How to Remove An Ingrown Hair Properly

An ingrown hair is a strand of hair that curls back on itself and starts growing backwards into the hair follicle - staying imbedded in your skin. It causes a slight bump or irritation on the surface of your skin and they can become very painful if they are not dealt with for so long. In a worst case, the ingrown hair can become infected. It's important to remove an ingrown hair properly to avoid pain and also infection. Sadly, almost everyone will at some point have an ingrown hair to deal with whether it came from shaving or just regular hair growth. Follow these simple steps to carefully remove the hair from your skin.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. 

   EXFOLIATE THE SKIN AROUND IT. This is a very important part of curing your ingrown hair. Exfoliating the area twice a day will keep it clean and keep dead skin and oil from forming around it causing the irritation to become worse. Exfoliating the skin can always help loosen the hair trapped inside your skin and possibly help it break through the surface of your skin. There are many ways you can exfoliate your skin using pads or making your own scrub to use. A mix of olive and sugar will be good enough to get the job done.

2. 

   APPLY MEDICATION. When you have an ingrown hair, you should always apply some sort of medication to help prevent infection from forming. Ingrown hairs are common to pimples and usually involves puss of some sort. Apply peroxide and an antibiotic cream to help clean and heal the sore while your waiting for the hair to break through skin.

3. 

   APPLY WARMTH AND MOISTURE. Once you have reduced the swelling and size of the sore ingrown hair, you should apply a damp warm cloth to the area to open up the pores in your skin. This will also help bring the hair to the surface of your skin. The warm damp cloth will soften your skin as well as open up the hair follicle. It's a good idea to leave it on the area for a good 10 - 20 minutes. You should check in the mirror and see if you can see the unsightly hair surfacing to the top. If not, you may want to leave it on longer.

4. 

   USE A STERILE NEEDLE AND TWEEZERS. You should be very careful on this next step. Use the tweezers and/or the needle to tease and gently pull the hair out of your skin. The damp warm cloth should have brought the hair to the surface of the skin - if not - you don't want to force it. You may want to wait and see a medical doctor to complete the tiny procedure. If it did - continue.
   
   Try not to pluck the ingrown hair out until you have coaxed the strand out as far as possible. Use a needle to jiggle it for awhile. Plucking it that short make cause the hair to break off and you might have to repeat the process over again. Sometimes the hair may have looped. If this is the case, lightly pull the hair out of the loop with the needle before pulling it out.

5. 

   CLEAN THE AREA. Once you have successfully removed the ingrown hair, you should clean the area and place a band-aid on it to allow it to heal properly. Avoid wearing tight clothing or anything touching the area for a few days. Enjoy the comfort of knowing you got rid of that thing!