Comedonal acne

hello doctor,
I am an 18 year old male.  Before six months i had perfect soft skin but over the summer i tried to use cleasners, and scrubs as regimen to keep my skin healthy. But infact,  over the course of few months i over used products(washed  my face too much) and developed comedonal acne. Now after almost 3 months of comedonal acne my skin is finally started to ge better. Before it got so bad to the point that my oily skin got super dry and flaky. As i said i overused too much products and on tp on that i used several home remedies which made my comedonal acne even worse. The problem I have now is that i still have comdeonal acne on my forehead and it never  seems to go way. I have small bumps on my forehead which are acne that are not inflamed. Also my facial skin is like "sandpaper" at some parts with these little non inflammed bumps. My skin has gotten a lot better but i need some advice. Another thing is that my nose is covered with blackheads and often when i  wake up my face will get very very little white stuff(not flakes) until i wash it with spectro.I don;t know what these are.  I went to my doctor and she told me i had comedonal acne. she advised me to take vitam A ( pretty sure it is retionion) but i feel like i  should not take since my skin will eventually heal it self. she recommended spectro gel everyday once so i am only using spectro gel everyday. It does not dry out my skin  and also get rids of the little dry white particles. Do u think i should use retionion i don't want to use any medicine on my face anymore. I was wondering if my type of cosmtic comedonal acne will every heal fully so that i can have my oldsoft skin back instead of this sandpaper in some parts. How old does it take to heal? It does seem it is healing beaucse it is getting better but it is very slow. Please help me i am so desperate.  My family has no acne problems. Also on the sides of my nose when i go to the swimming pool i get this layer of crust is this normal. It not dry or oil its in the middle. Do comedones turn into pimples before they heal? please help me. Any suggestion would be helpful.