There are “facts” that we heard at our mother’s knee that they knew” to be true with absolute, total, unassailable conviction. Wet feet and drafts cause colds. Wine gets better when it breathes. Arthritis acting up predicts a brewing storm. All these are false. but not necessarily completely false.

Poor Hygiene Causes Acne-So Wash Your Face!

This is probably the mother of all myths-fostered, no doubt, by all old wives’ conviction that youngsters are inherently dirty, that cleanliness is next to godliness, that dirt is therefore the work of the devil, and that acne is the punishment for such work.

“Slovenliness is no part of religion,” preached John Wesley, cofounder of the Methodist religion.

“Wash your mouth out,” our mothers used to remonstrate. “And while you’re at it, wash your face.”

No doubt, looking thoroughly scrubbed and clean has its advantages. However, with respect to acne, excessive washing is a bad idea’ for the reasons we have elucidated earlier. Nor is a dirty face, how-ever undesirable it may be for aesthetic reasons, going to cause acne;

By all means wash your face. But do so with plain water if that is enough to loosen the surface dirt. If it takes more than that, use the. mildest cleanser you can find. Reserve the more thorough washings for those of your body interstices that are likely to cause unpleasant body odor-and unlikely to develop acne.

Masturbation Exacerbates Acne:

The myth that masturbation causes or at least exacerbates acne is a tenacious one. According to Peter Engel, coauthor of a book called Old Wives’ Tales, these sorts of myths about the dangers of masturbation “started as a warning from parents in the (19th) century to stop their male children from committing the ’self-polluting act.’ Incipient insanity, epilepsy, weakened physique, shifty eyes, and hairy palms were … threatened consequences of what was referred to as ’self-abuse.”’ Just as those results were wholly false, so is the persistent belief that masturbation has any impact on acne. There is no need to control masturbation (and thus acne), as did the Victorians, by inserting spikes under boys’ foreskins!

However, in addition to the aftermath of the baseless tradition that masturbation is generally bad for you, with respect to acne the belief gains plausibility because, while there is no cause-and-effect relationship between masturbation and acne, there is certainly a correlation between them. The hormonal changes that occur at the start of puberty lead to several concurrent phenomena. One of these is that, in many youngsters, they give rise to acne. And, of course, this is also the time nearly all boys and the large majority of girls start to masturbate.