dancooper
Iron
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2025
- Posts
- 36
- Reputation
- 27
Main topics of discussion:
- Skin
- Hair
- Misc
I will talk about a lot of issues people might face with skin and hair and tell them how to fix it, and what causes the issues in the first place. Then I will discuss some misc things towards the end like ghk-cu and things like tinted moisturizer etc.
First of all; Health indicators:
Health indicators are a string of different features that people subconsciously pick up on and it determines a lot about your attractiveness, just like bones / bone structure. In my opinion unless you are genetically blessed with incredible bones you can't get away with having bad health indicators, even someone like jordan barret gets fucked over, he had bad health indicators and colouring and was super bloated and he actually just looked like a gay surfer in some random 2000's romcom. Psycho material.
Common examples of health indicators would be, skin texture and appearance (colour, blemishes, dark spots, acne, wrinkles), hair health (frizz, vibrancy, texture in general), bad teeth (crooked and yellow), eyes (redness etc).
# Skin:
Skin is without a doubt the most important one, it covers like 90% of your face and can say so much about what is going on internally and can say even more about your daily routine and habits.
First and foremost, acne. Acne is a complicated mess to solve, especially with finding out exactly what is causing it and it can take months for treatment to even take affect. It can be caused your diet, hygiene, stress and sleep quality and skincare (yes skincare can cause acne).
First, what is acne? and what causes it?. Acne vulgaris is a skin condition that is caused when bacteria is able to fester in someone pores in the right conditions, triggering an immune response from the body causing the area to become inflamed and red. The most common cause for this is hormones, specifically androgens. This is why acne is prevalent among teens. The androgen in question is DHT 99% of the time (exaggeration).
When people say "hormonal acne" it sounds like there is nothing you can do but hormones can fluctuate from many different things. Most importantly diet. A diet full of refined sugars, seed oils and certain carbs is the worst you could eat. Not only is it bad for your body in general it is bad for acne. All of the aforementioned foods (refined sugars, seed oils and certain carbs) can be grouped together in one single name. High Glycemic Index foods. I will be referring to them as HGIs from now on.
What is glycemic index?:
A glycemic index is a number assigned to a food in which the higher that number is, the more it will spike your blood sugar, and vice versa, the lower it is the less it will spike your blood sugar. Common foods with high glycemic indexes are any sugary foods, lots of dairy products (we will discuss this later on), white bread, white rice, pasta, potatoes, cereals, some certain fruits like watermelon and very ripe bananas.
Why is this bad?:
Here is where we delve into some science so I will explain then do a TLDR;
When you eat HGIs your blood sugar spikes, obviously. When your blood sugar is high, your body releases insulin to deal with this sugar. Now when this happens, an "unintended" side effect occurs from the insulin. Something called your SHBG (sex hormone binding globulin) drops. What is SHBG? SHBG is a delivery truck, that delivers sex hormones throughout your body (estrogen, testosterone), while your sex hormones are bound to SHBG it means it is not "free" and it cant bind to any androgen receptors and be used in any reactions. So when this SHBG drops you will actually see a spike in free testosterone.
Now this spike in test and drop in SHBG is minor and quite short lived but regardless this means more testosterone is available for use. Here is where an enzyme called 5a-reductace comes into play. 5a-reductase is the main enzyme that converts test into DHT. Due to the slightly higher levels of free test there is in turn a slightly higher level of DHT as there is generally just more free test available for conversion.
DHT does many things during puberty to the body but it kinda fucks up your skin. When DHT eventually makes it way to your face it binds to the sebacious glands (oil glands) in your pores and causes it to produce more sebum (oil). This causes your pores, especially around areas like the jawline and chin, to produce more sebum.
Now were are almost done just one last thing. Cultibatum Acnes. A bacteria found on your face and makes up roughly 2% of the population of the bacteria on your face. Due to the elevated levels of sebum in your face this bacteria (abbreviated as P. Acnes or C. Acnes) is able to fester and feed off this sebum. P. Acnes is able to thrive and eventually the body notices this and an immune response is triggered, the pore becomes inflamed, red and fills with pus to deal with the infection. This is acne.
The reason why teens get a lot of acne is because androgens are just higher in general, but you can control it to a certain extent from your diet.
TLDR; Acne is commonly caused by foods with a high glycemic index.
Other things that cause acne:
- Stress: Cortisol fucks you over
|
|-> Here are some things cortisol does;
-Can indirectly increase sebum . Source
-Increase sebacious gland activity. Source
- Hygiene: Self explanatory, just dont live in filth and your good, change your pillowcase often, shower often, dont touch your face.
- Sleep: Less sleep and bad sleep quality leads to higher cortisol levels, and skin repair happens most during 10pm to 2am when you are sleeping
- Skincare: Too hard skincare methods like double cleansing can strip your body of too much oil;
|
|-> Skincare is kinda complicated but I'll try summarize: Less is more. You don't need a 14 step korean skincare routine to have clear skin, you really don't. All you need to do is cleanse, apply some treatment of topical solution (if you want), moisturize. And if you get the odd pimple every now and again just apply some treatment. Another reason why skincare can cause acne is that it strips your skin of too much sebum and your body notices this and produces even more oil to counteract that, so every time you strip your skin of this oil you need to add some back in to prevent it from happening, so whenever you shower, shave or wash your face you need to moisturize.
Here is my skincare routine.
AM:
Cerave moisturizing cleanser: Apply with a bit of water and lather for 30 - 40 seconds. Leave for 30 more seconds then wash off with wet clean towel.
Niacinamide serum: 2 drops on each side of face and rub in, leave for 30 seconds. Here is some thread on niacinamide -> Niacinamide
Niacinamide has been proven to strengthen the skin barrier, reduce redness and reduce inflammation. This is one of the only topical solutions I use.
Cervae SPF Moisturizer: 2 blobs on either side and rub in until gone.
Disclaimer: I am only on niacinamide for the next month or so until my acne scars clear up then im hopping off, it is not a permanent thing. It shouldnt run you too much, it ran me 10 bucks at the store and it lasted me the whole summer.
PM:
Cerave moisturizing cleanser: Apply with a bit of water and lather for 30 - 40 seconds. Leave for 30 more seconds then wash off with wet clean towel.
Azelaic acid: Kind of similar affects to niacinamide but also exfoliates (unclogs pores to reduce blackheads) while also being anti-microbial (kills P. Acnes)
Cervae SPF Moisturizer: 2 blobs on either side and rub in until gone. (I only have the one moisturizer so SPF is useless at night I know that but whatever)
Disclaimer x2: Azelaic acid was pretty much the same price, but once again im only running it for a month or so until scars fade. I also don't use beef tallow as it is comedogenic (clogs your pores).
Once my scars fade Ill hop on a vitamin C serum which I have used before and it makes you glow so fucking much and increases collagen production.
With a skin routine like this, following a low HGI diet, with lots of sleep and good hygiene you can pretty much guarantee a reduction and acne and a good change in skin texture and health. Niacinamide, azelaic acid and vitamin C will get rid of hyperpigmentation and make your skin very smooth and vibrant. Be careful though, as switching products can cause some purging, so take it slow.
Acne scars:
Acne scars come in many different forms, atrophic or hypertrophic wounds or even things like hyperpigmentation. A lot of wounds from acne need surgery or some sort of proper treatment to fix but red light therapy and vitamin C have been proven to benefit acne scars and improve the appearance of the skin.
# Hair:
Hair is just a little less important than skin but still undeniably vital to looking healthy. The biggest issue people might have is texture and frizz. To solve this it is pretty simple, try buying a good leave in conditioner to moisturizer your hair even more, preventing frizz. Shampoo max 2 times a week and condition every day or every other day. Make sure conditioner doesnt rub into your scalp to prevent dandruff. To style I mainly just use water or curl cream. I have a coconut curl cream that works amazing and prevents frizz and makes it very wavy and styleable. I also cut my own hair which means I don't have to spend money on getting a cut and have 100% freedom and choice over what is cut and not cut. Its been 2 years since I first started cutting my own hair and im pretty good at it now.
MOST IMPORTANT THING: GET A FUCKING HAIRCUT; I suffered from a phobia of getting a haircut for like 6 - 7 months (haha) and I looked the worst I ever have, I looked like a queens guard or some shit it was awful.
On to the other hair. Eyebrows and eyelashes can not be over looked. They are extremely vital. Darker eyebrows and more prominent striking eyelashes are ideal. Minoxidil and dye your eyebrows if they suck and try to make them look as natural as possible, they dont have to be jet black perfect shaped eyebrows and in my opinion look shit if they look professionally done (on guys anyway).
Try using a lash-growth serum and eyelash curler to curl them up above your eyelids. This can have a drastic affect on perceived UEE. Tint eyebrows dark brown / black and use an eyelash curler to curl eyelashes up and I learned from a clav video recently, put some vaseline (petrolium jelly) into your eyelashes to help them keep their shape, I have to admit this has helped drastically. Easy way to ascend eye area.
# Misc:
Here are just some other things I do to improve my appearance and some other things I just recommend in general.
First up is BB cream (OR, I havent tried this personally but CC cream is a more extreme version of BB cream). This is one of the best purchases I have made in the past few months; It is so incredibly easy to use and can cover up hyperpigmentation and blemishes on your skin so easily. It is a mix of makeup and moisturizer at the end of the day so if makeup isnt your thing then dont use it. Apply a small pea size amount under your eye to reduce dark spots under the eye and apply using best judgement around areas affected by blemishes and hyperpigmentation.
Advice: Try find it IRL and apply a small amount of it on your skin in the store to see if it matches your tone. I took the risk of buying it IRL in case someone say me and asked why I was buying make up but I was fine but do this at your own risk lol.
I really can't praise this enough it so so incredibly useful, ALTHOUGH *DISCLAIMER*: This will break you out 100% guaranteed in my experience if you wear it for too long. Sometimes I can get away with it but I wore it 2 days ago and I was out walking all day. Sweat, dirt, oil and bb cream built all up in my pores and I woke up with a few whiteheads the next morning only in the areas I applied it. Anyway onto the next one.
GHK-CU: I am currently not running this as I dont have the money to run it for a long enough period to have long term visible affects but I can pretty much guaranteed to be running this within the next year or so. GHK-CU has the following benefits: Anti-aging, increased collagensynthesis, increased skin healing, anti-inflammatory, smoother skin, less wrinkles, increase angiogenesis and I also read somewhere it can regulate sebum production but I am not sure how true it is. It has pretty much no sides if you are not an idiot with the dose and work your way up. Take at your own risk but it is one of the best looksmaxxing compounds to be running in my opinion. Next and final one.
Lip balm / brushing lips: This is easiest and laziest thing you can do from this thread but wearing this makes your lips look a lot healthier, fuller, plumper and pinker. Having dry, cracked grey looking lips is shit for your appearance. Dont go overboard just once before you leave your house or after you brush your teeth just put some vaseline on and you should be good. Applying to much will dry your lips out.
Anyway way thanks for reading, good luck with all this.
- Skin
- Hair
- Misc
I will talk about a lot of issues people might face with skin and hair and tell them how to fix it, and what causes the issues in the first place. Then I will discuss some misc things towards the end like ghk-cu and things like tinted moisturizer etc.
First of all; Health indicators:
Health indicators are a string of different features that people subconsciously pick up on and it determines a lot about your attractiveness, just like bones / bone structure. In my opinion unless you are genetically blessed with incredible bones you can't get away with having bad health indicators, even someone like jordan barret gets fucked over, he had bad health indicators and colouring and was super bloated and he actually just looked like a gay surfer in some random 2000's romcom. Psycho material.
Common examples of health indicators would be, skin texture and appearance (colour, blemishes, dark spots, acne, wrinkles), hair health (frizz, vibrancy, texture in general), bad teeth (crooked and yellow), eyes (redness etc).
# Skin:
Skin is without a doubt the most important one, it covers like 90% of your face and can say so much about what is going on internally and can say even more about your daily routine and habits.
First and foremost, acne. Acne is a complicated mess to solve, especially with finding out exactly what is causing it and it can take months for treatment to even take affect. It can be caused your diet, hygiene, stress and sleep quality and skincare (yes skincare can cause acne).
First, what is acne? and what causes it?. Acne vulgaris is a skin condition that is caused when bacteria is able to fester in someone pores in the right conditions, triggering an immune response from the body causing the area to become inflamed and red. The most common cause for this is hormones, specifically androgens. This is why acne is prevalent among teens. The androgen in question is DHT 99% of the time (exaggeration).
When people say "hormonal acne" it sounds like there is nothing you can do but hormones can fluctuate from many different things. Most importantly diet. A diet full of refined sugars, seed oils and certain carbs is the worst you could eat. Not only is it bad for your body in general it is bad for acne. All of the aforementioned foods (refined sugars, seed oils and certain carbs) can be grouped together in one single name. High Glycemic Index foods. I will be referring to them as HGIs from now on.
What is glycemic index?:
A glycemic index is a number assigned to a food in which the higher that number is, the more it will spike your blood sugar, and vice versa, the lower it is the less it will spike your blood sugar. Common foods with high glycemic indexes are any sugary foods, lots of dairy products (we will discuss this later on), white bread, white rice, pasta, potatoes, cereals, some certain fruits like watermelon and very ripe bananas.
Why is this bad?:
Here is where we delve into some science so I will explain then do a TLDR;
When you eat HGIs your blood sugar spikes, obviously. When your blood sugar is high, your body releases insulin to deal with this sugar. Now when this happens, an "unintended" side effect occurs from the insulin. Something called your SHBG (sex hormone binding globulin) drops. What is SHBG? SHBG is a delivery truck, that delivers sex hormones throughout your body (estrogen, testosterone), while your sex hormones are bound to SHBG it means it is not "free" and it cant bind to any androgen receptors and be used in any reactions. So when this SHBG drops you will actually see a spike in free testosterone.
Now this spike in test and drop in SHBG is minor and quite short lived but regardless this means more testosterone is available for use. Here is where an enzyme called 5a-reductace comes into play. 5a-reductase is the main enzyme that converts test into DHT. Due to the slightly higher levels of free test there is in turn a slightly higher level of DHT as there is generally just more free test available for conversion.
DHT does many things during puberty to the body but it kinda fucks up your skin. When DHT eventually makes it way to your face it binds to the sebacious glands (oil glands) in your pores and causes it to produce more sebum (oil). This causes your pores, especially around areas like the jawline and chin, to produce more sebum.
Now were are almost done just one last thing. Cultibatum Acnes. A bacteria found on your face and makes up roughly 2% of the population of the bacteria on your face. Due to the elevated levels of sebum in your face this bacteria (abbreviated as P. Acnes or C. Acnes) is able to fester and feed off this sebum. P. Acnes is able to thrive and eventually the body notices this and an immune response is triggered, the pore becomes inflamed, red and fills with pus to deal with the infection. This is acne.
The reason why teens get a lot of acne is because androgens are just higher in general, but you can control it to a certain extent from your diet.
TLDR; Acne is commonly caused by foods with a high glycemic index.
Other things that cause acne:
- Stress: Cortisol fucks you over
|
|-> Here are some things cortisol does;
-Can indirectly increase sebum . Source
-Increase sebacious gland activity. Source
- Hygiene: Self explanatory, just dont live in filth and your good, change your pillowcase often, shower often, dont touch your face.
- Sleep: Less sleep and bad sleep quality leads to higher cortisol levels, and skin repair happens most during 10pm to 2am when you are sleeping
- Skincare: Too hard skincare methods like double cleansing can strip your body of too much oil;
|
|-> Skincare is kinda complicated but I'll try summarize: Less is more. You don't need a 14 step korean skincare routine to have clear skin, you really don't. All you need to do is cleanse, apply some treatment of topical solution (if you want), moisturize. And if you get the odd pimple every now and again just apply some treatment. Another reason why skincare can cause acne is that it strips your skin of too much sebum and your body notices this and produces even more oil to counteract that, so every time you strip your skin of this oil you need to add some back in to prevent it from happening, so whenever you shower, shave or wash your face you need to moisturize.
Here is my skincare routine.
AM:
Cerave moisturizing cleanser: Apply with a bit of water and lather for 30 - 40 seconds. Leave for 30 more seconds then wash off with wet clean towel.
Niacinamide serum: 2 drops on each side of face and rub in, leave for 30 seconds. Here is some thread on niacinamide -> Niacinamide
Niacinamide has been proven to strengthen the skin barrier, reduce redness and reduce inflammation. This is one of the only topical solutions I use.
Cervae SPF Moisturizer: 2 blobs on either side and rub in until gone.
Disclaimer: I am only on niacinamide for the next month or so until my acne scars clear up then im hopping off, it is not a permanent thing. It shouldnt run you too much, it ran me 10 bucks at the store and it lasted me the whole summer.
PM:
Cerave moisturizing cleanser: Apply with a bit of water and lather for 30 - 40 seconds. Leave for 30 more seconds then wash off with wet clean towel.
Azelaic acid: Kind of similar affects to niacinamide but also exfoliates (unclogs pores to reduce blackheads) while also being anti-microbial (kills P. Acnes)
Cervae SPF Moisturizer: 2 blobs on either side and rub in until gone. (I only have the one moisturizer so SPF is useless at night I know that but whatever)
Disclaimer x2: Azelaic acid was pretty much the same price, but once again im only running it for a month or so until scars fade. I also don't use beef tallow as it is comedogenic (clogs your pores).
Once my scars fade Ill hop on a vitamin C serum which I have used before and it makes you glow so fucking much and increases collagen production.
With a skin routine like this, following a low HGI diet, with lots of sleep and good hygiene you can pretty much guarantee a reduction and acne and a good change in skin texture and health. Niacinamide, azelaic acid and vitamin C will get rid of hyperpigmentation and make your skin very smooth and vibrant. Be careful though, as switching products can cause some purging, so take it slow.
Acne scars:
Acne scars come in many different forms, atrophic or hypertrophic wounds or even things like hyperpigmentation. A lot of wounds from acne need surgery or some sort of proper treatment to fix but red light therapy and vitamin C have been proven to benefit acne scars and improve the appearance of the skin.
# Hair:
Hair is just a little less important than skin but still undeniably vital to looking healthy. The biggest issue people might have is texture and frizz. To solve this it is pretty simple, try buying a good leave in conditioner to moisturizer your hair even more, preventing frizz. Shampoo max 2 times a week and condition every day or every other day. Make sure conditioner doesnt rub into your scalp to prevent dandruff. To style I mainly just use water or curl cream. I have a coconut curl cream that works amazing and prevents frizz and makes it very wavy and styleable. I also cut my own hair which means I don't have to spend money on getting a cut and have 100% freedom and choice over what is cut and not cut. Its been 2 years since I first started cutting my own hair and im pretty good at it now.
MOST IMPORTANT THING: GET A FUCKING HAIRCUT; I suffered from a phobia of getting a haircut for like 6 - 7 months (haha) and I looked the worst I ever have, I looked like a queens guard or some shit it was awful.
On to the other hair. Eyebrows and eyelashes can not be over looked. They are extremely vital. Darker eyebrows and more prominent striking eyelashes are ideal. Minoxidil and dye your eyebrows if they suck and try to make them look as natural as possible, they dont have to be jet black perfect shaped eyebrows and in my opinion look shit if they look professionally done (on guys anyway).
Try using a lash-growth serum and eyelash curler to curl them up above your eyelids. This can have a drastic affect on perceived UEE. Tint eyebrows dark brown / black and use an eyelash curler to curl eyelashes up and I learned from a clav video recently, put some vaseline (petrolium jelly) into your eyelashes to help them keep their shape, I have to admit this has helped drastically. Easy way to ascend eye area.
# Misc:
Here are just some other things I do to improve my appearance and some other things I just recommend in general.
First up is BB cream (OR, I havent tried this personally but CC cream is a more extreme version of BB cream). This is one of the best purchases I have made in the past few months; It is so incredibly easy to use and can cover up hyperpigmentation and blemishes on your skin so easily. It is a mix of makeup and moisturizer at the end of the day so if makeup isnt your thing then dont use it. Apply a small pea size amount under your eye to reduce dark spots under the eye and apply using best judgement around areas affected by blemishes and hyperpigmentation.
Advice: Try find it IRL and apply a small amount of it on your skin in the store to see if it matches your tone. I took the risk of buying it IRL in case someone say me and asked why I was buying make up but I was fine but do this at your own risk lol.
I really can't praise this enough it so so incredibly useful, ALTHOUGH *DISCLAIMER*: This will break you out 100% guaranteed in my experience if you wear it for too long. Sometimes I can get away with it but I wore it 2 days ago and I was out walking all day. Sweat, dirt, oil and bb cream built all up in my pores and I woke up with a few whiteheads the next morning only in the areas I applied it. Anyway onto the next one.
GHK-CU: I am currently not running this as I dont have the money to run it for a long enough period to have long term visible affects but I can pretty much guaranteed to be running this within the next year or so. GHK-CU has the following benefits: Anti-aging, increased collagensynthesis, increased skin healing, anti-inflammatory, smoother skin, less wrinkles, increase angiogenesis and I also read somewhere it can regulate sebum production but I am not sure how true it is. It has pretty much no sides if you are not an idiot with the dose and work your way up. Take at your own risk but it is one of the best looksmaxxing compounds to be running in my opinion. Next and final one.
Lip balm / brushing lips: This is easiest and laziest thing you can do from this thread but wearing this makes your lips look a lot healthier, fuller, plumper and pinker. Having dry, cracked grey looking lips is shit for your appearance. Dont go overboard just once before you leave your house or after you brush your teeth just put some vaseline on and you should be good. Applying to much will dry your lips out.
Anyway way thanks for reading, good luck with all this.
