As a teenager I personally battled acne and lost. I didn't know what caused it and there were myths all over about too much candy and chocolate, too much stress, preservatives in foods, sweating from exercise, etc. There are probably hundreds of wrong statements about what causes acne and just as many home remedies that don't help to cure acne.

Acne is caused by excessive oils on your skin that clog your pores and eventually will result in an infection, which produces the pimple with its redness and swelling. A blackhead is simply a pore that has been partially plug by oils or dead skin but still remains open and doesn't have an infection.

The key to controlling your acne is your ability to control the body oils that you have on your face, neck and shoulders. As a teenager your hormones are the cause of some of this excessive oil in you hair. So it is important to keep your hair clean to help reduce the amount of oil you have around your face and shoulders.

As a teenager, I had very oily hair and had acne on my shoulders, I had sought doctors help and tried many things but what finally got it under control was a shorter haircut and washing my hair at least once a day, in addition to keeping my face clean by washing with mild soap and water.

If you have acne you should try not to pick at and pop your pimples. It can be very difficult not to pick at your acne, but what you are actually doing when you pop a pimple is spreading the infection to other pores in your skin. You may have noticed that if you do pick at your acne it tends to spread, this is caused by spreading the infection (the white puss like substance) to other pores that may only be partially clogged but now have additional infectious material to completely clog the pore.

Keep in mind acne can also be caused by some medications so if you're taking proper care to control your body oils and it still hasn't worked, you may be taking a medication that is the main cause. Be sure to consult with your family physician as he can determine the side effects of your medication and adjust if necessary.