How are ingrown hairs treated?
There are several ways to treat ingrown hairs at home, including:
- Stop shaving and allow the hair to grow.
- Use an electric shaver. Hold it just above the surface of your skin.
- Use depilatory products to remove hair without shaving. Depilatory products dissolve the protein structures of your hair.
- Apply warm compresses to your affected skin for 10 to 15 minutes to open your pores and make it easier for ingrown hairs to release.
If your symptoms don’t improve, your healthcare provider may need to prescribe medications that decrease inflammation and improve infections.
In rare cases, your healthcare provider may use a sterile surgical knife with a thin blade (scalpel) to make a small cut in your affected areas. They’ll squeeze out any pus and use sterile tweezers to remove the ingrown hair.
To prevent scarring or infection, don’t pick at, scratch or pop your ingrown hairs.
How do you remove an ingrown hair?
To remove an ingrown hair, gently exfoliate your skin. Exfoliating your skin removes a dead layer of skin cells and helps release ingrown hairs. Use warm — not hot — water and small, circular motions to wash your affected areas with a washcloth, exfoliating brush or exfoliating gel or scrub.
You can also remove an ingrown hair that has looped or curled back into your skin by gently pulling it out with a sterile needle, pin or tweezers. Apply rubbing alcohol to your surrounding skin to prevent an infection. Then, carefully thread the sterile needle, pin or tweezers through the exposed hair loop. Gently lift the hair loop until one end releases from your skin.
What will happen if an ingrown hair goes untreated?
In most cases, ingrown hairs usually heal themselves within one to two weeks with only minor irritation, as they eventually release from your skin as they grow longer. Infections can develop around the ingrown hair, causing pus formation, discoloration and pain, though. If you see signs of infection, you should visit your healthcare provider.
What medications are used to treat ingrown hair?
Your healthcare provider may provide medications that can decrease inflammation and improve infections from ingrown hairs, including:
- Antibiotic ointment or pills.
- Prescription acne medications, like retinoids, to help remove dead skin.
- Steroid pills or creams help reduce inflammation.
For more serious cases, your healthcare provider may recommend other hair removal options, including:
- Electrolysis. This technique uses a tiny needle and a mild electrical zap to destroy your hair roots one by one. Each hair follicle requires treatment, so it may not be practical to use electrolysis over a large area of your body.
- Laser hair removal. In this technique, heat from a laser destroys cells that have a lot of pigment (color). This works best on dark hair.
How soon after treatment will I feel better?
Most ingrown hairs will go away on their own without treatment after a few days; though, severe cases may take several weeks.
Medications may take a few days to see results. The results of electrolysis and laser hair removal are immediate.
FAQs
An ingrown hair looks like a raised, discolored spot on your skin. It's a strand of hair that grows back into your skin after shaving, tweezing or waxing. Ingrown hairs can affect anyone, but they're easy to treat and prevent with the right hair removal practices.
What is an ingrown hair What causes it? ›
Ingrown hair occurs when a hair that's been removed starts to grow back and curves into the skin. Shaving, tweezing or waxing can cause this to happen. An ingrown hair can cause tiny, swollen bumps on the skin that may hurt. The condition most often affects Black people with curly hair who shave.
How do you treat or prevent ingrown hairs? ›
Things you can do to treat and prevent ingrown hairs
- wet your skin with warm water and use shaving gel.
- shave in the direction the hairs are growing.
- use as few strokes of the razor as possible.
- rinse the razor after every stroke.
- hold a cool, wet cloth to your skin after shaving to reduce irritation.
Ingrown hairs often improve without treatment. Washing the area with a washcloth using a circular motion for several minutes can help release the hairs. Until your skin heals, it may help to stop: shaving.
How to treat an ingrown hair cyst at home? ›
Home remedies
- keeping the cyst and the area around it clean at all times.
- avoiding shaving around the cyst, as this can introduce bacteria and cause an infection.
- applying warm compresses several times a day to help a trapped hair grow out and bring a cyst closer to the surface, allowing it to drain.
Don't dig for the hair, as this increases the risk of causing or spreading an infection. Never pick or pop an infected ingrown hair, as this also increases the risk of complications. Instead, gently scrub the area with warm water and soap. This can help ease the ingrown hair out of the skin on its own.
Is it bad to have ingrown pubic hair? ›
Ingrown pubic hairs often resolve without treatment, so people should wait a while before tackling them. If a person shaves the area, they should avoid doing so for a few days. They could also apply a mild antiseptic onto the ingrown hair to help reduce the risk of infection.
Does Vaseline stop ingrown hairs? ›
Shaving Treatment
Shaving can leave behind painful razor burn and pesky ingrown hairs. For an easy fix, apply Vaseline to the legs post-shower, specifically while the skin is still slightly damp.
How I cured my ingrown hairs? ›
Release visible ingrown hairs by inserting a sterile needle under each hair loop and gently lifting the tip that has grown back into the skin. Rinse your skin and apply a cool, wet cloth for a few minutes. Then use a soothing after-shave product.
Should you pluck ingrown hairs? ›
Experts recommend you stop shaving, tweezing, plucking, or waxing the area where you have ingrown hairs because they usually go away on their own in a couple of weeks. Severe cases may take several weeks. Trying to remove them can sometimes interfere with the healing process and cause them to last longer.
An ingrown hair looks like a raised, discolored spot on your skin. It's a strand of hair that grows back into your skin after shaving, tweezing or waxing. Ingrown hairs can affect anyone, but they're easy to treat and prevent with the right hair removal practices.
Is it bad to pluck pubic hair? ›
Even getting out your tweezers for the odd hair might seem harmless, but next time swap the tweezers for your razor and some shaving gel to remove those stray hairs. This is because plucking hairs can traumatise the follicle, causing scar tissue to build-up around the pore.
How to remove hair from private parts naturally at home? ›
A person could try:
- Trimming with scissors. Using scissors can be a safe way to achieve a groomed look. ...
- Shaving. Shaving is a popular option for removing pubic hair, and it is generally painless. ...
- Waxing. Some people prefer using over-the-counter waxing strips or kits. ...
- Using hair removal creams. ...
- Tweezing.
You can also use tweezers to pull the infected ingrown hair out of the skin. Hydrogen peroxide also helps in reducing the infection. However, a physician must be consulted before applying any kind of chemical or medication to the skin affected by the infected ingrown hair.
Does apple cider vinegar help with ingrown hair cyst? ›
Luckily, ingrown hairs typically resolve on their own, but if you simply can't resist speeding up the process, you can get rid of that pesky ingrown hair by trying a chemical exfoliant like apple cider vinegar, acetic acid or retinol to break down skin cells above the hair.
What ointment is good for ingrown hair cyst? ›
For example, a healthcare professional may prescribe a steroid cream such as hydrocortisone to help reduce redness and pain around your bump or cyst. Steroid medications can also cause acne, though. So it's important to follow a doctor or healthcare professional's directions.
How to remove a deep ingrown hair? ›
Release visible ingrown hairs by inserting a sterile needle under each hair loop and gently lifting the tip that has grown back into the skin. Rinse your skin and apply a cool, wet cloth for a few minutes. Then use a soothing after-shave product.
Do ingrown hair cysts go away on their own? ›
Ingrown hair cysts usually go away on their own. However, see a healthcare provider for an ingrown hair cyst or razor bumps if you notice signs of infection, including: Swelling.
