Do epilators cause ingrown hairs? The short answer is, epilators do not, of itself, cause ingrown hairs. Many individuals experience ingrown hairs after trimming, shaving, waxing, epilating or using a cream. However, you can adopt a few basic techniques that will lessen your chances of developing ingrown hairs. You will find answers here.
Based on the experiences of many individuals questioned, whichever method of hair removal technique that you decide to use you may still suffer ingrown hairs. Whether you use methods like trimming, shaving, waxing, epilating or using a cream, you can still get ingrown hairs.
If you are doing to epilate, use a good epilator that epilates hairs properly and prevent a lot of the ingrown hair problems.
What are ingrown hairs?
Ingrown hair is a condition where hair curls back or grows sideways into the skin instead of upward and becomes trapped under the skin. When hair grows into the skin, a fluid-filled lump can develop, which may become a cyst.
Cysts can develop deep under the skin or near the surface, where they can be evidenced by a swelling having a white or yellow head. Ingrown hairs are not usually dangerous unless infected, but they can be intensely painful. An infected cyst may be red, itchy, and tender.
Who suffers most from ingrown hairs caused by epilators?
The condition is most prevalent among people who have coarse or curly hair. Ingrown hairs most often occur in areas with thick, coarse hair such as your armpits and your bikini area.
This is because cut hairs can more easily curl back into the skin when the hair is dense and curly. Ingrown hairs are also caused because of lack of natural exfoliation in the skin.
What causes ingrown hairs? Really.
While ingrown hair most commonly appears in areas of the body where the skin is shaved or waxed (beard, legs, stomach, chest, neck, pubic region), it can appear anywhere.
The fact is anything (razors, epilators, trimmers, tweezers) which causes the hair to be broken off unevenly with a sharp tip can cause ingrown hairs.
Anything that blocks the hairs from exiting the skin will cause ingrown hairs. There can be a few main reasons for ingrown hairs to occur. The path for the hairs to exit the skin may become blocked by dirt, oils or dead skin cells.
The other reason is that the hairs may exit the skin but curled back onto the skin to form ingrown hairs.
Hairs that curl back onto the skin may penetrate the skin and cause irritation. Sometimes the hairs may not fully exit the skin but remain under the top layer of the skin, again causing irritation and ingrown hairs.
Hairs not being uprooted but instead breaking above the skin.
Sometimes while epilating hair breaks at the surface of the skin instead of being pulled out. When this happens the result is similar to shaving and therefore causes the hairs to curl inward and cause ingrown hair.
Not exfoliating the skin before and after epilating
Your skin sheds millions of cells every day and replenishes it with new cells. Exfoliation helps get rid of the dead cells on the top layer of the skin.
If these dead cells are not washed away they may block the young hairs from exiting the skin and causing ingrown hairs.
Exfoliating regularly helps to prevent ingrown hairs from occurring by making sure that hairs do not get an opportunity to grow back onto the skin and become painful ingrown hair.
How to prevent ingrown hairs? The simple art of preventing ingrown hairs.
Hairs that want to grow out but is blocked: There are a few things that you can do to treat and prevent ingrown hairs. Ingrown hairs are sometimes caused by the hairs being blocked in by dirt, oils or dead skin.
To prevent this it is important to exfoliate the skin regularly to get rid of these dead cells, dirt or oils. While exfoliating with the loofah or washcloth do so in a circular motion. An exfoliating scrub will tease out the ingrown hair.
Damaged or irritated skin: Before epilating, wet your skin with warm water, this will soften the skin and open up the pores, making it easier for the epilator to lift the hairs out without irritating the skin. Skin irritation may cause the area to swell and therefore block the hairs that are ready to exit the skin.
You may epilate in the same direction as your hair is growing to make the process gentler on your skin. If you are used to epilating you may go in the opposite direction for more difficult hairs.
Glide the epilator on your skin as slow as possible. This lessens the chance of the device grabbing your hairs and snapping it instead of pulling it out.
Remember that snapped hairs are sharp and can pierce the skin if curled back onto the skin. Don’t press the epilator too hard on your skin as this may irritate the skin.
Hairs that exit the skin but curl back towards the skin: Hair that snaps instead of being pulled out may curl back. Exfoliation daily may prevent this type of hair from piercing and growing into the skin. Exfoliation will agitate these hairs.
Ingrown hair is formed deep in the skin: If an ingrown hair is formed deep in the skin, is really bothering you or gets infected, you may have to see your doctor. He or she may make a small cut or an incision with a sterile needle to release it. Alternatively, you may be given antibiotic medicine to get rid of ingrown hairs.
Hygiene stuff to reduce the chances of ingrown hairs
Clean the epilator after every use. Get rid of epilated hairs from the machine. This reduces the chances of bacteria growing.
General ideas to prevent ingrown hairs: Use a good skin toner after you epilate in order to prevent ingrown hairs. The toner helps to close the pores making it more difficult for bacteria to enter.
Witch hazel is a great, affordable toner that is perfect. It is capable to fight bacteria and gently soothes the skin. An alcohol-free toner is much better is you suffer from dry or sensitive skin.
Do epilators cause ingrown hairs: What do people say?
- I recently started epilating but I am really scared of ingrown hairs because it seems to happen to a lot of people.
- I get ingrown hairs on some parts of my body and not other parts. I don’t get them in my armpits but I do on my legs.
- I’ve used epilators for many years and never had any problems with ingrown hair.
- I used to get so many ingrown hairs, gave up the epilator and returned to shaving only to realise that I still get ingrown hairs but not with terrible results
- I had ingrown hair problem but decided to persevere with the epilator. I do lots of exfoliation and moisturising and now I hardly experience any ingrown hairs.
Conclusion
Do epilators cause ingrown hairs? We started out by answering this question and hopefully I did a good job. As a reminder, epilating is a good thing, regrowth doesn’t feel as prickly as shaving.
Shaving only lasts a couple of days for me so the epilator is brilliant, giving me weeks of no/fine hairs. It seems that some people are lucky and don’t ingrown hairs at all, while others are plagued by them.
So you can go for a week or with skin feeling great, as compared to sandpaper skin after shaving. The epilator that I use is the Braun Epilator 9 with the face epilator. I really love it.
If you have a serious problem with ingrown hairs after epilating then you can try a home IPL machine. To avoid ingrown hairs as much as possible, exfoliate in the shower and moisturise well a least once a week.
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