How to Remove an Ingrown Hair

Ingrown hairs are some of the nastiest infections that one can have on their body. In general, it is difficult to avoid them and you never know when they might pop up. In this article, I will discuss how to remove an ingrown hair once it appears.

The first step to removing an ingrown hair is to find the ingrown hair and make sure that it is actually an ingrown hair. While they can be some of the worst infections out there, they sometimes look just like a normal infection. Not every bump on your body will be caused by one of these unsightly hairs. More than likely, ingrown hairs will be found in spots where you shave. For girls, it will more than likely be the legs. For guys, the face is obviously the choice for most common location. Typically, you will notice that these bumps will look like small cysts or pimples. The infection will be visible and you can sometimes spot the hair just below the surface.

The first thing to do once you find that nasty bump is to put some sort of warm rag on it. Use warm water and simply apply this in order to moisten the skin around the infection. Typically, this is effective for those bumps that have hairs close to the surface of the skin. In this case, the warm water will help to extract the hair towards the skin. You must apply the warm rag until the hair appears. In some cases, this may take a while, but it should eventually work. If you can bring that hair closer to the surface, then your next step will be much easier.

In order to get the hair out of there, grab a sterile instrument and go to work. Make sure that your needle or pair of tweezers are completely sterile, or you risk an even more testy infection. You will want to carefully tease the hair to the top of the surface. Never force it. By this time, the hair should be close enough that it will not require any digging into the skin. The idea is to get the ingrown end of the hair to be barely exposed above the skin. From there, it will work its way out.