Ingrown Hair (And What To Do About It)
Waxing, shaving, sugaring, tweezing, epilators, and even hair removal creams or depilatories can cause ingrown hairs. If you’ve had this problem, you likely won’t soon forget it. After getting rid of your unwanted hair, you find little red painful bumps over your skin. They look like a rash and hurt and itch.
What’s the damage?
Ingrown hairs happen when a hair grows back the wrong way, causing pain. The danger with this is that they can become infected, especially if you keep shaving or using hair removal methods before your skin has had a chance to heal. The other problem with ingrown hairs is that they have the tendency to crop up in places where the skin is especially tender (the bikini line, thighs, and face) so that they become a huge annoyance.
Are there any prevention methods?
Yes. The best way to avoid ingrown hairs (especially pubic hair) is to prevent them before they begin. You can do this by exfoliating before shaving and by exfoliating with a loofah or body scrub each time you shower. This seems to work by stimulating the skin and by keeping pores open. Some women find that consciously relaxing their muscles while hair is being removed helps to prevent ingrown hairs. After removing hair, you should avoid using heavy moisturizers or creams on your skin for a few hours. These can clog skin. You can use witch hazel, aftershave, toner, or even cold water after waxing, tweezing, sugaring or using an epilator. This tightens the pores and cleans the skin (NEVER use witch hazel, toner or aftershave on sensitive areas like the bikini line, and only use toner on your face). If you find that one part of your body is always affected by ingrown hairs, try using a different hair removal method on that part of the body. Some people have reported that using an epilator causes ingrown hairs.
Best way to remove ingrown hairs?
The best product I have ever used, without a doubt, is Kalo Ingrown Hair Treatment & Prevention System. It really helped to release the trapped ingrown hairs within a few days of using the product. The best way to treat them is to follow the advice on the bottle, keep the area clean and the situation should clear up quite quickly. If the ingrown hairs get worse or itch or hurt a lot, you may have an infection. Check with your doctor or dermatologist for help. If you have ingrown hairs on your legs or bikini line, try to wear loose-fitting clothing for a few days so that the friction from the fabric does not aggravate your skin even more. Only start shaving, waxing, or using your regular hair removal methods again once your ingrown hair has healed.
BEST ADVICE – PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE!
I have found that a good hair removal cream is the easiest and most pain free method of hair removal, and with the right selection of product you are guaranteed to avoid ingrown hairs. My personal recommendation is Revitol, which is not only cost effective but also contains a built in inhibitor to slow and thin regrowth. This is the only product I use, and was awarded Editors Choice for best hair removal product.
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i always get ingrown hairs on my legs it started when i started waxing so i changed to an epilator. i still get the ingrown hairs. they are ugly more than anythng. i always exfoliate in the shower with exfoliating gloves and shower gel. ive tried potions on the internet,but nothing has helped. lease help me get beautiful legs again!
I am with you Janene. My legs look dreadful now. Like I have been eaten alive by huge mosquitoes. Almost all of my hair has come back ingrown after waxing. Let me know if you find something that helps. We live in a place where we are in our bathing suits very often and it is so embarrassing.
use pumic stone daily while taking bath.
it’ll help u ppl.
Ingrow Go is a solution that helps ingrown hairs! It also makes your skin feel soft and healthy.
Use it once a day and within 24 hours the ingrown hairs begin to surface.. It’s amazing!
After 8 years of ingrown hairs because of waxing i’ve finally found a solution
I have very bad ingrown hair on my legs. My hair grows fast and its pretty thick and very coarse. My legs look really bad with dark brown spots all over. Is there anything out there to help with ingrown hair. Is laser hair removal an option at all?
Please advise. Thanks
It’s my first time to shave my pubic hair but I think I did it wrong ’cause there were super tiny hairs left. It’s painful when touched. I’m not sure if this is ingrown hairs. What should I do? I need help.
The best advice I ever had was given to me by a stripper! Exfoliate every time you get in the shower or bath and then moisturise. Never wax or epilate. Shave only as and when you need to expose certain bits of your body.
I have to say that I epilate my legs as it keeps the hairs finer, but I shave in between epilates (about once a month) and shave all the other bits! Hope this helps.
I really hate Ingrowth hair. But in fact, good quality of epilator like braun silk epilator really can get rid of bikini line hair effectively, painless and ingrowth hair is very fine.
Had you guys try laser bikini hair removal? I suggest to use laser if you can affort the cost. Becasue it pemenently remove your unwanted hair.
will revitol remove a hair that is deep down that i cant see theres only a little black hole
I’m all about natural remedies, no chemicals, that sort of thing. I’ve found that the stubborn ingrown hairs present in the bikini area after shaving or waxing (especially after waxing!) will go away if you exfoliate the area gently during every shower and after you dry the area, apply tea tree oil to the inflamed parts. Apply as liberally as you like just as long as you stay away from the actual genital area. Tea tree oil is very strong and the sensation is not too nice when it gets into the super sensitive parts. That being said, wear loose fitting clothing that allows the area to breathe since it’s already sensitive and any elastic from panties may make things more irritated and the situation will not clear up as quickly. after every shower though, tea tree oil. just make sure if you’re going to be getting busy, wash the tea tree oil off first since it tends to have a pretty strong smell and you don’t want to scare off your partner by smelling like you’re been stripping wood furniture all day.
Caution: never put neat essential oils directly onto the skin, mix recommended number of drops with a base oil such as almond…
I have used laser removal on my bikini line and I am really pleased my ingrown hairs are gone. They were really bad whilst I was waxing!
about 2 months after i started my phentermine/b12 diet i got a horrible rash all over. idk if that has anything to do with it. i work at a dog groomer and anytime i got scratched or bit it got infected right away. i got massive amounts of ingrown hairs on my arms, legs and stomach. i shave my arms and legs, but def not my stomach so idk y i got em there. they rapidly progressed to pus filled sores. i look like a tweaker, no joke. and i work with the public so i get tons of questions. i got these after i stopped having at least every other day n went to once a week or less cuz my schedule was so busy. I soaked for 3 hours n hot Epsom salt bath, applied alcohol (followed by screaming and dancing round the room), then applied polysporin to the wounds and finally udder cream, cuz my skin is super dry. It helped a ton but i’m still getting some and now i have nasty scars..everywhere. HELP! it doesn’t help that even tho i’m native american, i’m pasty white so scars are very obvious. one lady thought i had chicken pox…… i have little money n cant figure out what else to do. i ex-foliate with a fine grain pumice stone before shaving…always have. I switched to dial soap, which i hate cuz it dries me out. i’m at a loss here. i haven’t been in the sun in months, no exaggeration..would that do it?
shaving is the best method if you want to avoid ingrown hair. It doesn’t pull the hair from the root – hence no ingrowth. The only downside is that it doesn’t last as long as it would if you wax or use the epilator.
oils like t-tree and lavender can be applied to the skin undiluted!!!
treatments that worked for me were glycolic acid 10-12% cream (start using it a day after the waxing)…or tretinoin (retin A)
try to exfoliate every other day for the first week or two
i guarantee you that glycolic acid will definitely reduce ingrown hair…
start by diluting the preparation in another moisturiser, and gradually increase the concentration of glycolic acid over the next few days…sensitive skin will slowly adapt to the increase iin the acidic content!
and if you are prone to developing pustules, apply a topical antibiotic (like fusidic acid), especially if you’re diabetic!!
happy waxing!!
I’ve tried a combinaiton of things for ingrown hairs after waxing and shaving. The best combination that I’ve found is exfoliating the area, wearing loose fittng clothing for a few days post-treatment and using a combination of products called Tend Skin and Bikini Zone. The two have a mild tingle because one contains lidocaine and not sure what the other active ingredient is in the product, but they have worked for me.
I’ve removed my pubic hair with razors (both disposable and electric),nair and wax. When I use a disposable razor I get horrible ingrown hairs. I don’t get a smooth finish, I still have “stubble”, and the next day I have an ingrown hair in every pore. It doesn’t matter how new the blade is, how many blades, with kind of shaving cream/soap/or other lubricant I use, or how often I clean the area and exfoliate the area, I still get ingrown hairs. I haven’t had any ingrown hairs with the electric razor but the hair it still extremely long for having been “freshly shaved”. I have only used nair to remove hair from my bikini line as its nor safe for use on the entire pubic area, but I found it didn’t dissolve the hair at the root as it said it would and worked for about a day. I have only experienced a few ingrown hairs while waxing. I have waxed at home because salon waxing is simply to expensive for my budget, and I wouldn’t feel comfortable with a stranger that close to my private parts. My problem with waxing is that it is very time consuming, messy, hard to do comfortably (I mean in a position not the actual hair removal). I’m considering buying an epilator but I was wondering if anyone has used epilator, hard wax and cloth strips at the same time,or another way, with success in both extended hair removal and lack of ingrown hair, who has had the same or similar troubles as I have had.
Thank you in advance.
Please someone help me! I have very dark hair and it grows ridiculously fast. If I shave my legs in the morning, by about evening time the hair has started to grow back!!! I find shaving irritates my skin and I have tried multiple different razors, including single bladed ones and multiple bladed ones and they all have the same effect which is irritation and bad ingrown hairs. I have used hair removal creams, those electric Babyliss Simply Smooth ‘sanders’, waxing, tweezing each individual hair and epilating but nothing makes a difference. I exfoliate every time I have a shower and use a more intensive scrub about once a week, and moisturise every day. Nothing gets rid of the ingrown hairs and I am in despair about them. I can’t wear anything that shows my legs and I have even stopped dating because I can’t bear the thought of anyone seeing my legs. If anyone has any advice that can help me it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
I’m a guy with thick black hair, I epilated my legs the first time two weeks ago (OUCH), now most of the hairs are coming back ingrown. I’ve been exfoliating daily with a loofah. It looks like my skin simply healed over the pores, and now the hairs are growing back under a thin layer of skin. I might try more serious exfoliation, like a pumice stone. Thanks everyone for your ideas.
Hello, quite a while back I found a bump on my breast close to my nipple, which I could slightly see and feel a hair in. It was sore and irritating like any ingrown hair so I tried to ease it to the surface (ouch!..) and it ended up very sore. I ended up breaking the skin but the hair was deep so no luck. This turned to a small scab and I tried again but no luck! It is now a scar but I’m sure the hair is still underneath as the bump is like a slightly hard bump. It would be impossible for the hair to make it’s way through now
does anybody have any advice or would the skin need to be cut by a professional?? I’m worried that the hair will keep growing into my breast :/ !