Probably at least once in your life you have noticed a little painful and inflamed spots on the skin few days after waxing or shaving your legs.
Well that`s an ingrown hair, which is minor aesthetic problem on the legs, armpits and bikini line, that can cause you pain and annoy you.
Not so often, ingrown hairs can cause a bigger problem, such as cyst. If that happens, you will have to undergo a small and simple intervention to remove cysts caused by ingrown hairs.
In order to get rid of ingrown hair and to prevent its re-appearance, we offer you simple home methods. In the following text we’ll provide you with explanation about what to do if you have problem with ingrown hair.
How to get rid of ingrown hair?
There is no doubt that hairs are our worst enemies. Every woman would say that if there is something she hates than that is the everyday routine removal of body hair, whether it is depilation with hair remover, wax or shaving.
As for men, regardless of the fact that beard is very fashionable these days we have to mention that neither of them is so lucky to be unaffected by ingrown hairs. So the following explanations would be useful for them too.
What causes ingrown hair?
Sometimes certain hairs instead of growing normally from follicles and throughout the skin, remain trapped inside causing infection. If the hair continues growing, and fails to get out of the surface comes to formation of small cysts which, if not threatened on time, can cause a bigger problem.
How to remove ingrown hairs, which have formed a cyst?
This process is not as easy as many think, and it requires hygienic measures in order to prevent infection:
- Take a shower with hot water
Hot water opens the pores, tones the skin, relaxes and softens the surface layer of the skin, making it soft and permeable, thus enabling us to remove the ingrown hair easily. Soak with warm water the areas where the ingrown hair is (legs, armpits, groin).
- Soft peeling
The second step is also easy. Exfoliate that part of your body with ingrown hairs, to remove the dead skin cells. Do that gently, as if you are massaging. You can use gloves or a sponge for bathing for this. In addition, if you do not have a real body scrub, you can use some ingredients that can be found in every house as substitution, the following are some of them:
– Grounded coffee
-Olive oil and sugar
-Salt
-Oats and honey
The amount of these ingredients depends of how big the zone to which you want to apply the scrub is. Mostly it is enough one spoonful of each ingredient. What you need to do is to put the selected ingredient on glove or sponge for bathing and to rub with gentle massage the particular area.
- Essential oils which are ideal for ingrown hairs
After a warm bath and gentle exfoliation, dry the skin with a towel. With a piece of cotton previously soaked in some essential oil lay over the place where your ingrown hair is. You can use the following essential oils:
– Essential oil of witch hazel
This oil is ideal for reducing inflammations and infections of the skin. Heals damaged tissue and reduces the possible infections and ulcerations. Put few drops of this oil onto a cotton wool, Q-tip, or directly to the place where your ingrown hairs is, and gently massage. Repeat the procedure 2 times a day.
– Essential oil of tea tree
Natural product with antibacterial effect reduces infection and drains the infected area thus allowing the ingrown hairs to penetrate throughout the surface, so that you can remove it easily. After a day or two the pain on the area of the ingrown hairs will disappear.
The process of application of this oil is the same as the once for the oil of witch hazel. After the bath, apply several drops of tea tree oil on the particular area, massage gently with a piece of cotton and the inflammation will be reduced.
If you want to remove the infected ingrown hair as soon as possible, repeat the procedure two times a day. Also, you can first put a warm cloth on the area where your ingrown hairs are, and after that apply several drops of this antibacterial and anti-inflammatory oil.
- Removal of ingrown hairs
Don’t ever try to remove the Ingrown hair with bare hands, and not squeeze the inflamed area. Use tweezers which you will previously disinfect with medical alcohol. Only after the cyst, resulting from ingrown hair drains, and when the hair is visible, grab a pair of tweezers and carefully remove it.
After that rub the area of the ingrown hair with cotton ball soaked in medical alcohol or aloe vera. This will make the area drain quickly and heal properly and it will prevent infections.
Note: To prevent ingrown hair problem, it is recommended before and after waxing to exfoliate the skin. In this way you will remove the dead skin and allow the hair to grow normally, without obstacles and ingrowth. Once the hair has the way to the surface of the skin opened, it will not cause the appearance of inflamed cysts on the skin.
