Superopinionated

Several months ago, one of my metamours sent me an email asking for skincare advice. They’d recently started testosterone and while it was going well, to quote directly, my god my face. I ended up writing a reply that I want archived somewhere, both as a marker in time, and in case it’s useful to anyone else in the future. So if you are newly on T:

First of all, congrats on the hormones! I hope it's going well! The bespoke gender experience is the only way to live, I don't know why so many people settle for off-the-rack.

My early experience with T was very similar in the omg what is happening with my pores?? arena. It doesn't stay like that forever, and also I think every beard/body hair I have was preceded by an extraordinary sebum event 1-3 months beforehand. So at least for me, reaching a place of zen-like acceptance that it was a liminal state definitely helped loosen up any feelings like I had to fix or change what was happening and let me ride it out. I found shifting to observing and accepting where my face and body were currently helped me feel less like I was in conflict with them. Oh I have the zits that I developed overnight and then by the end of the day, there will be a whole other set of zits that somehow have already appeared again. Okay that's happening. vs what am I doing 'wrong' that's causing these/how can I make these go away.  idk I just already had so much to unpack about masculinity that I wasn't expecting, any area that I could write off as it won't be like this in a year, probably, so I'm just not going to worry about it was good mental space to free up.

All of that said! Some things I found that helped were switching out a lot of stuff I was using on my face/body, and then all the tedious advice about cutting back on sugar/caffeine (basically: reducing things that would cause even more oil production) — although I think there's limited/mixed data about how effective that is tbh. I'm more of a “moderation in all things” person because I figure if I'm hyperfixating to the point of being stressed out about, eg, yoga, that's not actually going to reduce my stress.

So — I use the Bioderma Sensibio cleanser nightly right now, it seems to be working well although it is very gentle. I never used to use any kind of toner before and now I do (and ye gods...it's necessary). I did find that switching to thinking less of “removing” oil and keeping more of a mindset of “circulating/replacing oil” was better at keeping things calm? I've found skin cycling helps (1 night of a retinol, 1 night of an acid/mask/whatever, 2 nights of skin barrier-replacing face cream) so I don't overdo it but I'm still making sure there's not a ton of buildup.

...Also I think some of it depends on what your face is doing all day. I work retail and tend to get a decent amount of activity/outdoor time now, but for a while, I was spending a lot of time indoors in front of a computer monitor, and that definitely made a difference in terms of how often I was sitting with my hands on my face etc etc. 

Nothing has helped with clearing active breakouts and stuff more than drinking a ton of water + the invention of the weird little face stickers to wear overnight. Or the clear ones during the day. Where were those when I was in middle and high school and doing first puberty, omg. I like the CosRX ones but tbh, try a bunch and find which ones work well for you. Some companies make heavy-duty ones with tiny spikes they claim inject salicylic acid directly into the zit, it's great/horrifying/effective.

Morning:

- I just splash water on my face in the morning to get off whatever I put on it the night before...this felt VERY WEIRD after an entire adolescence and adulthood of cleansing in the morning, but if your pillowcase is clean, it's not necessary. (Note: change your pillowcase at least once a week, maybe more. You won't always need to, but if your face is producing a lot of sebum/oil, that's a great medium for bacteria, which'll irritate your skin and make things worse. Also depending on how old/full of dead skin cells your pillow is...maybe a good time to replace that too. Probably not the advice you emailed me for!!)

- I’m currently using M3 Naturals Professional Facial and Avene Solaire SPF 50 facial sunscreen. Mainly I just don't buy “oil free” things because they'll probably dry me out and increase production, but I also don't need “moisturizing” products (...definitely not).

Evening:

- The aforementioned Bioderma Sensibio Micellar Cleansing Oil

- Any kind of toner, I don't care, my instructions to my husband are “whatever is a WinCo”...I think this one involves roses? Does it have an old-timey font? It's just to get whatever I didn't get off my face already, off my face already. Nothing with alcohol though because I don't need to strip moisture.

- Oh that reminds me, this video by Lisa Eldridge changed my life years ago...I don't want to insult you, you're an adult, but I am also an adult and I apparently needed to be taught how to thoroughly wash my face? Around minute 6 or 7 is when I would say it applies to someone not wearing makeup, but any time she says “makeup” I pretend she's saying “T-fueled face grease”. I think a common mistake is putting on a cleanser and then not letting it stay on long enough to work, and taking time to massage it into my face fixes that.

- My 4-night skin cycle is this AHA/BHA mask, this 1% retinol treatment, then 2 nights of this moisturizer. I'm still experimenting with night creams,, but the other two are great. That AHA/BHA mask is something I leave on all night because I'm a monster...you probably shouldn't do that right out of the gate.

The other main thing I like to do is use the Boycat app to check if any beauty product I’m about to buy is owned by some company that’s operating a factory in occupied Palestine, or is supporting the genocide in Palestine materially somehow. This can be restrictive and narrow the field of products I buy! But if there’s a way for me to know how to avoid actively supporting a genocide, I’m going to do it, and this is one way.

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