No one likes the sight or feeling of an inflamed red welt. Unfortunately, when hair follicles curl and grow back into your skin after shaving, annoying red bumps can be the frustrating result.

And since it’s hard not to pick at irritated skin, your best option is to prevent the problem in the first place. Read on to find the secret of getting rid of ingrown hairs forever!

How to Eliminate Ingrown Hairs

Not everyone likes the idea of laser hair removal or waxing. These methods of hair elimination can be expensive, painful, or simply just not practical.

But just because you choose to shave doesn’t mean you’re doomed to deal with ingrown hairs forever. With a little thoughtful preparation, you can avoid ingrown hairs altogether.

First, you absolutely must toss out any dull or nearly dull razors that could cause chafing and, by extension, ingrown hairs. In fact, throw them away right now. This article will still be here when you get back.

Are all the dull razors in your bathroom gone? Good. Now it’s time for the most important step: exfoliation!

Exfoliate, Exfoliate, Exfoliate!

Before you shave, you should always exfoliate the skin you plan to shave first. Think of exfoliation as giving your skin a rejuvenating scrub down.

Exfoliation removes old, flaky skin that gets in the way of a close shave. After you exfoliate, the dead skin cells that can be trapped in your pores are much less likely to be present when you shave. Exfoliation also brings hair follicles to the surface of the skin making them easier to remove.

There’s a variety of effective methods for exfoliation. Choose one that works best for you or mix and match. You can try a salt, sugar, or oatmeal based body scrub, or you can combine regular soap with an exfoliating glove. One of the most effective effective methods can actually be dry brushing.

Scrub your skin with a gentle but firm up-and-down motion with your chosen exfoliation method, and be sure to use pressure when scrubbing. This will help remove the dead skin more effectively.

Monitor your skin as you scrub and afterward. If it becomes red or irritated, you’ll want to switch to a less abrasive exfoliating method.

After you finish exfoliating, rinse your legs with water to remove any remaining residue.

A Close Shave

Once you have finished your exfoliating routine, it’s time to shave. Pick a great silicone-based shave gel that has great moisturizing qualities. Buying silicone-based instead of soap-based is key.

If you’re using a fresh blade and the right shave gel, it doesn’t matter if you shave with or against the grain. This applies equally to legs, arms – anywhere you shave. Just remember, no dull razors!

Dermatologists agree that the best way to avoid ingrown hairs is to simply shave less. Identify the optimum time between shaves that still keeps you looking, and feeling, your best.

So remember, follow these simple steps when shaving your legs to say goodbye to ingrown hairs!

How to Deal With Ingrown Hairs – Prevention, Causes & Effects

When it comes to how to deal with ingrown hairs, like so many things our body does, it’s not like we can order our skin to stop doing that! We can’t just quit having hair growing in unwanted places, stop acne, eliminate sweating, or stop producing hormones. It’s clear that things simply don’t work that way. Ingrown hairs, especially on our faces, are yet another annoying problem we often struggle with when it comes to our skin care routines.

Causes of Ingrown Hairs

An ingrown hair occurs when the sharp tip of a newly growing hair curls back or cuts sideways into the skin, causing an irregular growth pattern outside of the follicle. People with naturally curly, thick, and coarse hair are especially prone to instances of ingrown hairs for these obvious reasons. Studies have shown that dark-skinned or African American males are especially prone to this type of skin irritation that happens mostly in their bearded regions, around their face and neck.

These outbreaks are exasperated by shaving since it stretches the hair, cuts it off and leaves a sharp edge behind that’s free to grow unprotected. Therefore, these irritants commonly appear in the armpits, bikini line, on the face, legs and almost any other part of the body where unwanted hair grows. In some rare instances, it can be even be found on the eyelids, which can be particularly painful, irritating, and unsightly (pardon the pun).

Stretching The Truth

It’s also been shown that pulling the skin tightly when shaving causes the hair that’s growing beneath and to become even sharper and more deeply imbedded in the skin. This goes against how men have been taught to shave their faces for generations.

The same goes for women in the way we trim our legs, armpits, and nether regions, pulling the skin to get a better shaving surface. In fact, this can actually cause more harm than good.

Effects of Ingrown Hairs

Ingrown hairs are most often seen as small, red (or brownish), raised bumps on the skin, similar to the appearance of acne. Although unsightly, these outbreaks can also lead to complications such as:

• Bacterial infections
• Hyperpigmentation (or the darkening of skin tone)
• Keloids (permanent scarring)
• Pseudofolliculitis barbae (razor bumps)

Dealing With The Dilemma

Once it occurs, some professionals say you should treat this type of a dilemma in a manner similar to a pimple or an acne breakout. Using basic, well-known solutions like the application of benzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid several times daily can aid in the healing process and help to prevent infections and further breakouts.

An Ounce Of Prevention

Exfoliation and a daily skin care regime are great ways to stop these ingrown hairs from reoccurring. These processes will help to soften the skin and assist new hair growth from becoming a problem in the future.

Similar to treating acne, as a preventative measure, there are effective topical solutions available that can reduce the appearance of ingrown hairs. Consider adding these products into your daily routine to keep ingrown hairs from becoming more irritating.

Not Gender Specific

Ingrown hairs may be a big problem for men who shave their faces. But they also occur from tweezing and plucking which many women do on a daily basis.

Interrupting the growth process is one thing, but we can take a step in the right direction with preventing these unsightly growths from occurring in the first place. Given the right kind of skin regiment, tending to our skin in a more productive way can produce many positive results.

Think about adding a product into your daily skincare routine that could diminish these occurrences or stop them altogether. A little prevention goes a long way.

Ingrown hairs might appear to be pimples, but that description is more akin to a possible symptom of ingrown hairs rather than an accurate definition. What ingrown hairs are, in fact, are hairs that, in the process of growing, curl downwards to the point where they grow back into your skin.

Ingrown hairs are more likely than not to occur post-puberty, and they tend to show up in areas of the body where the hair is coarse — namely the bikini region for women as well as the face and neck regions for men.

Everyone wants to have smooth, healthy, beautiful skin. But the truth can be ugly. Ingrown hairs are pesky, irritating, and even embarrassing. If you shave or use another method of hair removal, chances are you have had at least one. They are indiscriminate and affect both men and women in any area where hair is removed, but most commonly in the beard, underarm, or bikini line areas. But what causes them? Even more importantly, you probably want to know how you can get rid of them and prevent them from coming back.