Blackheads develop when sebum oil excreted from glands within your pores gets stuck in the pore itself, creating a blockage. This forces oil in the blockage up the surface, where it comes in contact with oxygen in the air and oxidizes, turning a black color that gives blackheads their name. Many times, blackheads can be widespread on the skin. If you're lucky and only have one blackhead to worry about, you've got a light work load in front of you, although you still need to go through a procedure to enable you to remove the blackhead without damaging your skin.
Step 1
Apply a warm compress to your skin using a washcloth soaked in warm water. This helps open up the pore, making it easier to extract the blockage from your skin. Hold the compress onto the skin for five to 10 minutes.
Step 2
Apply a blackhead strip over the blackhead and wait five to 10 minutes for the strip to adhere to the skin. If you are only using the blackhead strip to remove one blackhead, this can be an inefficient use of a strip, but it may effectively remove at least the visible top portion of the blackhead. If you prefer to wait until later to try the strip, simply dry your face completely and re-moisten the skin prior to applying the strip to your wet skin. Once the strip has adhered completely to the skin, remove it. In most cases, the top part of the blackhead will come out, and in some cases the entire blackhead can be removed, solving your problem.
Step 3
Wash your hands, then press gently on your warm skin with your two index fingers. Use the pads alone when squeezing--do not use the fingernails. If you can't squeeze the blackhead out of your skin after one or two tries, stop squeezing the skin--you may only cause damage to the skin, as well as causing a visible bruise.
Step 4
Apply benzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid to break down the oil still lodged inside your pore. Use these topical treatments once or twice daily to remove the blackhead completely.
Tips and Warnings
- If you can't remove the blackhead at home, visit a dermatologist to have it removed, either through a microdermabrasion treatment or by using a blackhead extractor to pull the entire blackhead out of the skin. While costly solutions, these treatments are all but guaranteed to work.
Things You'll Need
- Washcloth
- Blackhead strip (optional)
- Benzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid
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