Ingrown hairs

my brother just told me he has an obsession to get ingrown hairs out of his face and has admitted to me he has had a problem with it for about 14 years, its purely a personally problem and has nothing to do with vanity but i noticed a few small scares on his face and im afraid if he doesn't go to maybe an expert that he will seriously scar himself. he admits its an obsession and he would rather stay in and get an ingrown hair out of his face than go on a night out.

I had terribly painful, persistent, unsightly ingrown hairs on my Brazilian bikini line. I tried removing them myself with a sterilized needle, tweezers, alcohol and Triple Antibiotic ointment. After several visits to the Dr. due to Folliculitis, which had progressed to Impetigo, my Gynecologist recommended Laser hair removal. I found a package deal through "Groupon": 6 sessions for $200.00. Laser hair removal has changed my life! I went from 15 plus ingrown hairs per month to only 2 very minor ingrown hairs in the last two months! No more skin infections, painful abscesses from Impetigo, weeks of antibiotics and unsightly scars! I spent well over $200.00 on Dr. visits and antibiotics without success. YAG Laser hair removal has not only remedied my ingrown hair debacle, it has also reduced the amount of hair in my bikini area by 80% after only 3 sessions, which my makes my hubby very happy!

Hi, I had a similar problem, but I had at least 10-15 hairs on my chin that would do this. I was so frustrated. I finally went and got electrolysis. A very inexpensive way to remove a small amount of unwanted hairs and in your case only one. It will take 4-10 treatments as every time you pluck your hair, the roots curls more and more with each pluck. Electrolysis gives the root a zap and with each zap the root uncurls more and more until it becomes straight and can be removed forever. Hope this helps All my hairs are gone Natalia 44 years old

I had ingrown hairs from shaving long before I started having this picking OCD. They would usually happen on the back of my thighs, and bikini area, and left nasty dark brown spots that never seemed to fade. I haven't worn shorts in years, which makes me sad because my boyfriend is always suggesting that I get a cute pair of shorts, saying I have nice legs. Like zit-popping, there is something so disgustingly satisfying about digging out a long ingrown hair. But It got to the point where the areas were so scarred, that the hair couldn't push through the skin anymore, leading to even more intense, bloody, painful digging, with pins and x-acto blades. I'd given up on having nice legs, but I expanded the picking to anywhere there was hair on my body. I have fairly light skin, and dark hair, so even after a close shave, you can still see the shadow of the hair follicle under the skin. Obsessed, I would sit folded in half and tweeze out each and every hair on my legs, which worked, until it grew back again. Some hairs, like around my nipples, I could squeeze out with my fingernails, but now they're all scarred, too. Obviously, the underlying cause of this is a mental disorder of some sort, but I am doing better with it now, determined to fix the damage and break the habit similarly to the way I quit biting my fingernails- I would carefully manicure and paint my nails, and they ended up looking so nice, I didn't want to ruin them by chewing. So, I am doing a skin care regimen to improve my skin, to discourage picking at it and making it ugly. Here's some of the things I've been doing that are helping: Keep shaving to a minimum. I know none of us wants to look like some hairy hippie sasquatch, or have a Demi Moore-style "hair diaper" thing going on, but if the hair is grown out, it is much less likely to be ingrown. My boyfriend would prefer a nice, smooth, Brazillian look down there on me, but I feel having a short amount of hair down there is preferable to a gross, red, bumpy, pus-y mess. I use a men's beard grooming electric razor to trim it down to a short length. I take a long hot bath, then shave. The more blades on the razor, the better- fewer passes means less irritation, and the bath softens the hairs and makes shaving more comfortable. I love King Of Shaves shaving gel, with the antibacterial Triclosan. Plus, you can see the hairs through the gel, so you can make sure to get them all. I avoid shaving creams like Aveeno with soy, which makes your hairs grow back thinner and finer, because the hairs aren't stiff enough to break through the skin's surface. Like everyone else says, exfoliating is necessary. I use Neutrogena Pink Grapefruit body wash, 2% salicylic acid, with a loofah, going over every bit of skin with a clockwise, then counter clockwise scrubbing motion, sometimes I use the scrubby side of an ordinary dish washing sponge, I wouldn't recommend this for everyone; you can easily scrub your skin raw! But whatever you use, I recommend disinfecting it from time to time by tossing the loofah or scrubby in a pot of boiling water, and boiling it for a minute. This will help kill bacteria that may grow on it it a warm, wet, bathroom environment. After the salicylic acid wash, I wash my whole body again with a 10% benzoyl peroxide wash. Usually I use a formula made for facial skin, because it can be hard to find a benzoyl peroxide body wash. I let the suds sit on my skin for a few minutes, then rinse. I towel off with one of those quick-drying towels- they don't absorb water very well, so you'll still be a bit damp, but I like that, so there's a bit of moisture left on my skin to seal in with moisturizer, and the fast-dry towel discourages bacteria from growing on the damp towel. Before moisturizing, I spray my whole body with Neutrogena's Body Clear spray. It's only 0.5% salicylic acid, but the spray pump works upside down, so it's easy to get your back and shoulders and such. I use a moisturizer with 15 SPF sunscreen, to prevent the sun from making the dark spots darker. Check the bottle to make sure it is "non-comedogenic". I find that a 15 to 30 SPF formula goes on smoothest, and is less likely to leave that nasty white film on your skin. If there are any cuts or inflamed areas, I put some Neosporin and 1% hydrocortisone cream on them to calm the skin down. My friends make fun of me for obsessing about sunscreen, since I'm half white/African American, but I am rather light skinned, and I have noticed a significant lightening of the dark spots using sunscreen religiously for the past 3 years. I fear the sun like a vampire, and it works. As far as lightening creams, I've heard kojic extract, licorice, and hydroquinone are helpful, but I've heard some unpleasant things about hydroquinone, esp. in high concentrations. I'm currently using Clinique's Even Better Dark Spot Minimizer on my chest and legs, where the dark spots are worst. It's for your face, so it comes in a small tube and is a bit pricy to use all over your body at around $40-ish a tube, but I've noticed some improvement on my chest area. Another favorite product of mine is Dermablend body concealer- its thick, covers well and blends in nicely, and since it's made for legs and body, it comes in a large tube. It's around $40, and I bought mine at Ulta Beauty. You may want to powder over the areas you've applied it to afterward, to keep it from smearing. It totally will get on your clothing if you're not careful, but it will wash out easily from most clothes (I wouldn't recommend anything white, though). Keeping your skin moisturized constantly is a big help- it helps the hairs penetrate your skin's surface easier, plus, it makes your skin look and feel nice, which helps me avoid picking at it. I sometimes mix a drop of Neutrogena's 2.5% benzoyl peroxide facial acne cream in with a blob of moisturizer, and apply it to problem areas, like my bikini line. If your skin can tolerate it, it helps kill bacteria and prevent those unpleasant pus-filled ingrown hair bumps. I bought a Tria home hair-removal laser used on eBay ( I wiped it down with alcohol first). It was $250 off the retail price, which was nice because they go for around $600, but I would not recommend buying a used Tria because they only have so many "zaps" built in, and there is no replacement "zap" cartridge or anything you can buy for it, so once you've used up all the "zaps", its useless, and you toss it in the trash. It takes months to kill the hair, and I'm not seeing any noticeable improvement so far, and laser is not completely permanent. But since you do it at home, it's much cheaper and less embarrassing than having a derm look at your junk. Another issue with it is since the laser targets dark pigments, it only works for people with dark hair and light skin. I'm very nervous to use it on areas with significant dark spots, because it can also target the dark pigment of the scars, and damage the skin further. I guess my only way around that is to get electrolysis in those places, and keep using lightening creams to increase the contrast between the hair and the surrounding skin. I try my best to get rid of all the pins and x-acto blades, to avoid temptation to pick. Another thing that helped is to change the light bulbs in my bathroom (or where ever you do your picking) to a soft or warm light bulb, rather than a bright, daylight type. I can't see every teensy tiny hair beneath my skin now, which helps me not to pick. Got rid of the magnifying mirror, too, for the same reason. I am saving up to see a derm and have professional electrolysis or laser treatments, but it is rather expensive. They tend to have special deals, like "buy one area, get another area free" from time to time, so you can keep an eye out in your local paper, radio ads, and Groupon. A therapist may be able to help you work out some issues on why you pick, and a friend of mine saw a hypnotist and an acupuncturist for her acne picking problem, and it has seemed to help her a lot. There's lots of ways to work on this issue, I hope sharing some of what has worked for me can help give others some ideas to try for themselves, and let them know that they are not the only ones that suffer with this. Thank goodness for the internet- before Google and web forums, I felt so alone and ashamed about this problem, and it's so relieving to hear other people's stories and advice about it. Cheers, and good luck to you all!

I used to have bad acne from around age 16 to age 18. I eventually grew out of it but I am 21 now and I now have bad ingrown hairs on my face. Its weird because I have been growing facial hair since I was around 17 and never had the problem until about a year ago. I have been picking at my face taking the hairs out one by one almost ever day. Its all over my cheeks and under my neck. It is getting really annoying now lol. Its like I never had the chance to see how good I could look as an adult without shit on my face since I used to have acne and now I have ingrown hairs and I dont know how long this phase will last for. I may try to use hair removal creams hoping my face will react well to them. I do not want to grow out my beard, but I might have to for the time being right? :(.

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Jill- Are you still there? I have this same problem, have not been able to find it anywhere on the internet, and would (desperately) want to sync up with you. Please let me know!!

My ingrowns started 3 years ago was not bad at all until about a year ago it's now out of control on my chin. It hurts so bad no matter what I do.

I'm 31 and haveyhe same problem which is why i am a compulsive picker.I see a bump which is a hair it's red and ofcourse. I dig and dig at it compulsivly. Until I have a deep hole on my face and under my chin.I wish I could afford to get the hair removed. But I'm making a conscious effort to stop my skin picking

If you can afford it, I'd recommend electrolysis for sure.

I've been getting electrolysis which is helping some. If you go for electrolysis make sure its galvanic electrolysis and not thermolysis (which uses heat and doesn't help with ingrowns much). I do find I pick somewhat at the treated areas as the treatment can leave little scabs. I've also found I pick at the treated areas as sometimes while healing it will look like a hair is ingrown and really its just the skin healing :( But in the long term I think having the hair gone will significantly reduce ingrowns and desire to pick these areas.

It's been a very long time since I have been to this forum! I wanted to say that the best thing I did for my skin picking was getting a divorce!! I had no clue that my stressful marriage was causing my constant picking!! It literally stopped about three months of living single. I definitely still get ingrown hairs in my chin but I don't dig at them anymore. I use a facial scrub and a salicylic acid and it really helps. Occasionally I get a thicker hair that can't break my scarred skin so the tweezers have to be used but if I can't get it out, I am finally able to resist the picking and let the hair grow long enough to pluck it out. Unfortunately I damaged my skin so severely that it still looks bad. Especially in pictures when a flash is used. I decided to come back to this forum to share my experience and tell everyone to see if there is an underlying issue that could possible trigger your digging obsession like I had!!!