by: Victoria R. Percherke
The challenge was accepted…I didn’t touch my face for a week.
Mirrors are a challenge for me.
Touching my face feels like a return to my most basic human instinct. Touch is the first sense to develop in the mother’s womb. When babies are born, touch lets them feel nurtured, to feel that space between them and others. We touch because we’re healthy, because we’re alive. Our faces are the softest parts of our bodies. When we touch them, we’re reborn.
I touch my face all the time. When I listen during a lecture, I often rest my head on my left hand. The same hand in which I used to open the door. The same hand I used to get the things out of my book bag. And the same hand I touched the desk with before sitting down. My hand touched a lot of things before touching my face. I can’t even imagine the germs I just transferred to the surface of my skin without even realizing it. What feels so good, it turns out, isn’t really so good.
I personally have another challenge to contend with. Mirrors are a challenge for me. My focus is the flaws on my skin. I have this urge to lean over and scan for blackheads and the upcomings of possible pimples. Although -- I don’t have much of an acne problem, I’m the biggest critic of how clear my face will appear to others. It’s a deeper insecurity I didn’t think much about until I started noticing scars appear on my face from the picking.
There are a multitude of reasons to touch my face as well as not to. Because I do it all the time, I tried to spend a week avoiding this habit. What I learned went far beneath my skin’s surface.
Day 1: Questions spiraled through my mind
I decided to go an entire week without touching my face with the exception of cleansing in the mornings and before bed. To help with not looking into a mirror, I added a night light to my bathroom so that I could go in and out without the temptation to look up.
As I awoke at my usual time of 7 a.m., I walked over to my bathroom. And, as my hand touched the light switch, it came right off as I remembered that I was not to turn that light on which encouraged my face picking.
I felt confident enough about my experiment. But then I had a crazy thought: What if I was not looking in the mirror was I missing a giant pimple on my forehead for all to see? But, I had to learn how to swallow my anxiety hard, and not give into my real fear: “You aren’t pretty enough.”
Day 2: I let anxiety take over.
After day one, I gave in. After I had gone to my workout, my classes, and my job, I went straight to the bathroom mirror as soon as I entered my apartment. I ignored having the light off, and I felt as if I went on a frenzy for my face.
And, boy, did I feel terrible after I had finished destroying the blackhead on my nose along with the spots that I had picked at. My face was red, and there were spots that were irritated and bloody.
I was so upset afterward, and stared into the mirror for a while to evaluate what I had done. I cried small tears, and then went about my day struggling to fight the urge to keep my hands down every time I went to the bathroom, or felt the need to rest my head on my hand while I worked at my desk.
Day 3: Challenge accepted.
Today felt like the day I truly started this challenge. I had my fix yesterday, and was still feeling terrible about it. I felt like some sort of alcoholic returning to the bar. I was seeing the marks that my nails had dug into from the day before.
I also felt the worst about my self-esteem, but I figured that I might as well embrace my super red face for the day. So, that meant no makeup, no touching, and extreme hand washing for the times I accidentally did touch my face.
I kept reassuring myself with positive affirmations and kept my hands glued to my side. I knew I was capable of finishing what I had started. I just needed to tell myself to keep going rather than let my worries take over my confidence.
Although, it was hard to keep up with my experiment since I had to consistently put on and take off my mask. With that also comes readjusting a mask to the face. This action made it very tempting to just forget this experiment and touch my face like crazy again.
On another note, having a mask on made it easier in other ways because I didn’t have to worry about my peers seeing the redness on my face after I had picked my face previously from this experiment.
Day 4: Fighting science.
According to the University of Maryland Medical System, on average, humans touch their face 23 times per hour without realizing it.
This day felt a whole lot easier mostly because I became more interested in how many times I naturally drew my hands up. In some ways, I was laughing because I was literally fighting the science to touch.
I counted, and within an hour, my hands naturally grew towards my face 17 times. Whether that be because I was losing focus within the class I was attending, stressed, or convinced myself that I had an itch. It’s like my hands were levitating, and my mind simply had to say, “not today.” I found this to be a comical thing, and even laughed to myself in the middle of classes or conversations with friends.
There is a certain comfort that comes from touching your face. How soft it feels and how it brings emotion without ever being taught that it does. It was so strange to miss feeling my face on a daily basis.
Day 5: Skincare is fun?
I wanted to engage into this challenge more by spending some of my own money within this process -- I invested in skin care!
My Amazon packages finally came in consisting of all of my new skin care items. I chose to go with Cereve because it is dermatologist approved, and my dad loves this company. I trust my dad because our family has a history of skin cancer, so I tend to rely on what my dad’s dermatologist recommends for him.
From Cereve, I ordered a cleanser, a moisturizer, and acne scarring serum. Along with a self-cleaning battery-operated brush. I usually clean my face in the shower, but I wanted to take this face cleansing to a whole new level that I haven’t before. I’ve seen plenty of skin care routines, but I wanted to create my own one in which I felt most comfortable. I was going to get into the habit of deep cleaning my face on the regular, which meant mornings and evening times.
I started off by getting my face wet with cold water. According to health resources, cold water tightens those pores from getting more bacteria in. After wetting my face, I pumped out some cleanser directly onto my face, and used my brush to get every surface on my face, from my chin to my forehead. After wiping off the excess, I used a clean cold washcloth to clear it all up. Then I applied the serum which helps acne scarring. Then after letting my face dry for a bit, I added moisturizer.
After this process, I even put on a moisturizer cloth face mask that I had bought from Trader Joes earlier in the week. It felt nice to just go through a routine in taking care of your face.
It made me appreciate myself so much more than I ever had. -- and I am not sure why I discovered this through a skin care routine. You can’t say you don’t know why. You have to delve into it. This is, like, fun. And all the sensory stuff feels good. And it’s way better than the picking, yeah? I think the main benefit of grooming like this has more to do with feeling good than helping your skin.
Day 6: Keeping the areas around me clean.
Finally, I got into the habit of not touching my face!
While I am getting in the habit of not touching my face, I started to realize how dirty the things that I had to touch on a daily basis. For example, my computer keyboard, the toothpaste in which drips on my chin while I brush, my desk which has all of my notes on, and even the sheets I sleep in! These items are always covered in their own germs, and how often do I actually wipe them down, clean them, or prevent them from happening? Not very often.
So, today I primarily focused on keeping my “everyday touched items” clean and sanitized. Such as my computer, my desk, and my sheets as well. According to the Sleep Foundation, you are supposed to clean your sheets once a week -- Oopsie!
Day 7: Feeling satisfied.
While this journey has been all of the emotions of frustrating, annoying, and fun, I am extremely grateful for this self experiment. I didn’t know that I would only learn so much about my lingering thoughts in my head, but the things around me affect my skin as well.
What I discovered through this time without looking at the facts is that we will truly never be satisfied with what we look like everyday. But I decided that I would pay more attention to how I felt. I felt better when I spent a couple minutes in the morning and evening washing my face and caring for it with my new cleanser and lotion.
This experiment cost me some time to reflect and to take time to really evaluate what I was doing throughout my day. Chances are not only does physically picking your face hurt, but it could be your toothpaste or your sheets that you haven’t washed in a month or two that's really hurting your skin. Crazy right?
Post-not-touching-face Experiment
What I discovered through this time without looking at the facts is that we will truly never be satisfied with what we look like everyday. It’s more of a choosing-attitude than an issue.
I encourage you to find your own skin care routine, and join me on the journey of choosing self-love and patience through the therapy of loving your face, rather than hurting it.