The Truth About Congested Skin

Congested Skin – The Truth by Danné Montague-King

Congested Skin, The Truth by Danné Montague-King Copyright April 2021

For as long as I can remember people have been plagued by blackheads (comedones), milia, pustules, papules, and cysts.

Although slightly different in appearance, all these skin anomalies stem from one source: skin trying to defend itself!

Behind that natural mechanism, however, is hormonal flux.

Contribution By Danné Montague King 

Danné Montague-King is the founder of DMK Skin Care, which is based on his “remove, rebuild, protect, maintain” concept. He is a known educator, author and presenter.

“There are no secret formulas, no special techniques from abroad and no miracle scientific breakthroughs that alleviate all skin conditions, including aging.”

Congested Skin – Oil + Dead Cell Build Up

Starting with signals of stress recorded by the hypothalamus gland, winding down through the adrenals, the testosterone, the relayed signals tell the sebaceous oil gland to “pump more oil!”

Normally this would just result in excessively oily skin. But if there is a redundant dead cell build-up, the secretion backs up behind it like water behind a dam, at which point it starts a reservoir in the gland itself, puffing it up bigger and bigger.

At that point new, baby cells perceiving this as an unnatural phenomenon tries to defend the area by encapsulating it—forming a cyst-like bump. We try to squeeze it, puncture it with a lancet or a comedown extractor and nothing comes out but blood.

Congested Skin Plus Bacteria

It is only when the corynebacterial attack occurs does pus form and it is off to the acne farm! Full stop!

Sometimes the sebum hardens in the fulcrum of the shunt (pore) and becomes a hard, pre-deposited fat. This gets bigger and bigger as the congestion builds and stretches the aperture of the pore larger, creating a peau Orange (orange peel) effect.

Blackheads are merely sebum trapped near the surface of the epidermis, turning black from focused hyperpigmentation, milia (whiteheads) are the same thing but there is enough dead cell material over the top of the area to avoid solar effects.

Treating Congested Skin

Steaming the skin, using strong surfactants, and applying masques of all types were the classic ways of treating congested skin. I used to teach at a medical/aesthetics school in Kyiv, Ukraine, and the hallways were always crowded with depressed-looking teenagers with chalk-like masques on, reeking of camphor and sulfur!

In fact, steam on bare skin creates TEWL, thus dehydrating the skin which leaves the client puzzled as to why their skin is so dry, yet they have so many fatty pustules? It also can attract and /or spread P. Acnes bacteria and Staph Areus, which of course exacerbates the problem—so then you do extractions.

Extractions might be totally satisfying to the therapist and the client, but it might be also leaving a scar behind due to tissue force repeatedly.

The number one approach to treating acne topically of course is removing redundant cell build-up. This allows the sebaceous and sudoriferous secretions to form evenly on the skin, forming the acid mantle, nature’s natural moisturizer (cremes do not moisturize, they are delivery systems if formulated with a W/O formulation).

You can alkalize the skin rapidly to desquamate everything on the epidermis including the vellus hair that holds the fat plugs in place.

After the desquamation, you neutralize the skin back to a normal pH and carry on with the rest of your procedure, which could include blue LED, plenty of water with a wetting agent, and all the essential nutrients the skin needs to fulfill its own homeostasis.

The ecosystem of the microbiome must be introduced to the area, allowing S. epidermis to predominate. The products must be live spores to maintain this “veil” to fight off the army of bad bacteria of S. Aureus.

Home Prescriptives are essential to keeping the skin from a defensive mode, the cell turnover in a normal rhythm and stress away from the “hormone flux”.