Hello everyone, today we’re going to be discussing a very common condition in black women, which is the issue of ingrown hair.
In grown hair normally occurs in the parts of our bodies where we have hair that we try to get rid off either by plucking, shaving or tweezing, mostly around the chin area of women, on their chest or on their legs
Ingrown hair occurs when you have the hair,rather than growing out of the skin, curling backwards and getting embedded into the surface of the skin .
Ingrown hair is a very common condition with black women especially due to the curly nature of our hair.
And we will focus on “ingrown Facial hair ” today. We have 2 types of hair on our faces, the vellus and the terminal hair.
The very fine hairs on our faces are called the “vellus hair”, which actually help to regulate body temperature. However sometime towards puberty, with the increase of androgen hormones in women, you find a situation where some vellus hair develops into terminal hair.Terminal hair is a lot longer ,darker and coarser than Vellus hair.
Increase in androgen levels in the skin, mostly during menopause, puberty, or any slight imbalance in the hormones would cause some production of facial hair in women.
There are two causes of ingrown hair in women.
The first one is as a result of blocked pores where you have DEAD SKIN CELLS that block hair follicles preventing the hair from growing out of the hair follicle so the hair rather than growing out of the skin starts to grow back inwards into the skin which will cause the skin to develop pus, become red and inflamed.
Another reason why you have ingrown hair is is when you tweeze or shave your hair. This makes the end of the hair become sharper and as a result of that, start growing backwards digging into your skin, which can also result in inflammation, bumps or pus.
Both of these two factors are some of the reasons why people develop ingrown hair. Even though most women have facial hair, the issue of ingrown hair and bumps from them can only be brought about as a result of these two conditions .
Ingrown hair, also called and Pseudofolliculitis or razor bumps mostly occur after shaving or tweezing . This makes the ends of the hair to be very sharp especially when you don’t pull it out from the root. Curly hair will curl back into the skin and develop into bumps with the tip of the hair in the middle causing the condition known as ingrown hair.
Ingrown hair oftentimes looks like acne or pimples, however a closer look with reveal the culprit hair seen in the middle of the bump. With ingrown hair, you can also have redness, sometimes the area can get darkened, you might get scars especially if you’re plucking the hair out. These are some of the side effects of ingrown hair.
How to deal with ingrown hair.
You can prevent ingrown hair by exfoliating your skin properly. Proper skin exfoliation can loosen and remove dead skin cells that can block your hair follicles preventing your hair from growing out. Those who have a tendency to trim or cut their hair need to be careful to exfoliate first before shaving.
You also need to ensure that you shave in the direction of that your hair is growing and not cut the hair too close to the surface because this can lead to some of the hair being trapped in the skin and then growing inwards into the skin.
So exfoliating your skin would help to remove dead skin cells that might prevent the hair from growing out and shaving in the direction of the hair ensures that no hair gets trapped into the skin.
Another thing you can do is to ease out ingrown hair from the skin and gently tweeze out. Tweezing is a really good way to remove facial hair, but ensure that you’re pulling the hair out from the root not just breaking it off, because tweezing like shaving if not done properly can just cut off the hair from the tips, and that sharp point of the hair would easily find its way back into the skin as an ingrown hair.
Using acne products that help to soften and exfoliate the skin, as well as antibacterial products, would help to release that ingrown hair or make the skin around ingrown hairs softer so it can be easily pulled out of the skin with a tweezer without breaking.
This is because when the skin around the ingrown hair is soft then it’s easier to pull the hair out from the roots. When it’s dry, it’s more likely that you’ll break off the hair from the tips when trying to tweeze it out. So applying acne products that contain Salicylic acid or tea tree oil can help soften the area.
The antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties of these agents will also be such a good effect for the area, to reduce infection, soften the area so that the hair can easily be plucked out of the skin and reduce redness.
So these are some of the ways that you can prepare your skin before plucking or shaving facial hair to reduce the risk of ingrown hair.
Other things that you can do with ingrown hair is to see a Dermatologist and get the hair, Laser removed .
This can be slightly more expensive, and may require several visits to a dermatologist to get it properly done.
However, an easy, stay at home method to remove your ingrown hair, is by using an acne product for instance, BSN Clear Skin Acne Serum contains salicylic acid, which works by unblocking the pores, softening the skin, and reducing inflammation.
Simply saturate a cotton pad with the serum and dab on the area where you have ingrown hair, leave it overnight, to soften ,then coerce the tip of the hair out using a sterilised needle and then using a sterilised tweezer pluck it out gently. After using the needle and tweezer, always remember to wash and sanitise them before you use them again to prevent the risk of infection.
BSN skin acne serum https://bareskinnaturals.com/item/clear-skin-acne-serum/ is a fantastic product that you can use to deal with ingrown hair if you’re someone who suffers from ingrown hair, and you want an easy, at home method to deal with ingrown hair.
The Glow skin Toner https://bareskinnaturals.com/item/glow-face-toner/is also an excellent exfoliant to help rid the skin of excess dead skin cells, leaving the hairs free to grow out the skin without bending or curling backwards.
Do you suffer from ingrown hair?
What are you doing about it.
Send us a message today, if you will like to deal with your ingrown hair at home without laser treatments.