What a nuisance! What an unsightly and sometimes painful nuisance! Ingrown hairs are the frustration of most people that remove hair with shaving, waxing and tweezing. This is especially true in areas that are typically clothed or where the hairs are coarser or curly.
Ingrowns are caused when the removed or shaved hair either grows back under the skin or turns back into the skin.
Here are our top tips to prevent these unsightly nuisances!
If you wax:
- exfoliate your skin every 2-3 days with an exfoliating glove to prevent dead skin from blocking the follicle opening and allowing the hair to grow out properly. Gentle, circular movements are best. Over scrubbing can cause irritation and hyperpigmentation.
- moisturize daily. A dehydrated skin will greatly increase ingrowns!
- do not wear tight clothing. Tight clothing like leggings, spanks, panty hose does not allow the hair to grow out properly.
- wear seamless underwear if prone to prevent ingrowns in the bikini area. Elastics are a big culprit of ingrowns in the bikini area.
- shower off the sweat. After a workout remove the drying sweat as soon as possible.
If you shave:
- shave with a single blade razor if possible. The more blades on a razor the closer the shave but it causes the hair to slip under the skin surface. This then creates irritation and increases likelihood of ingrown hairs.
- shave in the direction that the hair is growing out of the skin. For most areas of the face and body this means in a downward direction.
- shave with a lubricating and hair softening lotion. Our long time fave - Yonka Barber Shave
- plus do all of the same things recommended as though you had waxed the area.
Have ingrowns already and highly prone?
- follow all the advice above.
- use one of PFB Vanishes excellent ingrown treatments as directed.
- use clean and disinfected ingrown hair tweezers to GENTLY remove ingrown hairs.
- book a Thermo Coagulation session to have the ingrowns removed professionally. Although we do not use the usual technique to Thermo Coagulation for this procedure the cost and timing will be the same.
- consider laser and/or electrolysis for a permanent hair removal solution to eliminate ingrown hairs for good!