How long does it take to treat skin problems?

There is really no unified standard for this matter. Mild cases may be almost gone in three to five days. It is not uncommon for serious old problems to take two to three years to treat.

Over the years I have been involved in skin care, I have seen too many people rush to find home remedies for "eliminating acne in three days" and "whitening in seven days" as soon as they have two acnes. Instead, they make their originally healthy faces more and more sensitive. There are also people who patiently follow the advice of public dermatologists and slowly adjust the treatments. It is a little slow, but after it is cured, they seldom repeat it. It is much more worry-free than taking shortcuts.

There is quite a quarrel about this matter on the Internet right now. One group believes that skin care is about pursuing efficiency, and that all problems must be resolved within 7 days to be effective. The other group is obsessed with the 28-day cycle of normal metabolism of our epidermis, saying that any product that achieves quick results must have added banned ingredients such as hormones and heavy metals. In fact, both sides are not wrong. The core thing is that it depends on what level of skin problem you are facing. For example, I had two red and swollen pimples after eating a spicy hot pot meal the day before and staying up all night. My skin is basically healthy, and I don’t have any old problems of sensitivity or redness. I apply a mild acne cream and drink plenty of water in the next two days and avoid sweet and spicy ones. The pimples will disappear in three or four days. I don’t have to wait for a whole metabolic cycle. But if you have been suffering from recurring acne for three or four years, and it still gets red and stinging at every turn, and even if you use mild skin care products, it will itch for a long time, then if someone tells you that it can be adjusted for you in half a month, you must not believe it. This is probably because the stratum corneum has been damaged to a great extent, and the underlying inflammation has been subsided for several years.

I helped a friend adjust her hormones on her face last year. Before, she bought a quick-acting whitening mask from WeChat. After being exposed to the sun for ten minutes in the summer, her face turned red like a cooked shrimp. Even if she switched to ordinary moisturizer, it would be swollen for two days. There was almost no obvious change in the first three months, except that the redness was less frequent. It was a little low. She wanted to give up on cosmetic surgery several times. She gritted her teeth and strictly followed the requirements to streamline her skin care and avoid sweets and dairy products. It was only in the eighth month that she dared to use ordinary moisturizing creams. Now, almost two years later, she finally dared to wear heavy makeup occasionally and eat spicy hot pot with friends like her healthy skin.

In fact, this is similar to growing succulents. If you water too much and the roots get rotten, you can’t expect to cut off the bad roots and plant them back and then new roots will grow the next day, right? You have to give it time to pot, slow down the seedlings, and slowly grow new roots before it can be watered and exposed to the sun normally. The same is true for skin conditioning. Don't just focus on the numbers of "how long it will take to get better." First, understand the extent of your skin problem. It is much more reliable than looking for quick-fix methods.