Ingrown Hairs - What you can do to Prevent them

 So as summer winds down for us in the Northern Hemisphere, our Southern Hemisphere friends are getting ready for warmer temperatures and bare limbs. Depending on your personal choice, you may opt to shave/wax/expilate your limbs. This can lead to ingrown hairs, especially those who epilate. But no need to fear, there are plenty of ways you can go about addressing these annoyances.

Step 1: Exfoliate

If you can reduce the loose, dead skin on the surface you can help prevent ingrown hairs. Dry brushing or brushing your skin before removing the hair with a stiff exfoliating brush (I like this one) helps prepare your skin. Skin on our body is much thicker and stronger than skin on our neck or face and can withstand much more exfoliating.

I also like exfoliating in the shower. Wet skin makes it easier to permeate deeper and remove more than the surface skin layer. A good body scrub combined with an exfoliating towel (I use Frank's Body Scrub and Salux cloth) can work wonders at leaving your skin soft and glowy. 

Step 2: Treat

If you do get ingrown hairs, then you can use chemical exfoliants to help reduce their appearance. It is also a great way to use up acids which were too strong for your face. Tend Skin is very popular but I prefer to use The Ordinary AHA/BHA Peeling solution for my underarm area.

Step 3: Individualized Attacks

Generally speaking, a good combination of physical and chemical exfoliants ought to be sufficient at keeping ingrown hairs at bay but I noticed that I tend to get more on my knees or occasional ones down my leg. For these, I prefer a needlepoint tweezer. It allows me to easily pull out the hair and prevent it from becoming ingrown. However, do be cautious with this step as you can easily dig too deep and cause scarring or infection. It is best reserved as a last-minute option.

Step 4: Moisturize

I have found that if I have hydrated skin, my ingrown hairs tend to be less. Most likely because moisturized skin prevents a misbalance to my skin mantle and allows hair to grow as normal. A post-shower oil followed by lotion helps keep my skin soft and supple.