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How to Prevent Ingrown Hairs, According to Dermatologists

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How to prevent ingrown hairs from shaving.
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If you’ve ever shaved any part of your body, you probably know the inevitable pain of ingrown hairs. Treating them is nice, but learning how to prevent ingrown hairs in the first place is even better.

Ingrown hairs can be frustrating wherever they show up, which can include basically any part of your body that has hair, like your legs, armpits, arms, and face. But they’re especially annoying when they pop up in more sensitive areas, like in your pubic area.

To learn the best ways to handle—and, preferably, avoid—ingrown hairs, we consulted dermatologists for the lowdown on why they form, what you’re supposed to do about them, and how to prevent ingrown hairs from appearing altogether.

What causes ingrown hairs?

So, get this: You have about 5 million hair follicles sprinkled across your body, according to the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD). Each follicle contains a hair that grows through your skin.

Even if you remove the hair, it will continue to grow from these follicles (unless you get laser hair removal, which damages the follicles so they can’t produce hair). An ingrown hair happens when a hair that should be growing out of its follicle and away from your skin reenters your skin instead, according to the Mayo Clinic. At that point, the hair might look like a hoop with both ends embedded into your skin.

That’s a problem because it causes inflammation that can lead to solid or pus-filled bumps, pain, itching, a bacterial infection, hyperpigmentation, and possibly permanent scarring.

Although there’s potential for an ingrown hair basically anywhere you remove it, the hair on and around your vulva is particularly susceptible to becoming ingrown because it tends to be coarse and curly, Gary Goldenberg, M.D., assistant clinical professor of dermatology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital, tells SELF. That makes it more likely that the hair will curl into your skin when it’s growing back after you’ve removed it.

Also, if you shave, every time you drag that razor over your hair you’re creating sharp edges on each strand that can make them more likely to revert into your skin, the Mayo Clinic says.

The best way to prevent ingrown hairs is, unfortunately, to just not remove your hair. Some people might be totally fine with that, but others still prefer to do some sort of hair removal. In that case, there are still some things you can do to reduce the chances of getting an ingrown hair.

1. Always use some kind of lubrication before you shave.

Shaving dry hair can create especially sharp edges that are more prone to growing back into your skin. The Mayo Clinic recommends always letting a shaving cream or gel soak into your skin for a few minutes to soften the hair. You can also try using a warm compress before you shave.

2. Only use a sharp razor.

With a dull razor, you’ll likely have to go over the skin multiple times, raising your risk of cutting yourself, irritating your skin, and, possibly, getting an ingrown hair or infection. Your razor will typically feel less effective after a few uses, in which case it’s time to toss it or swap out the blades.

3. Shave in the direction that your hair is growing.

Going against your hair’s grain may allow for a closer shave, but the closer the shave, the easier it is for your hair to curl back into your skin, Dr. Goldenberg says. So shaving with the grain is one easy way to help prevent ingrown hairs.

4. Rinse your blade after every stroke.

Doing this will help add lubrication when you shave. And it also gets rid of any shavings clogging the blades that might make it harder to efficiently remove hair with the first pass, thus making it less likely for an ingrown hair to pop up.

5. Don’t tweeze.

It can be tempting to reach for the tweezers when you spot a stray pubic hair on your bikini line, but take a pass. If you tweeze the hair, it might leave a fragment of hair under the skin surface, which could result in an ingrown hair and cause inflammation.

6. Resist the temptation to pull at your skin for a closer shave.

Stretching your skin tight during shaving allows the tips of the remaining hair to shrink back into your skin and grow there, the Mayo Clinic explains. From there, they can easily become ingrown hairs. Do your best to let your skin sit naturally while shaving.

7. Consider using an electric razor or clippers.

Since the entire point of standard manual razors is to get a really close shave, they’re not the ideal tool for people who may be prone to getting ingrown hairs, Samantha B. Conrad, M.D., clinical practice director at Northwestern Memorial Hospital Group, department of dermatology, tells SELF. Instead, it might make more sense to use an electric razor or clippers on a setting that gives you a good shave but not the absolute closest one possible.

8. Gently exfoliate before you shave.

Products that contain a chemical exfoliant like lactic, glycolic, or salicylic acid can help dissolve dead skin cells that trap ingrowns, Dr. Conrad says. Getting rid of them—gently!—with the help of a chemical exfoliant-containing cream or lotion or just by using a washcloth in the area before removing the hair can help prevent ingrowns from forming.

In fact, many serums that are marketed to prevent ingrown hairs (more on those in a minute) contain exfoliating ingredients like these.

9. Moisturize after you shave.

Moisturizing keeps your skin smooth and hydrated. It also reduces the chances for irritation because it reinforces the skin’s protective barrier. Moisturizing is especially necessary if you’re using an exfoliating treatment, which can dry the skin out if it’s too harsh or you use it too frequently.

10. Consider trimming what you can instead of fully removing the hair.

You don’t necessarily have to choose between fully shaving and letting things go wild. There is a middle ground here! In fact, when you trim rather than completely remove the hair, whatever hair is left remains long enough that it doesn’t have as much of a chance of growing back into your skin, Dr. Conrad says.

11. Instead of shaving, give waxing a try.

Unlike shaving the hair, waxing doesn’t result in those extra-sharp tips that are more likely to curl back into your skin. In that way, waxing can reduce your chances of getting an ingrown hair.

However, you can still get ingrowns after waxing as the hair grows back. So, even if you decide to wax rather than shave, it’s important to be mindful of the other tips on this list, such as keeping the area moisturized post-hair-removal.

If you’re looking to wax at home, be sure to take note of the state of your skin so you avoid any tender or irritated areas. Also, take some time to choose the right products for your hair situation and practice your technique on a smaller area of skin first.

And if, even after switching to waxing for a while and trying the other tips on this list, you’re still getting ingrown hairs regularly, it might be time to chat with a dermatologist about what could be going on and how to prevent ingrown hairs in the future.

12. Try out a serum meant to prevent ingrown hairs.

There are a bunch of serums on the market that promise to help prevent ingrown hairs from forming. Though these products don’t necessarily have Serious Scientific Research to back them up, they may contain certain ingredients that could help. Many ingrown hair serums have chemical exfoliants like salicylic acid to slough off dead skin cells so hair can grow out normally, Dr. Goldenberg says. Some also have soothing ingredients like aloe to help prevent irritation and antibacterial ingredients like tea tree oil to possibly help reduce your risk of infection, Dr. Goldenberg says.

13. Or try removing your hair with a cream, instead.

Like waxing, hair removal creams don’t cut the hair. Instead, they dissolve the hair shaft, Cleveland Clinic explains. Without that structural integrity, the hair doesn’t stay rooted in your skin, so out it comes. These creams can cause irritation or allergic reactions, however, so it’s crucial to patch-test any new product on a small part of your body first before going all in.

And make sure to read the packaging—many hair-removal creams are formulated only for the bikini line, so if you’re looking to remove most of your pubic hair or hair in another area of your body, you might not be able to go bare with this.

14. If you get ingrown hair frequently, consider laser hair removal.

This procedure removes hair at a deeper level and helps keep it from growing back over time, Dr. Conrad says. But it’s a misconception that laser hair removal means you’ll just never grow hair in the treated spots again. The results vary widely, but the hair might grow back—it may just be lighter and finer than before, the Mayo Clinic says.

Like any other medical procedure, laser hair removal can come with some risks, such as skin irritation and pigmentation changes. The procedure also can be trickier in people with dark skin or those with gray, red, blond, or white hair. But it still isn’t necessarily off limits for those people. So, if you’re interested, have a doctor really walk you through just how effective this might be for you.

While laser hair removal treatments may not be possible right now thanks to the current pandemic, it’s something to keep in mind. You can still chat with a dermatologist via telemedicine about what treatment options might be right for you in the future.

If you do get an ingrown hair, what’s the best way to treat it?

If you do happen to get some painful ingrown hairs around your vulva (or anywhere, really), you’ll want to act quickly to calm the inflammation and irritation.

First, the Mayo Clinic recommends that you stop shaving, tweezing, or waxing until things clear up. You’ll need to wait for any bumps, irritation, pain, and other symptoms to heal before you carry on with hair removal. Unfortunately, that could take a while—anywhere from one to six months. In the meantime, don’t scratch the area because this can lead to more irritation and possibly a bacterial infection if you break the skin, Dr. Goldenberg says.

To help the area calm down and heal more quickly, you can wash the area around your ingrown hair with a clean washcloth or soft-bristled toothbrush, moving in a circular motion for several minutes, the Mayo Clinic says. This motion gently exfoliates the area without traumatizing it, Dr. Conrad says.

You can also apply an over-the-counter exfoliating lotion or cream with a gentle chemical exfoliant like salicylic acid to try to speed up the healing, Dr. Conrad says, since this helps quicken your cell turnover and release the trapped hair. (Or, if you have an ingrown hair serum with a chemical exfoliant, you can try that instead.)

If that’s not working, your doctor may need to prescribe treatments like a topical retinoid to further increase cell turnover or a steroid cream to reduce inflammation. If your doctor thinks you may have developed an infection, they might prescribe oral or topical antibiotics to treat it, the Mayo Clinic says.

Finally, as tempting as it may be, don’t try to fish the ingrown out on your own. “I would not recommend doing this,” Dr. Goldenberg says. Poking and prodding an ingrown may release some fluid trapped inside of it, but the hair might still be stuck in there, he explains, so your symptoms can persist. Plus, opening up your skin in this way can expose you to a potential infection.

Is it theoretically possible for you to squeeze out an ingrown hair with no ill effects? Sure. But, as SELF previously reported, doing so properly—as in, with the least risk for infection or other complications—would require sterilizing a needle, delicately fitting it underneath the hoop of hair, and lifting out the embedded end. Oh, and you’d have to do it all without piercing yourself or otherwise making the situation worse. Sounds much more up a dermatologist’s alley, don’t you think?

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