HEALTH PLUS MED­ICAL COR­RE­SPON­DENT

The new phrase ‘MASK-NE”, which com­bines the words “mask” and “ac­ne” - has re­cent­ly sprung up all over so­cial me­dia as peo­ple are vent­ing their woes from a new kind of fa­cial mal­a­dy. While masks play a vi­tal role in re­duc­ing the spread of the coro­n­avirus, they can al­so be hard on your skin, caus­ing prob­lems that range from ac­ne and peel­ing skin to rash­es and itch­i­ness.

Maskne — the most com­mon kind of which is ac­ne me­chan­i­ca, aka the type of ac­ne a foot­ball play­er may get where the hel­met rubs; is al­so enough of a thing that the Covid-19 task force of the Amer­i­can Acad­e­my of Der­ma­tol­ogy (AAD) felt com­pelled to re­lease ad­vice on the sub­ject.

“Oh, it’s a re­al thing,” said Dr Mona Go­hara, an as­so­ciate clin­i­cal pro­fes­sor of der­ma­tol­ogy at Yale School of Med­i­cine. She her­self has got­ten maskne from her three lay­ers of masks: a KN95 (sim­i­lar to an N95) topped with a sur­gi­cal mask to keep it clean, plus a face shield if she is do­ing pro­ce­dures.

Re­search pub­lished in the Jour­nal of the Amer­i­can Acad­e­my of Der­ma­tol­ogy re­port­ed that at least 83 per­cent of health­care work­ers in Hubei, Chi­na, suf­fered skin prob­lems on the face. And anec­do­tal­ly, doc­tors re­port an in­crease in ac­ne flare-ups in peo­ple out­side of health­care as well. That is be­cause masks can wors­en skin is­sues that al­ready ex­ist or cause new ones. Add in the heat and hu­mid­i­ty and you have a petri dish for break­outs.

So how does the mask play in­to maskne?

Here are just a few ways masks can cause ac­ne:

Mois­ture – When con­fined be­neath the fab­ric of a mask, your breath cre­ates a hu­mid en­vi­ron­ment. Hu­mid­i­ty is the en­e­my of clear skin. That hu­mid­i­ty be­comes a breed­ing ground for ac­ne.

Bac­te­ria – Sweat, oil, and make­up can be­come trapped un­der the mask and clog pores and bac­te­ria is con­stant­ly be­ing rein­tro­duced in­to your skin thanks to your hands. Every time you ad­just your mask or even just put it on, you are in­tro­duc­ing pore-clog­ging oil and dirt in­to your pores from your hands. Those clogged pores can re­sult in, you guessed it, ac­ne.

Fric­tion – As you go about your day, your mask moves around your face, dam­ag­ing the skin’s pro­tec­tive lay­er, some­times called the “skin bar­ri­er.” And with­out that pro­tec­tive bar­ri­er, it is eas­i­er for bac­te­ria and grime to set­tle in­to your pores and make pim­ple ba­bies.

Warm weath­er – Heat and hu­mid­i­ty can ex­ac­er­bate ac­ne, in­side and out­side the mask. High­er tem­per­a­tures in­crease your face’s sweat and oil pro­duc­tion and the more oil and sweat, the eas­i­er it is for bac­te­ria to turn in­to blem­ish­es.

No mat­ter how you’re us­ing your mask, maskne will prob­a­bly be a con­sis­tent is­sue in the fu­ture. And left un­treat­ed, things could on­ly get worse.

Is it se­ri­ous? NO. Can Maskne be pre­vent­ed? YES

1. Wash your face first

– Use a gen­tle cleanser that is free of fra­grance and oil and rinse with luke­warm wa­ter. This pre­vents dirt and oil from be­ing trapped on the skin’s sur­face, which caus­es break­outs. Your face should al­ways be clean be­fore you put on your mask.

2. Ap­ply a mois­tur­iz­er

– Not on­ly will this keep your skin hy­drat­ed, but it will al­so act as a bar­ri­er be­tween your face and your mask, re­duc­ing fric­tion. Ap­ply on­to a cleansed face be­fore and af­ter wear­ing a mask. Look for mois­tur­iz­ers that con­tain ce­ramides, hyaluron­ic acid, or dime­thicone, which will pro­vide ex­tra pro­tec­tion. Take care to avoid fra­grances amongst oth­er com­mon con­tact al­ler­gens. This may take tri­al and er­ror to find the right for­mu­la­tion for your skin type. Con­sult a der­ma­tol­o­gist if fur­ther ad­vice is re­quired.

3. Ditch the make­up

– Wear­ing skin make­up un­der a mask caus­es clogged pores and break­outs, ac­cord­ing to the Amer­i­can Acad­e­my of Der­ma­tol­ogy. Make­up residue will al­so soil your mask and re­main as a lay­er of fric­tion to your skin.

4. Wash­ing your mask

– If us­ing a cot­ton mask, wash it af­ter each use as its sur­face con­tains dirt and oil and can be­come a breed­ing ground for bac­te­ria from your nose and mouth.

Choose a fra­grance-free laun­dry soap, Fra­grances can ir­ri­tate your skin.

Skip the fab­ric soft­en­er, too.

5. Stay away from harsh prod­ucts

– Med­icat­ed skin care prod­ucts that con­tain ben­zoyl per­ox­ide, retinols and sal­i­cylic acid will be more ir­ri­tat­ing to the skin un­der a mask. Be care­ful about how much and what you use.

“This is some­thing that we’re go­ing to have to get used to. I don’t see us not wear­ing any masks any­time soon,” says Dr Go­hara. “So, it’s im­por­tant to know how to pre­vent it from oc­cur­ring.”

Look out for HEALTH PLUS every Tues­day for more in­for­ma­tive and health­ful ar­ti­cles. If you have any ques­tions or con­cerns re­gard­ing this top­ic, please email Guardian­Health­Plus2020@gmail.com