sebaceous hyperplasia
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free skin care · Sat Mar 24, 2018 9:12 am

Great to hear of your success GW
Your story is identical to mine.
It took 2 or 3 visits to get on top of them and now once a year is enough.
The difference it's made to my life is huge. They are not something I think about anymore .. Im sure i still have them but you cant see them. They get zapped before they become a problem and then I forget about them for a year. I feel blessed to have the treatment on my doorstep.
Trust me I have tried most of the so called remedies bar accutane and this is the only thing that worked for me.
The only other thing I do is take 2 x 500 mg tablets of B5 a day.
I am convinced this helps with the oil and there have been no side effects to this at all.
All I can say to happy cat is that if my local clinic relocated to Scotland then that's where I would go . The piece of mind a clear face gives me is priceless to me.

Sun Mar 25, 2018 7:13 am

Yes happycat, I noticed when I improved my diet and lost a lot of weight, that my skin improved and that too made the bumps more visible as the surround areas were tighter and smoother.

I'm sure when I was Googling I saw places that did ACP up North but to be honest it might be worth the trip to Winchester the first time just so you know you tried and then if you are happy with the results get your top-ups in SCotland.

There are some nice things to see in Winchester like the Cathedral or Round Table so worth making a day out of it I guess.

Even though I still have some more that need doing and that one big one that is still there but a lot smaller, I am no longer self-conscious about my face and in particular that central forehead area.

I believe some that were treated are technically still there in a way but they are level with the skin so you have to look really close to see a slightly larger pore and a bit of discolouration around the outside but there is no way anyone else could see that and no "bump" to speak of. So when I'm standing in front of the mirror with the bathroom light shining down on top, I can twist my head around to try and make them more visible with shadows and yet I can't see all those bumps that were there before.

As Hemp says, if they relocated to Scotland I'd take a trip, go see some sights and then get it done. I'm surprised there aren't more around as looking at the price of the machine and what the treatment costs, it would be a pretty lucrative business.

In my city there are just really only expensive private consultants who want to charge a fortune per blemish with laser. I'd rather pay less for ACP and even if it isn't 100% successful, it is still very highly successful so with repeat trips it will eventually have got them all and be far better value.

Oh and Hemp, the guy at Winchester remembered you when I told your story that I read on here! He seemed really enthusiastic about treating SH with this method to the point that he could remember a specific patient like that.

I'm sceptical of supplements and the like given how many so called wonder cures of topicals and supplements that were recommended to me and didn't work. I have just ordered some 500mg B5 tablets though which should last 45 days at two per day so I will try it just to see and report back.

I'm still using the Salicylic Acid face wash as that seems to just be good in general for the skin and helped reduce redness quite lot immediately after the scabs were off.

But yeah my final word to happycat is that I wouldn't even be "playing with" going to Winchester if my SH was how it used to be and I had the benefit of hindsight. I'd have already booked up! I really wish I'd done it years ago so I'd be at the stage Hemp is at by now.

free skin care · Thu Jul 05, 2018 5:05 am

Hi everybody

The thread has been quite quiet again lately. i have been for my annual ACP treatment today so it seemed like a good time to check in.

Yep i still have them , i have probably at a guess had about 40 treated in all today and although this sounds alarming i would stress that the majority were pretty small. I could of left them longer but as im now getting married in September i wanted to get everything zapped whether visible to me or not.

Its a bit like knocking them out before they get a chance to get a hold.
I cant help thinking that anyone who has their skin subjected to a bright light and a magnifying glass would show up flaws they never knew they had. He is thorough and i trust him to do what needs doing.

I would love to hear how others are getting on in their battles with SH. This thread ebbs and flows and it would be great to keep it going.

Anybody have anything new to add......

Thu Jul 05, 2018 11:14 am

Hi Hemp, I'm new here as of 5 minutes ago. Thanks for keeping this going so long, it's been interesting to read your updates.

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding. I am back on the dating scene at 43 and the SH has made me so self-consciousness (as if my age and acne scars weren't enough of a hindrance 😂😭)

I had about 15 SH treated by electrocautery (or advanced electrolysis, not sure what the difference is) 3 months ago which was a bit painful as I could feel every needle insertion (all around the outside and in the centre of each SH. Had big black scabs on my face on a first date. Great (!). The 2 largest that I've had for about 8 years now look like craters (after 3 treatments) and the smallest ones less noticeable, but I'm seeing new ones already 😢

I use Paula's choice 2%bha and factor 30 moisturiser/sunscreen, benzoyl peroxide in the morning and clindamycin/tretinoin cream in the evening. Keeps the PCOS induced acne under control but no effect on the SH.

Wish I had a positive story to add, but I'm still looking for answers myself.

Thu Jul 05, 2018 12:09 pm

Congratulations Hemp on the wedding!

I've just had my second treatment.

I had a similar experience to you as I had my first treatment and then some issues with a psycho lady friend that caused a lot of stress!

Not sure whether the stress played a part in the regrowth of some of them. The chap at Winchester said it was very unusual how quickly some of mine had regrown. My first treatment was on the day of the "beast from the east" and that blast of cold weather left my skin incredible dry and flaky so whether the lack of moisture in the skin on treatment day reduced the amount of tissue that got obliterated I guess I will never know.

Basically of my first treatment, a large number were gone and never came back.

Some came back but were smaller and less noticeable.

At the three month point post treatment I was looking cosmetically massively improved as compared to the day before my first treatment and very happy.

I happened to have a week off work for another reason so figured I'd take advantage of that time I was planning to spend out of the public eye and get a follow up treatment. I could have waited to six months but as I could afford it and had the time off work anyway I figured why not?

The second treatment has definitely been more effective than the first so it is clear that the more treatments you have, the more are permanently destroyed. I know new ones will keep growing but I hope to go less frequently as I get the ones I started out with under control.

I had a really large finger-wart sized one on my cheek an inch to the side of my nose. As I said in my first post, the first treatment made it far smaller but didn't entirely remove it. Now after the second treatment it is totally gone.

In my view I'd suggest that with many of them the gland itself is either permanently killed off or reset to the point where it only remembers to regrow to a normal size. In the case of others the gland survives but is reset and loses the memory of its original large size but still over-grows but does so smaller than before. In some cases it is as if only half the gland regrows. The second treatment then seems to completely wipe that out.

Now a month (full skin cycle) after the second treatment I look far better than I did a month after the first treatment and night and day different compared to before any treatment.

Anyway the results are so good and the effect on my confidence and the resulting massive positive changes to my life are so great, that I'd gladly go quarterly forever! I've practically never been home, am always out, met tonnes of new people and the only bad thing is the amount of mileage I've put on my new car going so many places!!! I am no longer conscious and thinking about the SH when talking to people and especially women.

I'd hope to reduce it to going six-monthly once I've had my third treatment and if I can get it down to annually then that's a bonus.

I just think it is a disgrace that the NHS won't pay for this as it certainly had a crippling effect on my state of mind and life. Left untreated it would have got worse and worse and left me looking terrible where as now I am really confident about my appearance.

Thu Jul 05, 2018 12:41 pm

Lunarkitty - keep going for the treatment and stay positive Very Happy

There is no permanent solution so you just have to accept that you will be going there for (as Hemp suggested some time ago) as long as you care about your appearance.

Maybe when I am 60+ (42 now) I won't care anymore and will just let it go but until then I am going to go regularly.

The scabs are a pain. It is deceptive how long it takes to heal. An acne scab of the same diameter would normally only take me a few days. But I believe this treatment is far deeper so it does take the 10 days for the hole that gets punched in the skin to fill out under the scab.

I don't go to work with the scabs and certainly wouldn't go on a first date!!!!!!

Although thinking about it, if I went on a date and the lady was covered in the scabs and she explained why, I wouldn't hold it against her in the slightest. Same with scars. Actually same with Acne - I've never even cared in the slightest about acne or that rosacea on women. A lady I work with is stunning and yet she is always down about her rosacea - even though she is married to a nice guy and I'd give my right arm to date her if she was single. Maybe we all get self-conscious about things for no reason and waste our lives worrying about something that doesn't bother others?

Yet in my mind I believe that women can be less forgiving and more choosy so I personally would make my excuses and delay the date if I had the scabs!!! I base that on the fact that I had quite bad and persistent acne until my late 20's (still get some but only if I eat bad stuff) and the women I met were very intolerant about that and some quite cruel and spiteful. Not like they were oil paintings either mind.

Maybe that has resulted in me being extra sensitive about my SH and why it hurt my confidence so badly. It made me just stay inside eating/drinking badly and playing video games. Now I've lost 2 stone (same weight I was at age 20) and am really fit, go running, doing weights, new wardrobe, socialising a lot etc.

I was lucky the acne didn't leave scars. I will always be grateful for that but prior to my treatment I was very bitter about the fact that as soon as I had the acne sorted, I was then struck down by the SH. I just wondered what I'd done to deserve it, why I was being punished and if I'd ever get a break.

free skin care · Thu Jul 05, 2018 10:52 pm

Well it really is great to hear a positive story on here GW. i can echo a lot of what you have said.

My first treatment was 4 years ago now. i can remember how withdrawn and down the SH mde me feel , today it really is something i worry about less and less, There is acceptance that i have a skin condition that needs regular maintenance.
The first thing i said to him when i went yesterday was how do i look. To the naked eye he said he i looked good. Of course under a magnified light its a bit different but in the real world people are not seeing you that way.

Its so hard not to feel self concious but i have come to realise that its never as bad as it seems.People are not that interested in our skin as we are. Im sure they are far more worried about the issues in their lives.

I remember Annie R saying on here once to smile and nobody will notice your flaws. I have remembered that and believe it to be true.

My SH are tiny compared to the visible ones i used to have. They do not bother me much at all and until a proven form of prevention is found i will continue to do what im doing. if only we could find a way to stop them forming in the first place.

free skin care · Mon Jul 16, 2018 6:54 am

Does anyone use the Vitamin B 5 and have success? If so, how much and often do you use it?

free skin care · Tue Jul 17, 2018 6:49 am

I have been reading a lot on it and it sounds like it works for acne in large doses, but I am not going to mega-dose. Just taking 2 capsules of 500 mg in the morning and may be 2 at night for the first week and then just 2 a day. I do not want hair loss, so I will piggy-back it with L- Carnitine and Inositol to help ward it off in case.
So we shall see!

Mon Aug 06, 2018 4:48 pm

I've tried to read back thru comments here but not enough time to go way back so I'll ask this... has anyone here tried a couple NCN Pro Skin Care's products for SH? Several clients have had some success with the GHK-CU Copper Peptide Amino Complex Formula II and the All-Trans Retinol 2% Formula II. These clients used a hypodermic needle, gently poking tiny holes in the spots then applied the Copper Peptide in the morning, the Retinol at night. This won't keep them from coming back but some people had good results.

Tue Aug 07, 2018 11:50 am

Annie - I'd advise against B5. Doing some Google research actually revealed that the evidence for it is very very shaky. I tried it and actually felt quite ill so stopped after a week. Maybe some people tolerate it better than others but I saw no benefit and as I say if you read into it, there isn't really any evidence aside from a shady theory some guy had.

msboo - if you ask me that treatment you mention might have worked due to the poking of the holes and not the chemicals that were used.

The ACP treatment works by destroying a patch of skin to a decent depth just around and including the gland. It's not really magic, it is simply destruction of tissue. It's deep enough to kill or severely damage the gland but not deep enough to scar. As has been stated in this thread, no amount of pills or topical treatments will do anything to the gland. Only physical destruction works.

It appears the gland can be killed off completely (my largest wart sized one that I had the longest time is completely gone with no growth following two treatments on it) or the enlarged gland will slowly regrow and protrude again either to the same extent as before or a reduced size.

Now I saw something on a forum where a guy got a tiny needle and made a large number of pin-pricks in the SH and achieved pretty decent results although he never posted a follow-up reporting on re-occurrence rates.

Well anyway prior to my first ACP treatment I had tested something similar on a large one I had on my cheek. I made loads of small pin pricks in it with a sterilised needle and ended up with a scab for a good week to ten days just like you do with ACP. That was actually successful and it never regrew. In fact that experience made me go ahead with the ACP because for the first time I realise that these indestructible lumps were not immortal after all and could be killed.

When I had my last ACP treatment there was one that the guy missed and as I was going to be covered in scabs anyway, I tried the same thing and again it was successful.

So my view is that deep enough needle pricks and enough of them would cause enough tissue destruction to achieve the same results as ACP. It's achieving the same effect but via a different method.

Just to be clear, I would not and am not recommending that anyone do this as they could up with scars. I'm just explaining why the needle method might have had some results. When I had my last ACP I booked another one for September and will be doing that rather than taking a needle to my face!!!! Either way I'd want a week off work so I'd get it done properly.

free skin care · Wed Aug 08, 2018 6:35 am

Thanks for the input! I have tried taking B5 with no results (small amount) but didn't want to take the excessive amounts it says you might need too. Too risky in my opinion. I am a fan of my hair, haha.
These things have a life of their own so always good to see what works and doesn't.

Fri Aug 10, 2018 5:20 pm

GW.... kinda makes sense. All reporting success used a needle. Also, what works for some may not work for others. Always worth a try, as you never know.

free skin care · Sat Aug 11, 2018 8:52 am

ASked my derm when I went in for my birthday Botox on Thursday.
She doesn't recommend the accutane bc of the restrictions and hoops you have to jump thru now to get it although she says that does really work.
She said of course you can laser them, but they grow back and that can be pricey.
She recommended using a tiny lancet to poke "Holes" in the SH and then put a dot of retinA on it. Doing this repeatedly will shrink it back she said. A DIY method.

free skin care · Sun Aug 12, 2018 2:41 am

Hi everybody.
Not checked in since my last treatment on 6th July.
I can report that all is good. My skin had once again healed well and I'm SH free for the time being.
Interesting views on the B5.
I have been taking it for at least 2.5 years now with no side effects whatsoever. I don't take it because I believe it cures SH I take it because my skin produces significantly less oul than when i did not take it.
Oily skin is prevalent in people with SH so my theory is less oil = less SH. I take 1000mg a day and I have a full head of hair at the age of 50 after 2 years of taking it.

Nobody should do anything because I do , I'm just saying I personally believe it helps me keep them at bay for longer.
For the record I had 27 SH removed after a year had passed. 95 % of these were small and not really bothering me but there removal at an early stage is the way to go for me.
1 treatment once a year is all that is required. I stress significantly less about SH now. I have them , I deal with them and then forget about them. I have come a long way from when I 1st joined this forum.

free skin care · Sun Aug 12, 2018 9:02 am

Hemp, glad to hear!
The theory on the oil is accurate. It also is a case of the oil glands being irregular and some tend to form the SH.
Its why the accutane works, it shrinks the oil and the oil gland, which causes the SH.
Sounds like the B5 works well for you.

Tue Aug 14, 2018 10:27 am

That's great news being down to only 27 Hemp. Huge improvement! Shows that the cumulative benefits do pay off over time as fewer and fewer come back or to put it another way, repeat treatments are more likely to lead to permanent gland destruction.

I definitely have far fewer now some two months after my second treatment than I did two months after the first.

I look at my face now and compare it to January and it is beyond my wildest dreams.

Really can't emphasise enough to all those people I see who say "they came back" that you just have to keep hitting them hard with ACP or some other form of physical destruction.

Wed Sep 05, 2018 6:29 am

Hello everyone.
I have just had my first ACP treatment at a salon relatively close to where I live.
I emailed them before the treatment and she explained the procedure which sounds like the treatments other people here have had.
She treated about 12 SH bumps on my forehead which I didnt find uncomfortable and it didnt look too bad once the treatment was finished.
I am now on day 2 and forehead is looking pretty scabby, the scabs have a dent in the middle and they are impossible to cover up. I just put some tinted sunscreen on, its the best I can do.
I hope they will heal ok, I dont mind how long it takes as long as the skin is smooth underneath, fingers crossed

free skin care · Fri Sep 07, 2018 3:28 am

Stick with it Happy cat. In 10 days the scabs will be gone with beautiful flat skin. Assuming your SH were not very big in which case it may take a couple of treatments.
The healing is the worst part but it is so worth it.
Keep us informed of how it turns out.

Sun Sep 16, 2018 11:25 am

Ha yes I too thought "this ain't too bad" just after it was done but then a day or two later I woke up to the scabs and gasped!

They will heal ok. As I think I said somewhere else in this thread, they do take longer to heal than a scab you might get from an acne spot because they seem to be a bit deeper.

It can be frustrating as it takes longer than you think.

They might be a bit pink afterwards but that fades entirely after a month. That's fine if you are female and can wear makeup.

Just don't be surprised if some return. As Hemp says, you may need a few treatments and then of course maintenance treatments for life.

The alternative for me was to not have treatment and eventually end up with hundreds of wart sized lumps over my face. That's no alternative at all!

Would be interested to hear how you got on as I guess things are looking a lot better now? I usually say its 10 days before I'd want to return to work but 20 days before I feel completely normal with no detectable signs of any treatment.

I'm having another top up this week although I look way better than I did at this amount of time after the first treatment I just want to keep the pressure on and nip them in the bud as soon as they start to appear. I've got used to having clear skin again so I want to maintain it with zero imperfections!

Hopefully yours will go as long as Hemps so perhaps 6 months to start with and then annually.

Sun Sep 23, 2018 1:28 pm

Hello Hemp and GW,

I am now fully healed and I am very happy with the results. I would say that some bumps are smaller and some are totally flat, so overall there is improvement. That was £45 well spent!!

I can now se some other smaller bumps that I didn't see before, so I think I will have another treatment in a few months to treat these as well.
In the meantime I am using a salicylic acid solution 2% every day and I think it helps to keep these from getting too big.

All of my sebaceous hyperplasia bumps are on my forehead, I was considering getting a fringe if this didn't work but thankfully I don't need to do that now.

Thank you guys for encouraging me to go ahead with this treatment, I am so glad I did! Very Happy

Sun Sep 30, 2018 10:31 am

Pleased it worked out for you! Great news!

Yes I had some that were a lot smaller after the first treatment and a second treatment eradicated them.

At the time of the third treatment last week, my first and largest wart sized lump hadn't come back at all. The gland must be dead.

I also started to notice smaller ones that wouldn't have bothered me before. It's because I have been sensitised to it by the condition I think so now I obsess a bit.

I got used to not having the big bumps so now the most tiny bump that no one else can see in normal day to day life will bother me!

It was a lot cheaper last week as I had fewer bumps that needed treating so was done quicker.

I am now at the 10 day point and going through the frustration where there are some marks on my face that one would have expected to have gone by now if they had been caused by acne or something.

I am good enough to go back to work but it will be another 10 days before the full confidence returns. I've been here twice before already so am used to it. The first time I had the treatment done I did find it quite tough to deal with psychologically.

I have them on the forehead and the side of the face but the number on the side are really small now versus when I was treated the first time. Most are on the forehead now and so that means in the weak after treatment I can at least wear a cap and go out and about where as the first time the sides of my face were covered in scabs and I didn't want to go out at all.

free skin care · Thu Oct 04, 2018 11:24 pm

That's great to hear Happy Cat. £45 seems very cheap. Where in the country did you have this done.

If it was indeed the skin classic treatment you had then you are definately on the right path to happier skin.

SH are incredibly stubborn things to have as they simply will not go unless they are destroyed in some way. The treatment has transformed my life , no doubt about that.
Try not to obsess too much though , I have finally got to a point where I give them little thought and this stops me stressing about them. Stress = more SH I'm sure.

Please keep posting with updates. This forum has been a great comfort to people 😊

Mon Oct 08, 2018 9:28 am

I had my treatment done in Edinburgh. It wasn't called ckin classic,they call it Advanced Cosmetic Procedure and it was explained to me (but can't quite remember exactly) that it uses a combination of heat and something else that goes through the thin probe to destroy the sebaceous gland and the tissue around it.

free skin care · Mon Oct 08, 2018 2:21 pm

Yes ACP I believe is the same thing.

I guess some things are cheaper up in Scotland.

That's great news for you as you will be able to keep on top of them without it hitting you too hard financially.

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