Ingrown hairs can be the bane of any beauty-conscious person. No matter how hard you try to avoid them, they seem to pop up regardless.
If you frequently find yourself developing ingrown hairs then you might be looking into more serious ways to stop them returning.
Laser hair removal treatments are one of the only methods that you can use to completely prevent ingrown hairs from arising in the future.
How does laser hair removal do this and is there anything else that you can do to increase the chance of successfully ridding yourself of these problem hairs? Read on to find out!
What causes ingrown hairs?
There are multiple causes of ingrown hairs, some can be easier to prevent than others.
One of the biggest causes of ingrown hairs is shaving. While you might think that shaving and removing your body hair is helping prevent hair in-growing, the fact is that you’re actually doing the opposite.
When you shave to the skin, you blunt the hairs and this can prevent them piercing the skin and growing as they normally should. Then the trapped hair continues to grow under the surface of the skin, causing irritation and potentially leading to an infection.
Therefore, if you’re a woman then you may be specifically wondering how to get rid of ingrown hairs on legs, for example, as this is a common area where women shave. Whereas on the other hand, a man would be more likely to wonder how to get rid of ingrown hairs on their face from shaving their facial hair.
Other common causes of ingrown hairs are clogged follicles and pressure or friction. Dead skin cells and other substances can clog your pores which then prevent normal hair growth and promote ingrown hairs. Microdermabrasion and laser hair removal can go hand in hand for this, as microdermabrasion will clear the dead skin cells away and make your skin appear refreshed.
Wearing tight clothes can create pressure or friction on your skin which can also cause ingrown hairs. There’s also the potential for friction-caused ingrown hairs to lead to more serious problems like pilonidal cysts.
Removing an ingrown hair
You’ll have heard of plenty of ways that you can treat ingrown hairs at home. Some may just be mothers’ myths but others can work, for example, exfoliating the skin with warm water and a soft towel in a circular motion can potentially loosen an ingrown hair.
However, even this is inconsistent at best. If you want to live a life without ingrown hairs, then laser hair removal is the way for you. Laser hair removal can actually remove ingrown hairs rather than simply alleviate the irritation that they cause.
You can get laser hair removal even while you have ingrown hairs and the treatment will still be as effective and even lead to permanent hair removal after enough laser hair removal sessions.
Ingrown hairs after laser hair removal
Because it can take more than one session to completely rid yourself of the unwanted hair, there is the chance of ungrown hairs reoccurring in between treatments.
You’ll find yourself shedding after laser hair removal and during this time it can feel like ingrown hairs are coming in. Instead, what this feeling may be is the follicle working its way towards the surface of the skin.
Eventually, after enough sessions, the follicle will be completely removed from your skin and the chance of you developing an ingrown hair in the treated area will be 0%.
Speak to our ingrown hair removal and prevention experts
If you find yourself struggling with repeat ingrown hairs or hair growing in unwanted areas then get in touch with our beauty clinicians and we can get you started on the laser hair removal process and make your life ten times easier.