Unless you are a nurse, then this may only tie for third place.
It has been about a decade since I purchased those snazzy little Biore Pore Strips. I happened to pick some up yesterday, and let me tell you… Ugh. It was gross. But that isn’t what I am about to show you.
Reader’s Digest Version: Hairless Dog with Bad Skin + Biore Strip = HOLY CRAP. Yu-UCK.
Meet Walter. He is our Chinese Crested dog, and yes, he is bald. He is also chronically grumpy, but so is Nathan; I’m thinking male pattern baldness might be a contributing factor to their attitudes. Walter isn’t just bald, he has really bad skin. Let me put it to you this way; if Proactive made a product for dogs, Waltie wouldn’t even qualify as a spokes-dog because there is no way in hell he would ever improve enough to get his fellow canines to pick up the phone and order a free 30 day trial.
I don’t much care that you think he is ugly; most people do. I know everyone thinks it, but I simply cannot see it AT ALL. To us, he is adorable. We love him. I look at him and all I see is naked-blackhead-covered cuteness. So be it.
Nae and I always joked about putting a Biore Strip on him, just to see if it would help. After I used one yesterday and was totally shocked/awed/grossed out at what came out of my skin, my thoughts turned to poor Waltie. I think he saw some kind of evil glint in my eye, since he totally went running as soon as the lightbulb went off in my head.
If you a squeamish, this is the part where you look away. I’m not kidding. If you are eating; try back when you are done scarfing that bowl of Capt’n Crunch.
Here is a close up of the worst part of his skin (most of the rest of him is as smooth as an old man’s liver-spotted head):
And then this happened:
Not happy, Bob. Not happy.
And then I let out an audible gasp of equal parts horror and amazement. LAST CHANCE TO LOOK AWAY….
Yes, those are tons of little blackheads from my beloved pooch. Poor, poor Walter.
I don’t know why I chose to share this with you. I think it is one of those things like “Oh, this smells like death! Here, you smell it.” It warranted an immediate text to Nathan. To which he responded (only half jokingly) that we should make him a body/mummy cast out of pore strips. Nathan and I really are cut from the same cloth.
you should try limited ingredient dog food (wheat free) it helps this kind of skib problem a lot in cresteds.
Ania, do you have one that you would suggest? We use Blue Buffalo and have tried Innova and Canidae in the past. When we moved out to Ohio, the best we could find was the high end Blue Buffalo, but now that we’re back in the land of fellow dog snobs, I’m sure we can find just about anything out here.
Try Orijen, it is great wheat,corn and other grains thats can cause pore clogging! If you can find it another alt is raw food.. some complain of cost etc no sure where you are living but you can always order directly from companies. My Lil chi chi has been the PICKEST eater in the world!~ SO I have had to try everything from, canned, to raw, to freeze dry, to good ol bag-o-dog chow! But I would guess your lil love needs a grain free, esp wheat free diet! And hello lusious skin!
Thanks for the tip! He’s on grain-free now, but we are finally in an area where they sell good dog food, rather than just the stuff you can get at petsmart.
I cant help but wonder if you finished doing this to the whole dog. I was looking up pore strips and came across this. Lol poor thing. Must suck to live with so many blackheads
Nope, never did. Besides the fact that it would have cost a fortune, I don’t think I would have had the heart to make him sit through it. I don’t think he minds the blackheads much- he certainly acts like a supermodel. 🙂
I found this by looking at biore strip images through google lol. Thought I’d share a DIY blackhead removal I found on Pinterest. It consists of nothing but unflavored gelatin and milk and can be applied to the whole face (urrhh… Dog) at one time. No strips required.
http://petitelefant.com/how-to-pore-strips/
I saw that! And totally thought about doing it to Walter. Am I a bad dog parent? Methinks “yes.”
If I see a blackhead ANYWHERE, my fingers itch to squeeze them. My husbands late paternal grandmother had them on her face. It would drive me crazy. Bring on the pore strips …..
We have joked about doing this to our crestie forever! Did you end up being able to improve his skin? Our crestie’s skin is terrible right now. We have her on great food but it’s not helping.
Well, sorta… Sure, his skin was clear on that very teeny patch for a while, but it went right back to normal after a month or two. Poor thing. We have our dogs on super good food, too. Hasn’t helped at all. Boo.
Biore now has a charcoal blackhead remover line. It might be worth a shot to just wash him every so often. It works so well.
How’s Walter’s skin doing now? Have you tried this again?
I found this post a couple days ago, and I keep thinking about your poor little guy!
Actually tried it again a few weeks ago after it blew up on Reddit! The good news is that it keeps the blackheads away for months, and he doesn’t mind it. Anymore than I mind sitting in one spot and not moving for ten minutes. The downside is that there is no way I’d ever put him through the ordeal of sitting for an entire day while I biore-stripped every part of his body, so it is just one little patch that gets better. I know he looks like he’s got to be bothered by all those blackheads, but I don’t think it phases him at all. I kinda think about it as if I had skin full of blackheads; would it be uncomfortable? Probably not. Would it bother me? Yep, but Walter doesn’t suffer from vanity like we do. 🙂 Every vet we’ve taken him to (and the breeders we’ve spoken to) has always assured us that it is just part of who he is, and it isn’t anything to worry about. We do have to make sure that we lotion the living daylights out of him here in Colorado… And sunscreen him.
Poor Walter! What about Witch Hazel? It’s inexpensive (about $1 per bottle at CVS/Walgreens), is gentle (does not burn or dry out skin), and is pretty effective at keeping skin cleaner/clearer. My aesthetician recommended it to me and I love it.
you should try to give him a charcoal face mask because you can rub it all over his body and peel it all at once when it dries. It comes in a black cream so its not limited to the small size of pore strips and can be customized to fit the area of the blackheads. You can get them for 2 dollars or less on ebay like Pilaten Blackhead remover.