Dust masks are wrecking my skin. What are the options?

A sealed respirator works by pressing rubber or silicone against skin for hours. That is friction, warmth and trapped moisture in one place, and skin objects. On shaved or recently shaved skin it is worse, because the seal drags across the follicles.

Practical things that help, cheapest first. Wash the seal itself, not just your face - a mask seal accumulates dust and skin oil and goes back on every day. Let it dry properly rather than putting it away damp. Loosen the straps to the point where it still holds and no further; over-tightening is the single most common cause. And if you shave for the seal, shave the night before rather than the morning of.

If none of that works, the honest answer is that the design is the problem for you. A hood-style powered respirator does not seal against your face - filtered air is pushed into the hood and out past you, so nothing is clamped against your skin for eight hours.

We are not going to pretend that is a small purchase to solve a skin problem. If a cheaper mask in a size that actually fits you solves it, buy that instead. But people who have tried three masks and still take it off after an hour are usually fighting the seal itself, not the particular mask.