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I’ve had acne for most of my life. It started in the fifth grade, when I was in my gelled hair phase (which was as unfortunate as it sounds). Every morning before school, I’d shellac my frizz down using gobs of aquamarine-tinted gel, and while this certainly kept my flyaways in check, it also caused me to breakout around my hairline to the point where my best friend told me that I had an entire game of “Connect the Dots” on my face. Clearly this had no effect on me at all, seeing as how I’m bringing it up 20 years later...
Anyway, short of Accutane, I pretty much tried everything: the three-step lineup from Proactiv, the pink Mario Badescu drying lotion that Britney Spears touted in some article I probably read in Teen People, the entire Clean & Clear line, Neutrogena on-the-spot treatment. If a product said it would clear up my skin, I readily forked over the limited funds I had in hopes that it would do the job.