water? food? stress? hormones?

My skin hates me?!  When I first moved to Korea, I had issues with my skin and acne.  Partially do to stress and hormones.  Or so I thought.  I got my acne under control and manageable within the past year and a half.  Things were good, with the occasional breakout around my monthly visitor, but that is to be expected with hormones.  When I went home, my acne started up again, and I started having overly dry skin and a crazy rash.  I used most of the same products that I use in Korea, with only my bodywash being different.  I have a feeling that the bodywash was the cause of the super dry skin, so that isn't an issue.  The real issue is the acne.

Like I said, I thought I had figured out the culprits, stress and hormones.  I think I was wrong.  I think it was food and water based.  My diet changed completely when I moved to Korea.  More veggies, less grease, etc.  When I went home and had all that grease, my stomach and skin freaked out.

I also think the water is to blame.  The water in Korea is vastly different from in America.  They do not treat their water the same way as in America.  So, drinking water without boiling it first is a huge no-no in Korea.  I pretty much have to drink bottled water (i.e. buy water), and I don't even give tap water to Trixie.  You can filter water too but that still tastes strange to me.  Anyways, I have a feeling that the water did things to my face.  My skin didn't know what was happening and bam new acne.

When I left America, I had a substantial breakout on my face.  Now that I have been back for a week, I have that under control.  I have not seen my skin this bad since I moved here.  It was crazy and stressful.  Who knew that something as simple as water could impact your skin.  Obviously, the food also played a part in the breakouts but I think there maybe something with the water too.  I have heard that un-filtered water can cause hair loss, but I do not know if that is 100% true.  It just sucks to be 27 and having to deal with this kind of acne breakout, when I thought I knew what I was doing and had it under control.