I had extremely severe acne as a teenager. Second worst in the entire school. It was especially bad on my forehead and around my mouth.
I tried just about everything. Salicylic acid. Exfoliating regularly. Benzoyl peroxide. Special soaps designed for acne prone skin. Nothing worked. The only thing I didn't try was accutane, and that was simply because I couldn't afford it.
I got clowned on for it all the time. What was actually worse than getting made fun of for it, was people assuming I had poor hygiene because I had acne. And of course I got tons of unsolicited advice from other kids who obviously knew absolutely nothing about acne like "use hot water when you shower!" "wash your face more" "just bring more water bro!" "just stop eating sugary foods bro!" etc.
Acne was the main reason I grew my hair long as a teen. I used it to hide at least part of my acne. I remember parting my hair differently depending on which side of my face had it worse at the time.
It cleared up quite a bit by the time I was 20. Though I had sporadic outbreaks in my early 20s.
