How many times do we touch our face? Studies show it happens 3.6 times per hour. This is probably the starting point for a better skin, because we can plump it with vitamins, creams, serums and whatever more, but nothing will solve all the damage that we do to our skin with  just our hands.

All our moms probably screamed at us when we tried to pick that pimple: "Don't touch it!", did we? Probably most of us no. We were 15, and young with nearly perfect skin on our own, a bit stressed by the hormonal change, but still a pretty good skin, that could recover from all the bad things we did to it. It is very probable that the picking at the time didn't scar the skin. However years have passed. Our skin was more damaged by our compulsive non-protected tanning, the going out, the not eating properly and maybe the smoking or the alcohol.

Now usually when we reach our early 20s our skin doesn't produce pimples anymore, but it can show that occasional redness, or little spots. What we do when we realize a spot is coming out is that we try to pick it, or we touch it, or rub it, and this is bad, very bad. At this point our skin is not that elastic anymore, or at least it has accumulated more problems over time, and its responsiveness to our picking is not as good, this is when acne scarring occurs, but there is more.

Our hands aren't clean most of the time, think about all the hours spent on your desk in front of your computer studying or working. That keyboard isn't clean, especially if another at least 5 people have touched it before you (if you're studying in the library this is probably the case). Just touching doors, desks or really whatever, including your phone, will deposit bacteria on your skin, not necessarily harmful, but still bacteria. This is why we wash our hands before eating, not to ingest said bacteria. Now, why would we cover our face in bacteria instead? It is known that they are the primary cause of spots and blackheads. This will lead to unwanted breakouts, as our immune system obviously wants them out, and as a vicious cycle we will touch our skin again. Funny thing (well sort of), some scientific studies proved that skin breakouts occur more often on the side of the face where we talk on our phones. The tip where would be either clean our phones with specific anti-microbial wipes, or keeping the phone not completely in contact with our ear and cheek.

Not touching our skin if not for moisturizing and putting on make up (here again hands should be washed before) will also make us save time in front of the mirror assessing and judging ourselves, and it can also reduce the chance of catching a flu or coming in contact with viruses or bacteria, as we can carry them on our hands but as long as they don't come in contact with mouth or nose we won't become sick.

This "beauty trick" is the cheapest favor you could do to your skin, and probably is a no-brainer, but I know that in reality it is more difficult than it seems as it's a natural and unwanted gesture to touch our face, but with a little control we can at least prevent bacterial breakouts.

As I scare tactic I will leave here the points for you to read again:

1. Touching leads to picking, which leads to scarring
2. It can cause acne breakouts
3. You can catch the flu
4. We're wasting too much time obsessing