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The Guy’s Guide to Adult Acne

The Guy’s Guide to Adult Acne

We’re all stressed AF. The food we’re eating probably isn’t helping. Everyone told us we wouldn’t have to worry about our hormones going crazy after our teen years. What the heck is going on?

By Bob Gearing Published: Nov 10, 2026 9:00 AM EST

3 min read

T HE YEAR WAS 1997. I’d just made the varsity baseball team as a freshman, and I was ready to shoot my shot with every senior girl who’d give me the time of day. The only problem: I had also hard-launched my pepperoni face. I’m not talking surface-level New York slice stuff—these breakouts were Detroit-style-pizza deep. Every clogged pore had clocked in at the same time, and I was an absolute wreck.

For six months, I’d burned through everything the CVS aisles had to offer: Oxy Pads, Stridex, Noxzema, whatever stuff was hawking a promise of clear skin. Nothing worked. My face just got redder, drier, and more irritated.…