A-Z

Acne (young people)

Harriet

Age at interview: 21
Age at diagnosis: 12
Brief Outline: Harriet had acne from around the age of 12 to 18. She tried a number of topical creams prescribed by her GP before being referred to a dermatologist. Roaccutane (isotretinoin) cleared her acne though she finds that her skin is now more sensitive.
Background: Harriet is 21 and an undergraduate university student. She is single and lives in university accommodation. Her ethnic background is White British.

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Harriet had acne between the ages of 12 to 18, mostly affecting her face and occasionally her chest and back. She visited her GP after a painful lump developed in her neck which the GP thought might be linked to acne. She tried a number of different topical creams prescribed by her GP and was unaware at this time that seeing a dermatologist would be an option. When she was referred to a dermatologist at age 16/17, Harriet took a three month course of Roaccutane (isotretinoin) which cleared her skin significantly. However, once she had finished the course, her acne began to return and she took an additional course of Roaccutane (isotretinoin). Another factor which helped fully clear Harriet’s acne was a school expedition to a warm, dry climate.

In addition to trying medical creams, Harriet researched online for information to help control her acne. She tried different face washes and moisturisers, using the Internet to identify components in these products which might make a difference. She also tried a number of home remedies for acne and made lifestyle adjustments. This included frequently changed pillowcases and tying her hair up to keep it from touching the skin on her face. Harriet also took advice from family members such as her brothers, although information from different sources sometimes made it confusing. For example, she had read online that diet is not linked to acne but found in her own case that reducing her dairy intake helps. She described the process of identifying various factors which contributed to her acne and those which improved her skin as a kind of “detective work”. 

Harriet described herself as having been quite shy and reserved at school, with her acne making her feel additionally self-conscious. Swimming was especially uncomfortable because the chlorine stung on her face but she did not feel able to ask the teacher to excuse her from P.E. classes. Harriet resumed playing sport at university but wishes she had continued at school as she thinks this would have boosted her confidence. 

Harriet finds that her skin is more sensitive since finishing Roaccutane (istotretinoin) and she continues a skincare routine with soap-free face washes and fragrance-free moisturisers. She had been concerned about scarring but found that people she had meet at university did not notice it and they were often surprised to hear that she had previously had acne.
 

Harriet’s acne wasn’t always painful, but it could be when she used topical creams.

Harriet’s acne wasn’t always painful, but it could be when she used topical creams.

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It wasn’t that painful usually, but then sometimes you’d get sort of the big kind of nodal acne where you’d have these big lumps under your skin and that would be painful. You’d like, they’d sort of throb during the day and if you touched them they’d be painful. So that was a kind of uncomfortable pain. But with, with the, sort of when you put certain creams on or, yeah, or oils and things and they have a bit of a burn, it’s not really, sometimes it’s a burn, sometimes it’s more of a tingle. But it’s that, it’s kind of that feeling of, like if you were cleaning the hob or something and it would just, it would kind of like sizzle away all the grime and you’d clean it. It’s sort of, that kind of burning is a sort of a feeling of cleanliness almost, yeah. I don’t know if that makes sense.

I think it does. It’s so hard to convey though, isn’t it, unless you sort of know…?

It’s when it, with the burning you feel like it’s doing something useful, cos you, you can sort of feel it almost, you can almost imagine like the acne evaporating from your skin. You’re like “Yeah”, this, and then you look in the mirror and you expect to be, you know, completely, completely clean skinned. But it does, it definitely feels like it’s working when it burns. 
 

Harriet felt more self-conscious about spots on her chest than on her face.

Harriet felt more self-conscious about spots on her chest than on her face.

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It was mostly just my face. I got a, like a little bit sort of just here [points to chest/collar], and occasionally on my back, but not very badly at all. So that was quite lucky, yeah.

And were there any differences that you felt about the sort of facial acne versus like the sporadic bits on your back and chest?

In a way I was I think more self-conscious when it was not on my face. So it’s kind of more socially acceptable to have acne on your face rather than anywhere on your body. So I wouldn’t sort of, even now if I, I’ll occasionally get sort of a little spot here [points to chest/collar], I wouldn’t wear anything that shows it cos I feel like that has more of an implication of, you know, “She’s not clean” rather than anything else, yeah.

Okay. So would you hide that acne like with clothing or anything?

I’d cover, I’d cover up with clothing. I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t put anything on it though I don’t think, yeah.
 

At first, Harriet didn’t realise seeing a dermatologist about acne was an option.

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At first, Harriet didn’t realise seeing a dermatologist about acne was an option.

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So when they kind of stopped working, I’d, or ran out and I didn’t feel like they’d been working, I probably should have then gone back to the, back to the GP and said, “This doesn’t work.” But you, you sort of like start to lose faith a bit when you’ve been at it for a couple of years and nothing seems to work. So I sort of stopped going back, tried to do my own thing, then eventually went back and, yeah, they said, “Go to the dermatologist.”

I didn’t even realise it was something that would have been an option. So sort of I kept going back to see if there was anything else they could do. But I never realised that sort of the end goal would be to get to see a dermatologist. But, but, yeah. So I, I didn’t realise quite how severe it was I think until I got to see the dermatologist. 

Okay.

Because, yeah, as soon as he saw me he was like, “Okay, we’re gonna put you on the hard stuff” [laughs].
 

Harriet talks about her experiences with topical treatments.

Harriet talks about her experiences with topical treatments.

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I think the first one he gave me, I’m not sure what it’s called, but it was like a little pot and you get it and it’s got a powder in. And then you’ve got another one with a liquid in. And you sort of pour one into the other and you’ve got, then you shake it and then you like sort of like spread it. It’s kind of like a Pritt Stick, you just sort of spread it over your face at night.  And that, it burns  but, you’re like, “Oh, it burns, so it must be working.” [laughs]. And I know one of my friends, she uses that now and it, it works for her.  And then there was, I, there was something else that was sort of a, a similar sort of liquidy type one. But then I had some creams that were, I can’t, I can’t think. Benzoyl peroxide I think is one and it’s basically like bleach, so you just sort of spread it on your skin. And that’s actually quite helpful. I still, when I’m getting spots now I tend to use that. It does have a tendency, all my towels have just got like bleach streaks all over them. But it’s fine. My mum didn’t mind. So I find that, and I remember reading somewhere, because I read on the sheet, it was like “Spread it on thinly.” And it sort of, it kind of worked but it didn’t work that well. Then I read online, there was someone saying like, did a testimony to it and they were like, “I absolutely swear by those who just put loads on and it works beautifully.” So I tried that and I put quite a lot on and it does, it does help, but it does dry your skin out really badly. So now, I still, yeah, I still sometimes use acne creams now. But I’ve also got, it’s so ridiculous, I’ve got like hydrating cream, like medical hydrating creams that you use for kind of eczema and things, combined with stuff to dry out your skin. So I’ll put the, sort of moisturise my skin and then I’ll put the one to dry it off, dry it out. Then I’ll go to bed, wake up, like lather myself up for rehydrating and, yeah. It, it just about works though, yeah.
 

Harriet was told not to wax her legs whilst taking isotretinoin because the skin would be thinner and drier.

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Harriet was told not to wax her legs whilst taking isotretinoin because the skin would be thinner and drier.

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Could I ask a bit about side effects of any of the treatments that you’ve tried?

Oh, yeah. It, it’s most, mostly they all just tend to dry out your skin a lot. I know when I went on the Roaccutane (isotretinoin) he said, “Don’t wax your legs. Because if you wax your legs then because your skin gets so thin it will just like rip your skin off and you’ll bleed.” So I was like, “Oh, okay, I won’t” yeah. And it’s, dry skin is something I still, I didn’t, I never got it before but it’s something I still get now. And I think it’s probably a result of that. Roaccutane as well gives you really just like completely random periods. I had, it was about, it just, for sort of a few months there was just absolutely nothing. But, yeah. But the, the ones, sort of the external creams and things, they didn’t really have any major, major side effects.

So with the dry skin that sort of carried on since you took Roaccutane, how do you sort of deal with that on a day-to-day basis?

I just, you just moisturise I guess. Like I, it’s not too much of an issue with sort of arms and legs cos it’s, you just use like regular moisturiser once a day.
 

Harriet had expected side effects with isotretinoin, like disrupted menstrual periods.

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Harriet had expected side effects with isotretinoin, like disrupted menstrual periods.

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And with the side effects of sort of irregular periods and so on --

Yeah.

-- could you tell me a bit about how you felt about that and how you dealt with it? Was it a concern ever for you?

It wasn’t particularly a concern. I just sort of assumed, it kind of puts your whole body in a bit of chaos. So you just get, get this really dry skin and it can sometimes give you other side effects like just feeling quite down. So I remember getting a bit down for, like at various points and you just like, for, actually for no reason. And then you sort of think, you know, “No, this isn’t me. It’s just cos I’m on some like crazy medication” yeah. But you just sort of get used to it and learn to work with it and, yeah.

Were those side effects that your dermatologist or your GP, mostly your dermatologist for Roaccutane (isotretinoin), wasn’t it?

Yeah.

Were those things that the dermatologist had told you about before, to expect?

Yeah, I think he went through, sort of went down the list of all the things that were likely and not very likely and everything in between, yeah. So I, I sort of knew what to expect. And with, yeah, with the irregular periods it’s, you, I wasn’t really surprised because sort of everything else was just a bit weird. So it seemed like the natural progression, yeah.
 

Harriet read online about home remedies for acne and tried some out.

Harriet read online about home remedies for acne and tried some out.

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[Laughs] It, like you just think, it’s the sort of thing where like, “If this really works then more people would know about it.” But you still try it anyway. So I remember doing all sorts. You make little scrubs out of, you know, honey and oil and sugar and all sorts of bizarre things. And the one that, the one that I’m still not really sure if it works is putting toothpaste on spots. Cos that does the same thing, it kind of dries them out but not very well. And then you end up with like a minty face, [laughs] yeah. So that, I don’t tend to do the toothpaste-based thing. But, yeah.

Did you try any supplements or any sort of herbal remedy style things?

I remember, it, this was mostly when I was trying to get rid of the scarring, I remember using a lot of vitamin E oil, almond oil. I used, while I still had some acne I used, what’s it called? Tea tree oil. Which, it does that thing where it kind of, you put it on and it burns a bit so you think it’s working. And that kind of helped, but obviously it’s really strong smelling. The same with TCP, that had the sort of drying thing, but it just, the smell just stays on your face for the next two days. So I try not to use it any more.
 

Harriet finds that eating dairy products tends to give her more spots.

Harriet finds that eating dairy products tends to give her more spots.

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I was just comple-, like constantly on Google, like googling what foods are bad, what you shouldn’t drink or do. And like I mostly had my hair like tied up in a bun so it was all out of my face. I changed my pillowcase every single night. Like I’m an absolute skin expert now [laughs]. Well, a self-confessed skin expert. 

[Laughs]

But, yeah, so I did, I did sort of read that you should, like dairy is, I read one, in one place that nothing you eat will affect it, but then I found that sometimes it does. So I wouldn’t eat, like if I eat eggs or cream or things like that, then it tends to, or it tended to get quite bad. So I’d avoid things like that, yeah.

Is that something you still avoid now like in sort of remission and recovery or...?

Yeah, well, I find it still has an impact. If I eat sort of a lot of dairy or anything like that, then I will tend to get more spots.
 

Harriet was aware of people taking photographs at events and was conscious about how her skin looked under different light (fluorescent light, daylight).

Harriet was aware of people taking photographs at events and was conscious about how her skin looked under different light (fluorescent light, daylight).

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I was really conscious of, sort of I was self-conscious but conscious of not wanting to be self-conscious. So I’d be quite, I wouldn’t try and hide it, cos I felt sort of, ‘Everyone knows that my skin’s really bad. There’s no point in covering it up and making it worse.’ So I think that sort of gave off the impression that I wasn’t too self-conscious about it. But at the same time it like, it does, it does take up a lot of your thoughts and a lot of your time, just sort of constantly thinking, “Oh, I wonder what people, are people looking at me?” I remember walking down the street and being like, “Oh, are people looking at me?” Not wanting photos taken, things like that. So, yeah, there is a definite emotional side to it.

Would you ever avoid sort of events or going to certain places as a result of that sort of self-consciousness?

I don’t know if I’d go as far as avoiding things, but I def-, like events, but I’d avoid maybe certain people or people with cameras or… I was, I remember being quite conscious of sort of where I’d sit in a room or where I’d go, cos obviously certain lights make it look a lot worse. I knew that when my skin was oily fluorescent lights would make it look really bad, but if I sat next to a window with natural light it looked better. So thing, little things like that. I hadn’t even realised that I thought about those things, but it does, it takes up a lot of your brain space, yeah.
 

Although Harriet used to go swimming, the chlorine reacted with some of her face creams and made it painful. However, she enjoys sports generally, and has got back into them since she started university.

Although Harriet used to go swimming, the chlorine reacted with some of her face creams and made it painful. However, she enjoys sports generally, and has got back into them since she started university.

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I played sport, team sport at school until I was about 14 and then just like completely gave up, didn’t do anything. I don’t know if that was entirely, I don’t think that was acne related, it was just a sort of like classic, ‘Teenage girls don’t play sport.’ But I started, yeah, it wasn’t so much to do with, yeah, I’ve sort of lost my train of thought. I just got distracted because I was thinking, I remember going swimming because we had to do swimming lessons at school and like the chlorine of the pool would often, if I’d had certain creams and stuff on my face that would have a kind of searing effect. Which, like that one wasn’t a kind of satisfying burning, that was, ‘This is actually painful.’ So I was always quite self-conscious about that. And then obviously like you’ve got your towel with you and it might have like those bleach marks on it and everything. But that, like we on-, we didn’t have to do that very often, so it wasn’t too much of a problem. But I think, I sort of wish I’d carried on with sport through school because it, it really builds your confidence. It’s something I’ve got back into at uni and it’s, it’s just really nice to have a little sort of family for a couple of hours every week to just like run around with. And it doesn’t matter what you look like because everyone’s obviously like sweaty and muddy and gross anyway. So it doesn’t, it, like it doesn’t matter what your skin’s like. So I think that would have been a really positive thing to carry on with, but I just, I just didn’t.
 

Although Harriet has tried lots of different brands she now goes for the “plain brands” (not scented or coloured).

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Although Harriet has tried lots of different brands she now goes for the “plain brands” (not scented or coloured).

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And then you start, you go to a supermarket with your mum and you’re like, “Oh, that one’s oil free. I’ll get that one. That’ll be good for my skin. And that one’s got, you know, soap free” or anything like that. And you slowly start to, you know, one thing works and it, or it doesn’t work. And then you google that and you’re like, “Why, why did that work and something else didn’t?” So it’s just like detective work, trying to figure out what works for you, I guess.

And in your experience what sort of things did you find were helping?

I just use, I kind of went through a phase of being like, you know, all the brands you see on tele and like, “Oh, that, that’ll clear my skin.” And it never does. So I just tend to use really plain brands, so just like one, one face wash, one moisturiser. And I just leave it at that. And don’t, I try not to fuss too much because I think that will probably aggravate it, yeah. So just face wash, and then you pat your face dry with a towel. You never rub it cos that will scar. And then moisturise. And that’s it, yeah.

I tend to now stay away from anything with like anything scented or coloured. You just, I try and avoid, I use face wash but I try and use soap-free face wash because soap has, is really drying for my skin. I try and use, I used to just use oil-free moisturisers but now I use ordinary ones, but again just sort of plain things. I now use facial scrubs occasionally, but that’s something that I never did when I had acne. Because it sort of like takes off, it’s only, cos it’s only really good, they say, “Oh, yeah, it’ll clear your spots.” But it’s only for blackheads cos that’s, like it scrubs away the blackheads. But if you’ve got, you know, whiteheads or cystic acne or anything like that, it just like scrapes away the top layer of your skin. It just makes scarring a whole lot worse. So I’ve got a friend who’s, he’s got quite bad skin at the moment and he, he just uses these, like a scrub every day, and I’m like, “No, you, you have to stop, because it’s not helping” yeah. So I use them now but I didn’t used to. And things like you shouldn’t scrub your face with a flannel and you should pat it dry. 
 

When she was using a cream with a bleaching agent Harriet had to be careful about staining her clothes and using other people’s towels.

When she was using a cream with a bleaching agent Harriet had to be careful about staining her clothes and using other people’s towels.

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And you mentioned with the benzoyl peroxide as well having the bleaching agent in it and causing problems with towels and so on. Did that cause any other problems in terms of like ruining clothes or?

Clothes wasn’t too bad, cos I was always, I didn’t realise it would bleach things. And it was only when I looked, I started to use my towel, then it’s, it was like, “Oh, okay, it’s.” And then I looked into it and I found that it was sort of a bleach-based thing. And from then on I was really conscious of, so like when I’m taking a tee-shirt off, I’d like carefully lift it over my face. I remember being quite conscious of other people’s towels in, if I went to stay over at someone’s house. So after I washed my face, I’d make sure I’d do it really thoroughly, and then just like try and pat it dry as gently as possible so I wouldn’t stain anyone’s towels.
 

Harriet was quite conscious of her acne, particularly when she was out of the house, and felt much more comfortable being at home with her family.

Harriet was quite conscious of her acne, particularly when she was out of the house, and felt much more comfortable being at home with her family.

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Cos it just, like it occupies so much space in your mind all the time, it’s just the last thing you want to talk to other people about. Cos it ends up, it sort of becomes almost one of these like personal demons that you’re gonna battle alone, you’re gonna conquer it. And you don’t wanna, sort of you don’t feel like you want any help from anyone else, because it’s sort of your personal battle almost.

Yeah, that does make sense. And with it sort of taking up so much sort of brain space and energy -

Yeah.

-when you were doing other things like whether you were spending time with friends, did you still feel you were holding back something cos you were processing or feeling self-conscious about it?

Yeah, it was, yeah, even with friends. It was less so when I was sort of at their house and it was just a sleepover or something, but it was definitely still always there, that I was always quite conscious of. The only place I wasn’t conscious about it was I think when I was at home with my family. Cos they kind of knew what I was going through and would talk about it more, I felt like I could talk about it more openly. So I could complain, be like, “Oh, my skin is so dry today. I hate this medication.” And they’d be, they’d sort of, they’d be like, “Oh, okay, yeah.” And it’s just like, you don’t expect a reaction like, “Oh, Harriet, I feel so bad for you.” But it’s nice to just feel, to, to voice it and have someone just like accept it and listen. So at home was where I felt most comfortable.
 

Having basic human contact with friends made Harriet feel like “a regular person”.

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Having basic human contact with friends made Harriet feel like “a regular person”.

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One of my friends actually, we di-, like we didn’t really, the nice thing was that they didn’t bring it up, but I felt that I could bring it up if I wanted to. But it wasn’t sort of, no one really cared. Which was nice. But I remember, I was always really conscious of people touching my face, because they’d feel it was like dry or scarred or anything like that. But I remember one of my friends, she’d be, she was really sort of open about it. And we’d do makeovers and she’d, she’d like touch my face like it was any other face. And I remember that was the, like the absolute nicest feeling. Because you sort of, in a way it feels a bit cursed when you’re like, you’ve got this face but you, you don’t want it, you don’t want anyone to touch it, you don’t want to touch it or look at it. So when someone just sort of approaches you and, you know, it’s like, “Oh, Harriet, it’s nice to see you” and it’s, you’re just like, “Oh, I’m a regular person.” [laughs].

[Laughs]

So that, yeah, that’s one of the things that stays with me actually and yeah. It’s just wanting to be, it’s not really that you don’t get treated normally, but you’re always really aware that people might, might sort of intentionally be treating you extra normal. Yeah, but it’s, it’s nice when you have those sort of moments of human contact, yeah.

I was actually always really conscious of people not wanting to sort of be near my face because they might, they might get it as well. That was probably one of the nice things about someone actually touching my face. It’s like, “I’m not scared. It’s okay” yeah. And it, I feel like people make assumptions about, they sort of see you and think, “She must be doing something wrong” you know. Even though you’re sort of, you’re trying harder than everyone else to do something right, yeah [laughs].
 

When she was 14 Harriet felt no one would want her because of her acne. But now she is at university she is building up her confidence and realises physical appearance isn’t the only thing people notice about you.

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When she was 14 Harriet felt no one would want her because of her acne. But now she is at university she is building up her confidence and realises physical appearance isn’t the only thing people notice about you.

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It’s in that time when, you know, everyone’s getting boyfriends or girlfriends and you just think like, ‘No one’s going to want me. I look awful. This is like, how, how is anyone, how, yeah, how can anyone love me when I have a face that looks like this?’ Which is, it’s kind of, it sort of becomes the be-all and end-all. Because that’s, obviously you want nice skin for yourself, but at that age you’re like, it, you don’t really want it for yourself, you want it so you can be beautiful for other people, yeah. Now I don’t, I don’t really, I don’t feel like that thankfully. But when, when you’re younger you do, you just want to sort of look pretty and fit in, yeah.

In your experience, has acne had any impact on sort of relationships or potential partners?

Well, not really. Like I, sort of my group, whole group of friends, we were, we, there was maybe like seven girls and we all just kept ourselves to ourselves all through school and through sixth form. So like I never really had any kind of romantic interest or involvement during that time. Which was fine by me. But like obviously you think, “Oh, yes, I fancy them, they’re cute.” But sort of nothing would ever come of it because, you know, you’ve got acne and no one will want you. Or like that’s how I felt. But it’s strange when I look at other people and they maybe tell me that they’re self-conscious about their skin, and you don’t even register when you’re looking at someone else and you really don’t notice. And it’s such a frustrating thing because I wish I could transplant that knowledge into like the head of 14-year-old me. But people, they, they just like, there’s more important things when you’re meeting a person or talking to a person than what their face looks like, yeah. So, yeah.

So in practice, do you feel like having acne did hold you back from sort of talking to people that maybe you did sort of have a bit of a crush on or like a little bit?

I think I was probably just quite shy anyway, and acne probably, it probably contributed to that. But I’d have probably been like that anyway because I’d, sort of all through school I was quite shy and quite reserved. And it’s only, yeah, only in sort of the last year of sixth form and coming into university that I’ve actually started to build up my confidence. And I think maybe it would have happened, sort of that confidence building, might have happened sooner if I didn’t have acne. But, so it sort of prolonged a shyness maybe, but the shyness was definitely there anyway.
 

Harriet recalls teachers commenting that she didn’t contribute much in lessons and thinks that acne partly contributed towards her shyness at school.

Harriet recalls teachers commenting that she didn’t contribute much in lessons and thinks that acne partly contributed towards her shyness at school.

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I remember all through school every single parents’ evening without fail it would be, “Harriet should contribute more in lessons. She should put her hand up more often.” And I think there probably was a link, but at the same time I think, I don’t think it was the most important thing in terms of that. It was, cos sort of my friends were all in the same boat, we were all quite quiet, always get told ‘you need to speak up more’. So I think acne was just sort of an extra part of that. And I think it’s, a lot of, a lot of it was just like being a bit uncomfortable in yourself. And sort of like you’re getting all like gangly and lumpy in weird places. And you just, the last thing you want to do is be in a classroom full of people and just have them all suddenly turn to look at you while you answer a question. I mean, yeah, acne was a contributing part I think but it wasn’t, it wasn’t the be-all and end-all of it.
 

Although Harriet’s mother paid for her isotretinoin treatment, she thinks it was quite expensive and if she had had to pay herself it would have been something she would have had to think about.

Although Harriet’s mother paid for her isotretinoin treatment, she thinks it was quite expensive and if she had had to pay herself it would have been something she would have had to think about.

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It was never too much of an issue for me, but I know, well, to start with when I was getting my medication it was free. But then it’s now sort of however many pounds to get things for a prescription. So that wasn’t ever too bad because it wasn’t that expensive. But then I think with the Roaccutane (isotretinoin), it was about £50 or something for a month’s supply. Which was quite expensive. And luckily I was still living, living with my parents and they were happy to pay that. But I could understand that if you were sort of self-sufficient and financing yourself, it would have to be an actual consideration whether you wanted to take them or not. I mean thankfully for me I could just be like, “Yes, I want these” and my mum would just be like, “Okay, yes darling. Have some money.” [laughs]. But, yeah, if it was now, you, I mean it would probably be an investment that I would make, but it would be one that you’d actually have to think about rather than something you can just take for granted.
 

Harriet used the internet a lot and became “a self-confessed skin expert”.

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Harriet used the internet a lot and became “a self-confessed skin expert”.

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Things like Yahoo Answers. And you just sort of google what foods are bad for your skin or just like constantly on little forums looking at the best like face washes and moisturisers. And then you start, you go to a supermarket with your mum and you’re like, “Oh, that one’s oil free. I’ll get that one. That’ll be good for my skin. And that one’s got, you know, soap free” or anything like that. And you slowly start to, you know, one thing works and it, or it doesn’t work. And then you google that and you’re like, “Why, why did that work and something else didn’t?” So it’s just like detective work, trying to figure out what works for you, I guess.

I was just comple-, like constantly on Google, like googling what foods are bad, what you shouldn’t drink or do. And like I mostly had my hair like tied up in a bun so it was all out of my face. I changed my pillowcase every single night. Like I’m an absolute skin expert now [laughs]. Well, a self-confessed skin expert. 

[Laughs]

But, yeah, so I did, I did sort of read that you should, like dairy is, I read one, in one place that nothing you eat will affect it, but then I found that sometimes it does. So I wouldn’t eat, like if I eat eggs or cream or things like that, then it tends to, or it tended to get quite bad. So I’d avoid things like that, yeah.
 

Harriet read comments people had made on Boots reviews sections and Yahoo answers. She felt some forums only gave “a small fragment of a bigger picture”.

Harriet read comments people had made on Boots reviews sections and Yahoo answers. She felt some forums only gave “a small fragment of a bigger picture”.

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It was just, it was just a combination of things really. I tended to just sort of search and see what I, see what sites came up for my various things, you know. Sort of what’s good for scarring or what’s good for, you know, dryness, things like that. I remember going through on the Boot’s website of various things, looking at the little review section, seeing what people said about it. Yahoo Answers were sometimes helpful, sometimes not, yeah.

Was there any information that you were looking for that you weren’t really able to find online in the searches?

I don’t know. It was sort of, the stuff I was missing I suppose was kind of actual people, cos online it’s all quite, I don’t know, it’s quite anonymous. And there’s people telling their stories but you don’t really know their back stories or how, like whether it’s worked long term and things like that, yeah. So I didn’t really know anyone particularly that had very bad skin or that, or knew and wanted to talk about it. So I tried, I sort of kept on, obviously it’s quite obvious when anyone looks at you, but I didn’t really talk about it in, sort of at school or with my family especially, yeah.

And so with the, like the reviews of products and like the answers that people gave, did you feel like it wasn’t enough information and not opportunities to ask?

Yeah, well, like they’re useful for sort of a little snapshot of what something’s like. But obviously you don’t really know what that person’s skin is like or what general sort of lifestyle they have or anything like that. So it is, it’s useful but it’s just, it’s only a really small fragment of a bigger picture.
 

Harriet says she would have found it useful to have had quite specific advice about managing her skin from her GP.

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Harriet says she would have found it useful to have had quite specific advice about managing her skin from her GP.

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It’s a difficult balance. I think it’s something that you want early on. Cos like my first trip to, to a GP, it would have been so useful to maybe have lists of things that you should try not to do or like have a, an outline of your routine or, and saying things like, “Try not to touch your face too much. Always make sure, you know, you’ve got a clean towel and a clean pillowcase. Drink lots of water. Get lots of fresh air.” Things like that, just really simple, obvious things, but kind of given to you in a, in a sort of accessible way when you first go to the doctor. It would be so helpful and kind of would save you all that time of trial and error and maybe not finding things out until a few years later. But when it gets to the point where you’re quite late on in the process and people are telling you these things, it just, it gets a bit tiring. Because you’re like, “Well, obviously I’ve tried that”.
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