I'm male, 26. I put nothing on my acne while my face was healing. I'll still occasionally get a pimple when I get complacent and sleep on my side or stomach. I usually try to do nothing for as long as possible, but if it seems to be getting a bit oily, I'll use a tiny dab of this for spot treatment:
It's very gentle and doesn't dry the area excessively, like salicylic acid or BP would. I'll only use it once or twice in total for a single troublesome pimple, and I only leave it on for about 10 minutes.
I started seeing results within a day or so after I stopped washing my face and treating it with topicals. As my face started to dry out, the acne started to fade extremely quickly. I was very surprised. However, I've read about different reactions as the skin returns to equilibrium. For me, my face dried out, but for others, I've heard it can get extremely oily for a day or two.
Didn't change anything in my diet, although I have been trying to snack less on things that may not necessarily be all that great for me. I've started eating more fruit too because it's cheap, delicious, and nutritious.
My acne severity varied depending on what regimen I was using at the time. One time I had so much cystic acne that it slightly deformed part of my face temporarily due to the bulging. With the last regimen I was on (the one given to me by the dermatologist, which incidentally used the most products of any regimen I had ever tried before), I had about 15-20 pimples at any given time, and my face felt like crap. After washing and applying the topicals and moisturizers, my face would feel okay, then within the next few hours, I'd be dripping with oil. So then I'd have to wash AGAIN, which irritated my skin more. And so on with the cycle.
Now my face feels great all day. Never too dry or too oily. It just needed some time to return to its equilibrium, now that it's not constantly being attacked by a smorgasbord of chemicals.