Almost every teenager and a surprising amount of adults, at one time or another, have had to deal with oily skin. One check of your drug store’s medicine counter reveals that an entire industry has sprung up over the years to treat people’s both real and imagined oily skin problems.

But what really does cause oily skin? Is it just hormonal and controlling it is essentially impossible, or are there environmental or other triggers that we can deal with without too much trouble? Let’s take an inventory of the most common culprits and see what’s what.

One of the most underrated culprits for oily skin is heredity. It makes perfect sense when you really think about it. You can inherent your parents eye color, hair color and even their temperament, why is it so outrageous that you could inherent their oily skin, too?

The best thing you can do is to have a sit down conversation with your parents, and maybe even your grandparents, to get an idea of what kind of skin they have had over their lives and what sort of patterns you can expect to see forming as your life goes on.

If one of your parents had a severe case of acne when they were teenagers, there is a significantly higher chance that you’ll suffer the same fate. Nothing is carved in stone, however, but using heredity as a general guideline is a good place to start.

Shifting from genes to causes you can control, even if its just a little, your diet can go a long way in determining what your skin conditions are like. It isn’t always true that if you eat a diet high in fat and sugar that you will automatically have a breakout, or at the very least, have oilier skin than someone who only eats fruits or veggies, but it is true most of the time.

If you are having breakouts and you want them to stop, the first, and the cheapest, thing you can try is to change your diet to a much healthier one. You don’t have to give up sweets and salty snacks entirely, just cut down on them as much as you can. No diet works in absolutes, and neither will this one.

Another common cause of oily skin is sun exposure. In general, sun exposure is just about the worst thing you can do to your skin. Not only can you give yourself skin cancer, but frequent, long term exposure can damage the pores that emit the oily substance that sits on your skins surface.

While dry skin is most often associated with too much sun, oily skin is a common side effect as well. Wear sun block if you are going to be outside for very long at a time and always try to wear sunglasses, too. Not only will your skin stay in better shape, you will stave off the effects of crows feet and other facial wrinkles that are often caused by the sun.

If you are pregnant, your skin can go from extremely oily to extremely dry in a matter of weeks. In this case, hormones are the culprit and there isn’t too much you can do. The important thing here is to make sure you don’t use any over the counter remedies until you have approval from your doctor. You do not want to use anything that could possibly hurt your baby just to have better looking skin.

Finally, another common cause of oily skin is bad personal hygiene. This is most common in teens that are not paying enough attention to bathing after working out or running or for those that simply haven’t been properly raised.

You should bathe at least once per day, using soap and shampoo for your hair. A lack of washing your hair on a regular basis can not only lead to an outbreak on your scalp but all over your face wherever your hair touches.