Ingrown hair , why you get them and how to avoid
Brazilian and Hollywood hair-removal treatments are probably the most requested treatments in our sugaring studios. If you like it a bit of hairy (triangle, landing strip, post stamp, or perhaps an initial or a love heart) but tidy you probably opt for the Brazilian. “No hair don’t care” ? That’s a “Hollywood”. For our gents we offer various Manscaping services. How come that 95% of people post shaving or traditional waxing have ingrown hair varying from mild to so many that the pubic bone is completely covered?
What is an ingrown hair?
An ingrown hair is a hair trapped underneath the skin.
Causes of ingrown hair
Breakage : Imagine you are a hair and you get removed with traditional wax against the direction of hair-growth. You, being a hair, need to bend backwards quite a bit. This bending backwards of the hair can cause trauma on the hair resulting in a hair that is snapped off instead of being pulled out gently from the root. Hair that is broken off can easily curl back inside resulting in an ingrown.
Exercise : At Sugaring London we tell you not to exercise up to 48 hours post sugaring. Give your skin a little respect and let the follicle shrink again to its original sizes before partaking in any form of exercise. This can take up to 48 hours (then you can do whatever you want again). If you don’t, you risk that bacteria who normally sit on top of your skin have a little party, and sweat will push and slide them into your clean pores, resulting in…ingrown hair. Bacteria and sweat immediately post hair-removal treatments are a BIG cause for ingrown hair. Feeling the love ? Have a HOT date planned? Great! Just make sure to get sugared ideally no later than 48 hours before your treatment!
Picking : We have a lot of first time sugaring clients who tell us how upset they are about ingrowns. When we ask if they “pick” they say yes. Some even say their waxing therapists removes ingrown hair with finger nails or tweezers… OMG! Now look at your skin, you see an ingrown hair. You pick and two appear. How does this happen you may wonder? Similar to the above. If you pick with your hands or tweezers that are not professionally sanitised bacteria will spread often resulting in inflammation of thee follicle. You might have seen it before: a big red spot with puss on your lady garden or manhood. Not great. So avoid picking at all cost.
How to treat:
Ingrown hair can be treated with good sugaring. The reason why we say “good” sugaring is that there also is bad sugaring out there. One of the secrets of good sugaring is to always follow the direction of hair growth when removing the unwanted hair. To remove hair in the direction of hair growth is key to positively glowing skin free of ingrown hair. How does sugaring paste treat ingrown hair ? More will be revealed in our next blog.