Face Mapping-Fact or Fiction?

Wouldn’t you love a map to clear skin?! Here are our insights and twists on an Eastern medicine classic.

What is face mapping? 

For those out there that spend too much time on the internet researching acne, you have surely seen face mapping pop up (haha, get it?! OK, ok, we promise to limit each blog to one acne pun at most.). Essentially, face mapping zones the face into sections that are labeled as specific organs. Face mapping suggests that if you have an acne breakout, it’s due to an imbalance of some sort in the respective organ associated with that area of the face.

While face mapping does appeal to us since we treat acne holistically, we think there is far more to consider since advancements in science have led to breakthroughs in better understanding the cause and treatment of acne.

The first reason that face mapping isn’t our favorite is that we’ve seen the trend of correlating acne with internal issues go too far and, in turn, cause other issues. For example, in face mapping, the cheeks are labeled as the liver. Someone struggling with acne in the cheeks might think that means there is something wrong with their liver. This might send them spiraling down an expensive, anxiety-filled, and stressful journey to “correct” their liver. It might even inspire them to start supplements that have acne triggers in them (learn about secret acne triggers here). They might give up all their favorite foods or think the occasional glass of wine is the problem. Six months later, they are still breaking out and it turns out it was just a pore-clogging ingredient in their bronzer that was triggering acne. We frequently see people too focused on the correlation between health and acne at the expense of time, money, and stress to themselves – and, sadly, this causes more acne. 

Second, the science just isn’t there to back it up. We treat acne with a fact-based approach with some of our own experiences sprinkled in. Instead of being detectives trying to solve the mystery of every pimple, we prefer to use science, products, treatments, and lifestyle changes to treat the pimple and prevent more breakouts.

Third, acne is a disease of the pores that’s almost always exacerbated by hormones and a combination of multiple triggers. Most people experience breakouts in multiple areas of their face and there are probably multiple reasons for those breakouts. This means face mapping isn’t really that helpful because many triggers will cause purging on multiple areas of the face just depending on where the individual is more likely to break out. 

Lastly, face mapping isn’t a solution. If you know you break out in the lower cheeks and face mapping says that corresponds with lungs, where do you go from there? When it comes to Eastern medicine approaches, we are fully supportive of yoga, meditation, acupuncture, etc. to help clear your mind and strengthen your body, but it is just one of the many tools to help your skin. Acne is a disease of the pore and if you don’t treat the pore topically, no changes will fully clear your skin. You may see someone on the internet raving about a lifestyle change fixing their skin, but that is just part of the equation and not the full picture.

So, what do we think about the location of your breakouts?

Yes, many breakouts do speak to us to tell us things. Here is our version of “face mapping” and what millions of pimples have shown us in our experience of treating acne:

Forehead, Temples, and Hairline:

Comedogenic hair products  

Sweat from working out

Stress

Resting your forehead in your hand

Mouth and Chin:

Toothpaste

Resting your chin in your hand

Pillowcases

Drooling

Menstrual cycle-related breakouts

Cheeks:

Resting your cheek in your hand

Makeup like blush and bronzer

Pillowcases

Jawline:

Dairy intake

Menstrual cycle-related breakouts

Neck:

Friction from wearing jewelry or scarves

Back and Shoulders:

Friction from bras or backpacks

Dryer sheets and fabric softeners on clothing or bedsheets

The list goes on, this isn’t complete because all people do different things and lead different lifestyles. An acne expert can help you put together a list of triggers. But, the bottom line is to ditch the ambiguous face mapping and get an actual step-by-step plan to clearer glowing skin.