If you’ve had experience with removing body hair, there’s a good chance you’ve already made acquaintance with ingrown hairs! Unfortunately, it’s a common problem. Ingrown hairs occur where the uneven or sharp tip of a regrowing hair grows back into the skin. This results in a trapped hair under the skin that continues growing, which can be very painful and uncomfortable. And it can be especially uncomfortable when it leads to skin irritation like pimples or an inflammation of the hair follicle. Hair removal from any part of your body can results in ingrown hair - bikini line included. To avoid this happening, it’s important to know what you can do it to identify, treat and prevent ingrown hairs. We’ve pulled together all our best hair removal tips and tricks to help with that: in this article you’ll find out how to prevent ingrown hairs so you can say goodbye to ingrown hairs forever!
Before treating or preventing ingrown hairs, it’s important to understand what causes them; an ingrown hair grows from the skin, then curves and grows back into the skin. In some cases, it directly grows back into the hair follicle, which is the small cavity where the hair root is located. If a hair follicle is clogged by dead skin cells, this will often cause hair to grow sideways. That’s the case especially for curly or coarse hair (like in the bikini area) and freshly shaven hair. This results in ingrown hairs. Ingrown hairs usually look like pimples. Sometimes you can even make out the ingrown hair under the skin. If your skin is also itchy or looks like a rash, this can also be a symptom of an ingrown hair.
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As well as helping with treating ingrown hairs, exfoliation is also key for prevention. Exfoliating helps to remove dead skin cells and to prevent them from settling in your hair follicles. Apply an exfoliating scrub to the area you are planning to remove hair from before you start shaving.
In addition to exfoliating, another option to prevent ingrown hair is using a different hair removal method. Longer term hair removal methods, such as IPL, can be particularly helpful at limiting the opportunities for hair regrowth and therefore ingrown hairs. An IPL (Intense Pulsed Light) device, like the Philips Lumea Prestige, which works by encouraging growing hair to enter the resting phase. This technology is based on light impulses, which are absorbed by the pigmentation of the hairs and transmitted to the hair roots as heat to put it into this state and causes existing hairs to shed. You can easily use the handy Lumea at home – whether corded or not. Its attachments, designed for different areas of the body, each have a window which you press firmly onto your skin in a 90 degree angle for treatment. Once you’re ready, press the trigger. That sends a light impulse, which you will feel as warmth on your skin. After two seconds, you can treat the next area. With regular use, your hair growth will be reduced. The result: fewer ingrown hairs and a smoother, happier skin!
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