The Best Ingrown Hair Treatments

When it comes to common skin complaints, ingrown hairs are at the top of the list. These inflamed, painful bumps can pop up anywhere there’s hair on your body, and they’re not exactly a treat to live with. 

Temporary hair removal options, like plucking, waxing, shaving, and threading, can encourage ingrown hairs — the best way to avoid these is to simply not shave at all. If you do prefer to remove hair, prevention is the next best approach. 

Tips from the Mayo Clinic for preventing ingrown hairs are straightforward and easy to follow. The biggest part is practicing good razor hygiene: Use as few strokes as possible, rinse it after every stroke, and make sure your skin is wet and given some slipperiness with shaving gel. Other tricks? Make sure you exfoliate before shaving to help uncover any trapped hairs, and hold a cool, damp cloth to your skin after to help reduce irritation. 

If you find yourself with some ingrown hairs, use an exfoliator with salicylic and lactic acid, followed by a hot compress once or twice a day until you start to see a hair poking through. Use disinfected tweezers to carefully pull it out. If the bump is very large, very painful, or gives you severe discomfort, it could be a job for the dermatologists in our office. 

If you’d like to look into a more permanent solution — and not deal with ingrown hairs again — laser hair removal could be a great option. If you’re ready to see if it’s a fit for you, give our offices a call and we’ll get you on our calendar for an appointment.