail Mucin. However, it isn’t very hydrating, so you might to layer squalane oil on it if you have dry skin.

Sunscreen: *Sigh* Right now I am trying to find a fungal acne safe sunscreen that is also affordable. So far, many people recommended the Biore perfect milk sunscreen. However, since that might take 2 months before arriving at my door, I will be trying Banana Boat kids sunscreen. I will update, about this sunscreen later.

Like I mentioned before, go to simpleskincarescience.com for a more in-depth post about fungal acne and go to www.sezia.co  to make sure the products you are using is fungal acne safe.

Disclaimer: This post is not sponsored but it may contain affiliate links where I make a small commission. This means that when you make a purchase using my links, I earn a small percentage. All opinions are my own regardless of affiliate links or not. You don’t have to use my links but it would really help me keep on posting the things I love 🙂 <3

Michelle

A beauty lover that loves everything about beauty and skincare. She is always on the lookout to find the new “it” product. Whether it is budget friendly or high end, she plans to share with others her beauty adventures and beauty experiences on this blog.