Article by Rey Gonzalez

Teenagers have fallen in love with the quick acne treatments advertised on television and in magazines. I mean, who has time to wait several weeks for clear skin, especially since the dance is coming up and picture day is just around the corner? The unfortunate aspect to these miracle treatments is that they are oftentimes dangerous. Take the alcohol acne pads said to eliminate acne bacteria, for instance. They seemed like a perfect solution, but acne-prone teenagers soon learned that they only aggravated the condition. This is because alcohol dries the skin and causes irritation, leaving the skin at an increased risk for breakouts. Yet another dangerous trend which has caught on is blackhead removal strips. These too have hidden surprises.

Most teenagers can’t stand blackheads for the simple fact that they don’t go away. They are embedded pretty deeply inside the hair follicle, and since the pore never gets fully obstructed, the contaminants remain inside (inflammation only occurs when the pore is fully obstructed and bacteria can multiply within it). They require some coercion to be removed. Instead of doing a proper blackhead extraction following a warm shower to open the pores, teenagers have turned to blackhead removal strips. These are far more dangerous than alcohol pads because they create severe irritation by literally upheaving the lesion from inside the pores. They don’t just yank out a single blackhead, they extract dozens at a time. The end effect is massive irritation that leaves conditions ripe for new acne breakouts.

If you want to do this the proper way, you need to eliminate the removal strip and handle one blackhead at a time. A warm shower with tons of steam exposure should get your pores open and ready for the blackhead removal. Using your fingers and not your nails, gently press at alternating sides of a blackhead until it rises to the surface. You can repeat this on a few of them per day until all extractions have been completed. Sure this may be more laborious, but you don’t want to deal with the added baggage of massive breakouts by taking a shortcut with the removal strips.

If you don’t feel confident enough to entrust yourself with the task, see a reputable esthetician in your area. While you’re at the office, you can go ahead and ask about the removal strips and you will most likely receive the same answer – avoid them at all costs.

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Tagged with: blackhead • Removal • Safe • strips

Filed under: Blackheads Removal

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