How To Remove Inner Hair Growth

Ingrown hairs cause red, frequently itchy bumps where a hair has grown back into the skin. There are things you can do to treat and prevent them and in most cases you will non demand to a run across a GP for treatment.

Check if you take ingrown hair

Close up on red ingrown hairs on a man's neck and chin

Ingrown hairs can await like raised, red, itchy spots on the skin. Sometimes yous can meet a pilus trapped under the skin.

You may be more likely to get ingrown hairs if you take fibroid or curly hair.

An infected ingrown hair with pus at it centre

Infected ingrown hairs can exist painful. You lot may run across pus in the spots.

Y'all are more than likely to get ingrown hairs in areas yous shave, such as:

confront and cervix
legs
armpits
chest
back
your pubic hair

Waxing, plucking and threading hair tin also lead to ingrown hairs.

If yous're not sure it'southward ingrown hair, detect out more most other common skin atmospheric condition.

Things you can do to treat and preclude ingrown pilus

The all-time way to forestall ingrown hairs is past not shaving.

If you lot want to shave, or remove pilus in another manner, at that place are things you can do to forestall ingrown hairs and help them get ameliorate quicker.

Do

wet your peel with warm water and use shaving gel
shave in the direction the hairs are growing
utilize as few strokes of the razor as possible
rinse the razor subsequently every stroke
concur a cool, wet cloth to your skin after shaving to reduce irritation
use an exfoliating scrub to help release whatever trapped hairs
try a different hair removal method, such as hair removal cream
try a long-term fashion of removing hair, such as light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation handling

Don't

exercise not shave as well close – leaving some stubble tin cease bacteria getting in
do non use a blunt razor – use a new, abrupt, single-blade razor every time you shave
exercise not scratch, option or squeeze ingrown hairs equally this can harm your skin and lead to infection

You can enquire a pharmacist about:

creams and lotions to help itching
shaving and hair removal products to help prevent irritation
exfoliating products to help foreclose ingrown hairs
a mild clarified to help prevent infection

Find a pharmacy

Non-urgent advice: See a GP if:

the ingrown hair or area around it is very painful, hot, red or swollen
your temperature is very loftier, or yous feel hot, shivery or very unwell

Data:

Coronavirus (COVID-xix) update: how to contact a GP

It's still important to get assistance from a GP if you demand it. To contact your GP surgery:

visit their website
apply the NHS App
call them

Find out nigh using the NHS during COVID-19

Treatment from a GP

A GP may be able to treat ingrown hairs by:

freeing the hair using a sterile needle or blade (scalpel)
prescribing a steroid cream to assist swelling and irritation
prescribing antibiotic cream or tablets to treat an infection

Folio last reviewed: 07 August 2019
Adjacent review due: 07 August 2022