Ingrown hair after depilation. How to prevent this?

This post will be devoted to a very problematic issue connected with body care. No matter of the hair removal method we choose, there is always one difficulty arisen – ingrown hair which isn’t that easy to get rid of and, what is even worse, causes this unpleasant sensation of constantly itching body parts. What should we do to combat this snag? I’ll try to explain this phenomenon and try to give you a few pieces of advice that work for me 🙂

Ingrown hair after depilation – Where does the hair come from?

Depilation depends on removing hair by pulling it out together with its bulb and leaving a follicle empty. The treatment can be performed in a few ways, for example, with wax, sugar paste (sugaring), and using a regular electric depilatory. Regardless of the method chosen, regular hair and hair bulb removal contributes to their weakening. As a consequence, new hair, the one that appear in the place of the removed, is way weaker. It isn’t able to break the skin layer therefore it bends and keeps growing just underneath the epidermis. Sometimes we can see it, sometimes we can feel it because the ingrown hair causes a kind of discomfort.

That was the theory… I think, I don’t have to write what it means in practice because every another depilation becomes slightly more difficult. Often, I spend hours torturing myself by trying to uncover all the ingrown hair by applying peeling along with other methods. As a result, the entire procedure of getting rid of hair takes two or three times longer.

What may be the aftermath of the ingrown hair problem?

The main ailment that accompanies ingrown hair is the inflammation of follicles. As a consequence, skin might become more irritated, rough and covered with unsightly discolorations and spots (perifollicular pustule).

METHODS TO DEAL WITH INGROWN HAIR

How to prevent ingrown hair after depilation? What should be done with the already ingrown hair? What are the methods of dealing with this problem? Keep reading.

• Prevention. The most basic treatment that limits the amount of ingrown hair is a regular application of peelings and body balms. Dead epidermis exfoliation and skin softening facilitate hair getting through the skin. Also, a good idea is to once in a while replace depilation with shaving. Using a regular razor results in hair strengthening, which makes hair tough enough to pierce the skin.
• Removal of ingrown hair. Also here highly useful will be use of exfoliating scrubs because they help uncover the hair that grows underneath the epidermis. I would also recommend applying peelings before every single depilation. The spots that appear due to the ingrown hair pressure can be treated with an anti-inflammatory preparations. Another tested and tried method is using alum, which is a salt crystal of volcanic origin. Basically, you just need to damp it and rub the alum against particular body parts in order to disinfect, nourish and soften the skin, uncover the ingrown hair and facilitate healing up of the places where spots used to be (perifollicular pustule).