These painful bumps form when a hair is trapped under the surface of the skin, which causes it to become a little bubble of inflammation. Getting rid of an ingrown hair seems like a pretty minor problem to deal with, one of those things you know you probably shouldn’t be doing but the risks feel low enough that you’re willing to take them.
So what’s the deal? Can you remove an ingrown hair yourself, or is this something you should wait for an expert’s help with?Ingrown hairs are an unfortunately common side effect of trying to remove hair. Your hair grows out of little pockets called follicles, the explains. An ingrown hair starts growing in its follicle normally, but after emerging into the world, it doubles back and reenters your skin instead of continuing its outward journey. There, it can become embedded.
If you can actually see the hair loop above your skin, you could theoretically take a sterile needle, insert it under the loop, and try to gently lift out the embedded tips of hair, theexplains. But this is one of those ideas that’s better left to theory than practice, because you would need to sterilize a needle on your own, try to find the little hair hoop, then get to work without impaling yourself in the process.
If the hair loop isn’t visible, they have other options. “I use a sterile needle to [pierce] the overlying skin and splinter forceps to help the hair reach the skin surface,” Dr. Bailey says. “If the hair is still attached to the base of the follicle, I leave it so that the follicle can heal.” But if the hair isn’t still attached, your doctor can remove it “much like removing a splinter,” she says.
But ingrown hair isn’t always going to be that dramatic. If it isn’t causing you any symptoms, try to be patient as you follow the next few steps on this list.First, if you have an ingrown hair, the
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