How to treat ingrown hairs at home

Ingrown hairs are a common skin irritation that are extremely annoying. The good thing is that they’re not a serious skin condition that needs urgent medical attention. You can easily treat them at home without any stress.

What causes ingrown hair?

Ingrown hairs are caused when the strands of hair curl underneath your skin instead of breaking through. They occur when you shave, tweeze or even wax so this will happen once in awhile in the areas where you usually get rid of hair using these methods. 

Also, dead skin cells on the surface can interfere with the growth direction of the hairs so they end up curling back inside.

They’re characterized by sensitive or painful bumps and most of the time you’re able to spot the hair trapped underneath your skin. Here’s what you need to do. 

Treatment

You don’t have to be a certified surgeon to get the hair out. It’s a very simple process that will barely take five minutes.

You’ll need some antiseptic, cotton and a needle. And before you start, wash your hands with soap and water and disinfect the needle properly to prevent any possibility of an infection.

Step 1: 

Locate the area you want to treat and apply the disinfectant with the cotton ball or swab.

Step 2: 

Take the sterilized needle and steadily lift the hair trapped inside. Make sure you’re being gentle to reduce risk of injury or scarring.

Step 3: 

Once you’ve removed it, you can disinfect the area again. Trim the hair or shave once it has been exposed. If you can, avoid tweezing. 

Be careful not to dig for the hair when it’s not easily accessible for extraction. You can wait for a while, while treating the area with pimple cream and let it come out eventually.

Prevention

Most of the preventative measures for ingrown hairs involve your shaving technique.

But first, you need to make sure you’re using a clean, sharp blade at all times. A blunt one full of bacteria only increases the risk of an ingrown hair breakout and infections which isn’t pretty at all.

When it comes to the techniques, do this.

Exfoliate first

Exfoliating removes any dead skin cells and oils that could block your hair from growing out. If you shave often on a sensitive area, exfoliate with a wet washcloth. In other areas, use exfoliating gloves or a scrub.

Lubricate 

You must lubricate the area first before shaving. Use something like shaving cream or a natural oil like coconut oil to reduce friction.

Shave lightly

Don’t press the blade too close to your skin. If you find yourself doing this, it means the razor is blunt and you need to replace it.

Shave in the right direction

Don’t shave against the grain. Move the blade the same direction the hair is growing. This is very important to avoid ingrown hairs. 

Don’t go over the area too many times

This can easily irritate the skin. Again, if you find yourself doing this it means you need to replace your razor.

The other alternatives would be to shave less or to stop shaving completely if you’re comfortable with that.

In some cases, complications occur. You can end up with an infection in the area which requires some medication. And if you’re not comfortable extracting the hair on your own or dealing with a deep ingrown hair, you should let it pop out on its own or visit your doctor to get it extracted.