Ingrown Hairs – Tips for prevention and treatment
The main cause of ingrown hair in both men and women is hair removal through techniques like shaving, tweezing, electrolysis, waxing and cream depilation, which often irritates the hair follicle and results in an inflammation. While men generally encounter razor bumps on their faces, women may have ingrown hair on legs, underarms, bikini area and any other place where they might have carried out hair removal. People with dry skin are at a higher risk of getting ingrown hair. Stiff, curly or coarse hair is also more prone to getting ingrown. Other factors that cause ingrown hair are genetics, build up of dead skin cells that clog pores and hair follicles that are full of oil.
The goal in waxing, (weather it be a back wax or a brazilian wax), is to remove the entire hair from the follicle, but often it breaks either above or below the skin’s surface. So now instead of a new hair forming and growing back having a beveled edge, it’s now blunt.
Tips for prevention:
Exfoliate before and after. LIGHTLY exfoliating with an ayate cloth or other mild exfoliator before ridding hair helps remove dead skin cells allowing a better and an easier wax. LIGHTLY exfoliating a day after the wax and continuing to do so, a couple times a week depending on your skin type will help keep dead skin cells out of the follicle. When the hair does start coming back, this helps it pointing up instead of going back into the skin.
Most ingrown hair treatment products are a kind of acid mixed with a moisturizer. The most common acids used are glycolic and salicylic acids. Glycolic acid, an alpha hydroxy acid otherwise known as fruit acid, is a mild exfoliating acid you will find in a plethora of skin care creams, cleaners, and moisturizer. It is often used to treat men’s beards and women’s bikini lines. It’s all natural, and is quickly becoming the most commonly used acid skin treatment because of its effectiveness. Look for treatments with no less than 10% concentration to ensure the prevention of ingrown hairs. Salicylic acid, similar to the active ingredient in aspirin, is used in a wide range of skin care products and engages the same basic process that glycolic acid does, exfoliating the skin to help clear pores and keep oils from building up in the hair follicles. So long as you are using these two acids to exfoliate your skin and treat ingrown hairs, you should see a noticeable reduction in the number of ingrown hairs you skin produces.
In our experience the best product for severe ingrown hairs – PFB Vanish
For more information and professional advice on waxing in london contact;
Urban Wellbeing on 0207 851 6624 or
visit our website www.urbanwellbeing.co.uk
