True Story: I Have Cystic Acne

[Editor's note: Meet Claire, a young woman who struggles with cystic acne. When we offered her the chance to work with a famous dermatologist to try and help her skin issue, she jumped at the opportunity. For the next three months, we followed her around to get her story and see if the treatments worked. Keep reading to find out more.]

Do you know what it's like to look in the mirror and hate what you see? I do. I have cystic acne, which means my face is covered in painful pimples and inflamed cysts. Unfortunately, mirrors are everywhere. You can't avoid them. So every morning, when my bathroom mirror greets me, it takes all my willpower not to cancel my plans and crawl back into bed.

Related link: 13 Reasons You're Getting Zits

I've felt this way for as long as I can remember. In high school, nobody understood what it was like having bad acne. All of my girlfriends had clear skin, so it pissed me off when they whined about one tiny zit. Seriously?! Look. At. My. Face. You have nothing to complain about.

Related link: 7 Products Your Skin Needs Now

I tried everything to get rid of it. Nothing worked (Creams, gels, Proactiv, Acutane -- you name it). After years of medication, I decided to ditch all the treatments, so now I'm back to the bare minimum of washing my face.

Then I heard about Dr. Ava Shamban, owner of the Laser Institute-Dermatology in Santa Monica, Calif., and recognized her work from "Extreme Makeover." Maybe she could cure my acne once and for all. We made an appointment and luckily, she said she could help. I never knew it was possible to feel this ecstatic and SO terrified at the same time ...

Click here to read my entire diary of the journey to cure my acne, and check out the step-by-step progress of my experience below.

Day one: Called out by the pro

As soon as Shamban sees my face, she calls me out, saying I've neglected my skin. I'm embarrassed, and I can feel my face turning red -- which probably makes my acne look even worse. And in that moment, I feel like an ugly, hormonal teenager again. What's wrong with me? Why am I still dealing with this problem? But she's right. I have been lazy with my skin. Once I accept that fact, Shamban tells me what I should expect in the next 10 weeks. Click here to see the extensive four-step treatment plan she puts me on.







Day 14: Least relaxing facial ever

Two weeks later, I'm back at the office for phase two: A facial. My first thought? "Sweet! Spa day!" I go in expecting to hear Enya playing and to be handed a plush spa robe. But right when I walk in, I notice how quiet it is. Not a good sign. I lie down on a hard table, and I'm engulfed in a stringent smell I can only define as "medical." That's when it hits me -- this isn't about relaxing.

After exfoliating and steaming my face, Tanya Eubanks, the facialist, starts to do extractions using her gloved fingers and a medical needle. I can hear the noise of the needle pricking each cyst. It sounds like a tiny burst of air, which might not seem bad, but I can imagine all the gunk coming out each time. (Get more of the dirty details here.)

My skin looks really red after the facial, but Eubanks says that will go away after a few hours. My face feels really clean and tight, but still pretty sensitive. On the plus side, the bumps have gone down a lot, and I feel like I have a pretty glow. For the first time, my co-workers notice how smooth my skin looks (see the proof here). I can't stop smiling the rest of the day.



Day 21: Liquid nitrogen on my face?!

Once my skin calms down after the facial, I go back to the office for phase three: A chemical peel. I lie down on the hard table, and have a flashback to how painful the facial was. Eubanks first applies a high-frequency light to my face, which thankfully doesn't hurt that badly. It just feels like tiny, prickly shocks on my skin. But when she comes at my face with a mega-sized Q-tip covered in liquid nitrogen, it's all I can do not to knock it out of her hand. Here's why.

The good thing about chemical peels? There's not that much down time. The bad thing? The peeling ... OMG, the peeling. My skin literally peels off in sheets. Luckily, it's the weekend, so I don't have to go to work looking like this. Not-so-luckily, it's Thanksgiving weekend. Which means I'm visiting my family for the first time in weeks. And they're meeting my boyfriend Ben for the first time ever.

Think that timing's bad? Well, it gets worse. Click here to read about what happens on my first night home. It's pretty embarrassing.



Day 30: Sayonara scars

Finally, it's time for phase four of Shamban's plan: Laser treatments. This is supposed to help with the acne scars ... also known as the bane of my existence. Even when my skin is having a good day, it still looks red and blotchy from the scars. In fact, it really bothers me when people say, "Your skin looks so good today!" I know my acne scars are still there, so my skin obviously doesn't "look good." Why lie? I just really want the laser treatment to work, so I don't have to worry about this ever again.

Click here to see how the laser treatment went. And here's a picture of what my face looked like after. Can you say chipmunk cheeks?






Day 60: Save the best for last

It's time for the final phase: Photodynamic Therapy (PDT), aka the strongest laser they've got. I'm a little scared -- Shamban calls it an "intense procedure," and says "absolutely no contact with the sun," for the entire weekend, unless I want to know what it feels like for a vampire to burn. However, she says my skin will look the best it ever has seven to 10 days after this final treatment. That's all I need to hear. Click here to see how it goes.

After the treatment, my skin looks super tan and glowing. When Ben sees me, he asks, "Did you go on an overnight trip to Cabo without me?" This makes my day, and I don't even care that I'm stuck at home for the rest of the weekend. I spend it on the couch with Ben, watching all three "Lord of the Rings" movies. But I'll be honest -- most of the time I'm not even paying attention to the screen. I just keep thinking of how good my skin looks.





Day 70: The final reveal

It's been 10 weeks since my very first consultation with Shamban, and I can't believe how far I've come. Not just with my skin (which looks amazing), but also with my own confidence level. When I used to look in the mirror, my acne would be the first thing I noticed. But now, my skin isn't something I think about all the time. It also makes it so much easier to open up to people, because I don't assume they're just staring at my face.

Although, it turns out, they are (in a good way). This morning I notice Ben staring at my face, and out of the blue he says, "Claire, your skin is SO clear," and he touches my cheek. I almost start to cry. Thinking back to my first date with Ben last year, when I was so self-conscious of my skin, this is a huge deal for me.

Click here to see how much every treatment cost (and get cheaper at-home alternatives for each). And be sure to watch Dr. Shamban answer your skin questions in this exclusive video.

More from BeautyRiot.com:
Celebs Without Makeup
Beauty Dare: Makeup in the Dark
Worst Makeup Pictures on the Internet