I’ve had acne since I was like 13.  The back-ne started later in high school, great.  Fucking super.  I learned quickly how to use make-up to cover my face and never ever wear any backless anything.  

First I’d like to disclose that the research on this topic has been inconclusive on whether or not dairy causes acne.  I went through a number of articles trying to find science-backed evidence.  In summary, studies show there may be a relationship for those that are acne prone but more research is needed.  

That being said, here’s my personal account of the effects of dairy on my skin.  

So basically, since puberty I’ve had terrible acne.  And all kinds of it too.  Cystic, blackheads, closed-commodone bumpies, surface level, and deep deep evil mountains of hell.

It’s caused me more mental anguish and embarrassment than anything else on my body.  I know as women we are overly critical.  However, I couldn’t help feeling so distraught. 

Nothing I did would get rid of these awful, painful, ugly marks on my otherwise happy face.  Acne is something I’ve dealt with internally for the most part and tried not to think about, but, it has always bothered me.

I Zeroed In On My Diet

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Once upon a time my breakfast consisted of coffee and cream, cereal with milk.  Lunch was a salad with cheese, then happy hour with an appetizer of brie, wine, and to top it off maybe some chicken alfredo pasta with parmesan sprinkled on top for dinner.

Needless to say, dairy was a big part of my diet. 

Over the years, this was reduced here and there, mainly due to trying to save calories as my metabolism wasn’t as forgiving as those younger years. 

When I was 26, I heard about dairy being the culprit of acne, so I took steps  to reduce and eliminate it out of my diet. 

Let me be clear, this didn’t happen overnight. 

I LOVED my cereal mornings (easy, fast), cream in my coffee, caprese salads, nachos, bricks of cheese.   Don’t act like you haven’t eaten it by the slice.  

Ok enough dreaming…

I learned about the “paleo diet” and thought, I’ll give it a try.  Slowly but surely, I learned my substitutes and displaced cheese with other things to keep me satiated [and sane] . 

Because life without cheese for most people is in-sane.

Starting to Notice Progress

The diet was going well, I did notice a reduction in my acne.  But it didn’t go away 100%.

Fast-forward to me trying everything I could think of in the form of a skin care regimen, to being 27 years old, having some of the worst breakouts of my life, fed-up and losing my mind about what to do. 

I finally found an esthetician.  Now, I know this doesn’t have anything to do with dairy, but I did learn a lot from her about how to have a skincare regimen.  Through her guidance, I was able to reduce the scarring and breakouts.  I finally got my skin balanced from going to my esthetician, but noticed the acne, while greatly improved, was not gone. 

Like, really?  What is it going to take to be acne-free?  Am I plagued with zits forever? 

Related: I iced my face to reduce acne breakouts, here’s what happened.

Fast forward to age 31. My wedding is around the corner, hello?  Back-less dress and pictures for the rest of my life..  Skin, I need you to get it together!

So, I thought about my past.  I analyzed everything I ate, thought about where I could be better with my skincare. 

There was one thing I forgot about…

Muther. Fuckin. Butter.                        

:-/

Do you eat at restaurants?  They use butter.  A LOT OF BUTTER. 

Going out to eat is pretty much life once you hit 30.  And out to eat I did.

Jeez.  I’ve been forgetting the one dairy item that is in most of the foods we eat.  Especially when dining out. 

So I had a choice to make.  Test the theory of going all-out dairy free (including butter this time).  Or continue on my path of back-ne, breakouts, and butter.   

So much for those restaurant style Sunday steak-nights at home.

Ok, here we go, strict dairy-free diet with no butter…

You don’t realize how much butter is used in cooking until you can’t eat it.

The Results

So with my wedding around the corner, my test was to go 100% dairy-free for a few months to let my skin “purge,” heal, and for the acne scars to have time to fade, with a little help from my esthetician. <– If you’re in SD look her up!

After about 4-5 weeks of the strict diet, I noticed a difference.  I no longer needed cover-up and concealer every day.  I no longer suffered from embarrassing red bumps and breakouts.  

Before:

After:

WOOOOOOOOOOOT!

100% dairy free made all the difference.

Since acne leaves discolored, uneven skin tone and scars, I was seeing my esthetician about every two weeks in the months leading up to my wedding.  This also helped to make sure my skin was balanced to reduce any other breakouts.  Scars on their own can take months to fade, getting acne clinic peels increased the speed at which my skin regenerated, therefore, improving the tone.

If you’d like more information about the program I used, check this out.

I enjoyed some major satisfaction in finally realizing that this was my key missing component to an acne-free life.

To confirm my test, I had a trip to Chicago planned 5 weeks before my wedding.  This could also be called the land of cheese and butter. Because pizza. 

I tried SO HARD to avoid dairy, but as I knew so well, it’s extremely hard to avoid at restaurants.  And yes, I asked for no butter/dairy, but in reality does the message get to the cook?  Not every time.  With every meal eaten out, I couldn’t avoid it.  

So I had a few shiners pop up.  Gasp!  With a month to go in a back-less dress and pictures that last a lifetime.  I was streeesssssing. 

Once I got home, I cooked everything myself, my way, avoiding dairy altogether, and the breakouts subsided, just like that.

So that’s the deal.  No dairy, even butter = Acne. Free. Life.

I understand not everyone will have the same results as me.  The elimination of dairy in my diet worked for me to uncover the root cause of acne.  The only way to know for sure is to try.  

Is it worth it?

Well, depends on your sanity levels when you consider a life sans cheese mostly. 

For me, giving up cheese became easy.  I no longer craved it.  Still don’t.  Is it nice to have?  Sure.  Necessary?  Nah.

These days, brands make a pretty good mozz or cheddar for those need-to-have-cheese moments (i.e. pizza/burgers).  Everything else I can do without or choose an alternative.  

Even pizza, no cheese is fine in my book.  Pizza is all about the foundation on which it’s created – the dough.  The cheese is just bonus.  I know I will get arguments about that statement.  I stand firm.

After months of the dairy-free life, I commenced a taste test at home just to see if the real thing made that much of a difference. 

Post-wedding, husband vs. wife pizza comparison.  

Finally, the back-less dress wasn’t dictating my every decision.

TBH, I didn’t really feel like dairy-free cheese was that big of a difference from the real stuff. 

There was, however, a visual component and the melt-i-ness factor.  The dairy-free cheese doesn’t have the same texture and melting component and didn’t quite create the same uniform cheese blanket a typical pizza has. 

Still, the difference wasn’t enough that it would be worth dealing with the repercussions of acne, back-ne, blackheads, uneven skin tone, scarring, etc. 

Four months later I’m still continuing to eat dairy-free as much as possible.  And enjoying my acne-free life.  My love of donuts and cinnamon rolls on occasion overtake my will to avoid dairy and I’m just fine with that because at least now I know the repercussions and how to control acne when I really need to.

Disclaimer:  All opinions are my own.  This post is intended for educational, inspirational, or entertainment purposes only.  I am not a doctor, the content on this blog is not intended to be substituted for medical advice.