You’ve Made Your Bed—But Have You Washed the Sheets?

by: Amber Cozad

I’ve never had too big of an issue with bad breakouts on my face (my main issue is my back), but out of nowhere I started breaking out constantly on the right side of my face. These were huge, deep, scar-leaving pimples that would take weeks to go away.

Once I thought I was in the clear, three or four more would pop right back up again. I had no idea what was going on, but it was frustrating—even if my skin cleared up, I would be left with big purple scars dotting the right side of my face.

Frustrated and irritable, I did what anyone who wanted to get rid of acne does: I went to the internet. I found lots of reasons for recurring acne on one side of the face—not enough exercise, air pollution, a lack of water—but none of these really applied to me. The two factors that did apply to me, however, made so much sense! Many sites claimed dirty sheets and/or dirty phone screens were the cause of one-sided acne.

Pillow cases are so easy to forget to wash regularly, and if you’re like me, then you can only fall asleep on one certain side. This leads you to have your face pressed against a dirty pillow for about eight hours every night!

Even if you wash your pillow case regularly, if you go to sleep without washing your face or taking your makeup off, your pillow will still accumulate mounds of bacteria that can cause breakouts. Once I switched my pillow cases and started religiously washing my face before bed every night, I saw a difference almost immediately. My pores were generally clearer from the extra cleaning at the end of the day, but the huge nasty pimples stopped popping up!

A dirty phone screen isn’t as important to me because I don’t talk on the phone too often, but after my internet research I cleaned my phone just in case and found that it was dirtier than I thought!

Even talking on the phone once a week left my screen with a film of makeup. Not to mention the bacteria and oils deposited on your screen from your fingers! So if you talk on the phone a lot, even if you’re not having huge breakout issues, I recommend cleaning your screen regularly just to prevent all those germs from getting near your face!

The biggest thing I learned from this experience is that keeping your face clean isn’t all about having the right face wash—it’s about making sure your environment is clean, too. Take care of your face and your surroundings, and you could see a huge difference!