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What is ingrown hair?
Ingrown hair forms when a hair cannot pass a clogged pore, making the it curl back into the skin or grow inside the upper skin layer. This situation is mostly found in knees, legs, arms, bikini area, and back.
Small bumps caused by ingrown hair are called papules.
How would you know you have ingrown hair?
You can easily see there will be short hair curled up like small dark pimples. Or, hair growing inside the upper layer of skin in a downward stroke.
What are main causes?
Ingrown hair can be caused by shaving or waxing, but it can also have other causes. Many people often have skin irritation or frequent ingrown hair although they do not shave or wax at all.
The popular causes you might experience:
- Natural skin condition
- Shaving and tweezing can make the problem worse especially with people having curly hair
- Waxing hair in the wrong direction and do not use after-wax products properly
- Wearing tight clothes or tight jeans consistently
How to treat ingrown hair?
There are various treatments for skin irritation and ingrown hairs. However, you should consult with skin professionals to find the best treatment for your case. The most common treatments are:
Use body exfoliation
Use a body scrub on a weekly basis to treat ingrown hair. Waxing House suggests you use body exfoliation 1 week after waxing.
Laser hair removal
Laser hair removal with high-quality machines will help to destroy the hair roots and improve the situation. This also has a beneficial effect on the inflammation and dark spots caused by ingrown hair.
Acne therapy
Laser hair removal does not work well for blonde and gray hair. Thus, people with those hair colors may not get the situation improved with laser hair removal. In this case, you can get an acne treatment. The beautician may pick the curled hair under the skin out, then apply acne serum and cream to calm down the skin.
How to prevent ingrown hair and dark spots?
Use a body scrub once a week
Normally, waxing removes the hair and skin dead cells at the same time. Thus, you will not need body scrub during the first week after waxing. It’s better you use exfoliation gel/cream without beads. Why? The beads in the scrub may make ingrown hair spots become dark spots. While applying the exfoliation, rub it in circular motions.
Do waxing correctly
It’s better to know how to perform waxing properly before you start to wax yourself. Improper waxing does not pull out all hair roots, resulting to ingrown hair.
If your skin type easily gets ingrown hair after waxing, it’s better you stop waxing and move to laser treatment.
Use a professional post-wax oil and lotion
When waxing the hair from any part of your body, make sure you follow up with profesional post-wax oil and lotion. These oils and lotions must be specialized for using after waxing, not normal products. Professional after-wax oil is able to remove the wax residue to prevent pore clogging. Besides, after-wax oil and lotion have a very light texture, anti-bacterial and calming functions. Keep using the lotion until hair starts growing back again. With soothing, anti-bacteria, and nourishing functions, after-wax lotion is good to use after laser hair removal as well.
Don’t use razors
Razors easily cause ingrown hairs. So, stop using razors. It’s better you choose another hair removal method such as waxing, laser hair removal.
