this video i'll be telling you what
ingrowing hairs are
why do we actually get them i'll tell
you about the two different types of
ingrown hairs that you can have
tell you how to cure it how to prevent
it
and also i'll give you some tips about
how to modify your hair removal
techniques so that you're less likely to
suffer from ingrowing hairs
[Music]
hi ladies i'm dr simi former surgeon
current gp and cosmetic doctor
welcome to my channel where we discuss
all things skin and women's health
in today's video we're going to be
discussing in growing hairs
and the medical name for them is
actually pseudofolliculitis well they're
also known as
shaving bumps or razor bumps you tend to
get ingrown hairs in places where the
hair is quite thick
or coarse such as the underarms pubic
region
beard area or legs pseudofolliculitis is
due to
inflammation of the hair follicle or the
skin around the hair follicle
because of an ingrowing hair so there's
no infection it's just that the
ingrowing hair is causing the irritation
and the inflammation
and the trigger for this is our hair
removal practices so i'm talking about
shaving
waxing plucking tweezing and i know that
i'm definitely
guilty of i was going to say one but i
actually think all of those
hair removal methods so how do you know
if you're suffering from ingrown hairs
well classically there'll be a history
of hair removal and then maybe
three or four days later you might
notice that you've developed a rash
which is itchy it can be red it can be
irritated
in skin of color it can just be kind of
dark or skin colored bumps
and sometimes these develop whiteheads
on them
when this rash heals you can sometimes
be left
with what we call papules which are firm
lumps in the skin
and they can take months to resolve so
because of that some women think
that they've developed acne in that area
or that they have an infection when in
fact they have ingrowing hair
as that progresses and the spots heal
sometimes you develop post-inflammatory
hyperpigmentation
in the areas where the spots were in
some women
if the irritation is enough it can cause
scarring in the form of keloid scars or
hypertrophic scars so ingrown hairs
actually affect
all ethnicities and it affects men a lot
more
but us women also suffer from ingrown
hairs there are lots of different
factors that add up together to make you
more likely to have ingrown hairs
the first thing is how curly your hair
is the hair follicle
in skin of color tends to have a wavy
passage through the skin
and this affects the shape of the hair
so the hair follows the shape of the
follicle will come out
curly so having curly hair means that
the hair is more likely to grow back
into the skin and be in growing also
studies have now
shown that there's actually a genetic
component having ingrown hairs
because of a change in the gene sequence
of keratin
which is a protein that's contained in
hair and finally the real trigger
or the thing that sets you up for
getting ingrown hairs is how you are
removing those hairs
so if you are shaving that's a really
big trigger
if you are plucking the hairs or
tweezing or
using sugaring all of these methods
increase your risk of having ingrowing
hair
okay so let's move on to the two types
of ingrown hairs that you can get
the first type is called extra
follicular penetration
so you get this type of ingrown hair
typically if you have
shaved your hair shaving
kind of cuts a little bevel to the hair
so you have a sharp tip
and this means that as the hair grows
out especially if it's curly
it will kind of bend over and that sharp
tip
will pierce the skin next to the hair
follicle and it will grow down in there
now hair is not supposed to just grow
randomly
in the skin it has kind of dedicated
channels that it's supposed to grow in
i.e the hair follicle
so when it's just growing randomly in
the skin and outside of a hair follicle
your skin
sees that as a foreign body it thinks
wow this shouldn't be here
and it tries to attack it and to try to
remove it
so that foreign body reaction is what
gives us the symptoms that we
classically associate with ingrowing
hairs
that's the itching the redness the
irritation and the bumps
and if you've got skin of color that
irritation will irritate your
melanocytes and they respond
by throwing out more pigment so you'll
notice if you've got skin of color and
you've ever had ingrown hairs that
usually you will get
dark marks in each of those areas where
you've got the
ingrowing hairs or you'll get the bumps
which we call papules
and when they resolve you're left with a
dark mark
the second type of ingrown hair that you
can get is called trans follicular
penetration
so in this type which you classically
get
if you pluck your hair or you tweeze it
or wax in for example
part of the hair is left inside the
follicle underneath the surface of the
skin
as that hair grows and it tries to make
its way out of the follicle
it just can't do it and it starts
growing
through the follicle wall and actually
out
into the skin that's next to the
follicle and sometimes it'll even curl
itself up
as it's trying to grow out in this kind
of situation the skin develops a lump
that can be
irritated and tender because there's
hair growing underneath it again this is
going to cause that same foreign body
reaction can actually cause
other complications that are worse than
the ingrowing hairs so for example
true folliculitis which is inflammation
of the hair follicle
because there is now a bacterial
infection in there so this
looks like painful red spots if you've
got
caucasian or lighter skin in darker skin
types it might just be
irritated you might not see that redness
as much and it can be really itchy
and tender sometimes it can be difficult
actually to tell the difference between
the pseudo
folliculitis barbae and the true
folliculitis one of the clues though is
that if you have a folliculitis
sometimes each of those individual spots
develop
whiteheads which is basically pus from
the bacterial
infection that's there so if you see
this that really needs antibiotics so i
would see your doctor for a prescription
the other complication that can happen
we've already talked about is
hyperpigmentation
so anything that irritates skin of color
can lead to hyperpigmentation also the
irritation that can occur
in the bikini area on the underarm can
be really difficult not to scratch the
area
it's not a good look going around
scratching your bikini area so
it can be awkward it can be socially
shall i say embarrassing or should i say
unacceptable to be scratching the bikini
area probably both
okay so i know what you're thinking now
you're like okay dr simmer that's enough
i just want to know how do i cure it you
can cure it but
you might not like what i'm going to say
next you need to stop
certain hair removal practices so that's
shaving waxing sugaring plucking
tweezing
all of those ones that i mentioned
before now before you switch off the
video and you're like dr simi just tried
to tell me that i can't wax or shave my
pubic region
or my underarms or my bikini area i'm
not watching this video anymore
don't shoot the messenger it's not my
rule it's just that studies have shown
that if you
stop shaving or stop those other hair
removal practices that i've mentioned
for a month so about 30 days
you will allow the hair to grow and once
it reaches about 10 millimeters or a
centimeter
the problem tends to resolve itself
usually for some reason that's enough
for the hair to be able to extract
itself
from the skin and also it gives time for
those papules which are the bumps to
improve i know that for many women that
option is
not a great one because it's not
socially acceptable
to kind of have hairy underarms or hairy
bikini lines
or hairy faces as women so the next best
option to cure this
is laser hair removal so the reason why
laser hair removal
cures this is because it destroys the
hair follicle
it actually prevents the hair from
growing back
or it will kind of damage it so that the
hair that does grow back is kind of like
a really thin
peach fuzz hair like baby hairs so that
kind of hair is just so soft it can't
really penetrate the skin in the same
way
and the problem with the ingrowing hairs
is resolved
now for many people laser hair removal
you know might be out of the question
it's expensive you need
more than one session and that's because
the laser actually
targets hair that are in the growing
phase of the hair cycle
so at any one time a certain proportion
of your hair will be in the growing
phase
laser hair removal will reduce those
hairs but for the other hairs that are
in the resting phase
it won't work for those so the way that
lasers work is that they target the
melanin that's in the bulb region of the
hair follicle
and they destroy the follicle so that
the hair doesn't grow back or is
less able to grow back this means that
the ideal candidate for
laser hair removal is actually somebody
who's got fair skin
and dark hair because there's a really
good contrast between
the target for the laser and the rest of
the skin but in skin of color
there's more melanin in the skin so the
laser can get confused and it can try to
target
the melanin that's in the hair follicle
but by accident it can also target the
melanin that's in the surrounding skin
and this is why
certain lasers are not good for black
skin and they can cause problems with
burns
scarring and hyperpigmentation it
doesn't mean that women with skin of
color can't have laser hair removal or
can't have treatments with lasers if
you're interested to learn more about
lasers in general how they work and also
which lasers are safe
for skin of color then comment down
below and i'll happily do a video about
this too
okay so let's say neither of those
options are for you
you're like there's no way i'm stepping
out of my house
without waxing or shaving and there's no
way that i'm spending
x amount of pounds or whatever your
currency is
on laser hair removal so what other
options have you got chemical depilatory
cream
so these hair removal creams they're
less likely to cause ingrowing hairs so
they work by
breaking the disulfide bonds between the
hair shaft and they
basically weaken and soften the hair you
might have noticed if you've used them
before that when you wipe
off the cream the hair almost it's
almost like it's frazzled
or melted and it comes off really easily
when you remove hair in this way
the tip of the hair is blunt or
sometimes it's even feathered when it
grows back so because it's so weak
it just cannot penetrate the skin in
order to cause ingrowing hairs
but one of the downsides of using these
creams is that they can be
really irritating on the skin and for
skin of color they can actually cause
hyperpigmentation i know from personal
experience that whenever
i use these creams on my underarms i
would get
hyper pigmentation of my underarms and
that usually lasts several weeks i often
get questions about these devices that
are sold
as home laser treatments and whether you
can use those and whether they prevent
ingrowing hairs
so you can use those and some women do
find that they actually help
reduce the amount of ingrowing hair but
because the output from them is
obviously
not as strong as having a laser
treatment in a clinic
they're not going to be as effective
make sure that you check
that they are suitable for your skin
type and for your hair as i mentioned
before
for those of you who are like well i'm
really happy with shaving
i get good results but i just want to
know how to reduce the ingrown hairs my
recommended skincare routine or hair
removal
is before you shake pre-soak the area so
this means
shave after you've had a shower or a
warm bath
so that the hair has actually absorbed
the water and has had a chance to swell
this means that when you actually shave
you'll be creating a blunt edge
and not a sharp edge to the hair which
increases the chances of the hair
piercing the skin and being in growing
and i know that some of you will be like
uh
i'm about to head out of the door and
i've just noticed that i've got hairy
underarms i'm not getting in the shower
that's fine
all you have to do is just soak a towel
or like a face cloth
in warm water and just hold it on your
underarms for about
three to four minutes just enough for
that hair shaft to get soft
and then you can shave as i've explained
for waxing
i prefer the opposite so wax before you
have a shower
but also avoid moisturizers on your skin
so that the wax can really grip to the
head
when you're shaving use a shaving cream
or you can use
like a gentle cleanser because this
helps with the slippage it helps to
reduce the friction it helps to reduce
irritation when you're shaving and it
also helps to reduce
the chances of getting tiny cuts and
nicks on the skin which can actually
promote hyperpigmentation
whilst you're shaving avoid kind of
stretching the skin and pulling it taut
this is because when you let go of that
skin
that hair that you've just shaved
retracts back into the hair follicle
and if you're somebody who's prone to
having ingrown hairs then when this
tries to grow
it could actually end up growing inside
the follicle
as an ingrowing hair after you've shaved
or wax
use a moisturizer that's bland and that
doesn't have perfume because shaving and
waxing is likely to have caused tiny
cuts
and irritation to the skin using
glycolic acid
on the skin as a moisturizer can help
with ingrown hairs
but definitely i wouldn't do it after
shaving or waxing because remember that
you're going to have done
a physical exfoliation just by shaving
i would wait sort of three to four days
before you start using a moisturizer
that contains glycolic acid in
also before having your wax you can use
paracetamol and antihistamines
30 to 45 minutes beforehand which will
help you with any pain and also that
itchy
red rash that you can get immediately
afterwards there are other ways that we
can treat ingrown hairs as well
so if you see the ingrowing hair and you
can almost like see the loop
you can if you're really careful just
pass a sterilized
needle you know just clean it with an
alcohol swab or you can
use a sterilized toothpick just to lift
up that hair you have to be really
careful though because you don't want to
be poking anything into the skin you
just literally want to catch the hair
and lift it out
and that can sometimes be enough to stop
the irritation if you're going to opt
for
in clinic treatments chemical peels
containing
salicylic acid or alpha hydroxy acids
can also be helpful because they
exfoliate the skin
that's trapping the hairs try and also
avoid using
products that contain perfumes or
alcohol these will definitely
irritate your skin when you've just
shaved or waxed the area
if the ingrown hairs are causing you a
lot of inflammation and redness
you can buy over-the-counter
hydrocortisone which is a weak
steroid so one percent hydrocortisone
and you can use that as a spot treatment
on each of those individual spots or if
you've got an area
you can just apply a really thin layer
to the pubic region or the underarms and
it just helps to calm that inflammation
and the redness
and the discomfort because ingrowing
hairs affects
the hair follicle you can actually use
treatments that we would use to treat
acne
so benzyl peroxide for example has
really good
antibacterial or antimicrobial activity
so it can be helpful for treating
ingrown hairs
especially if you're getting kind of
inflammation
in that region and also tretinoin which
is a topical vitamin a
derivative can also be useful because it
helps to exfoliate
the dead skin cells that can be trapping
the hair if there is a lot of
inflammation
associated with the ingrowing hair and
it also looks like there's infection
there
then we sometimes have to go down the
route of oral antibiotics
to help to clear that infection there is
a prescription medication that's
available
and it works by slowing the rate of hair
growth
so certain women find it really useful
so for example if you use the cream and
you also
use laser hair removal or if you use the
cream with other forms of hair removal
so i hope that i've covered everything
and that you found that video useful
if you have please share it and of
course if you've got any questions or
you want to share your
experiences jump in the comments section
below and let's have a chat about