whiteheads

Exploring Whiteheads and Blackheads

Acne develops on the hair follicles that have sebaceous glands attached to them. These glands produce an oil called sebum. The excessive sebum secretion blocks the skin pore and cause blackheads and whiteheads, which are also called as comedone (a pore clogged with sebum and dead skin cells).

An open comedone is called a blackhead because of its blackish appearance. A blocked comedone is called whitehead, which is a small bump in the skin with skin like color. A whitehead has closed mouth and the blackhead has an open mouth. Comedone prevent dead skin cells from shedding off and eventually increase the risk of bacterial infection

Get Rid of Whiteheads and Blackheads

- First warning: Don’t just squeeze them, as you can leave permanent scars and infection.

- Keep your skin clean. Wash it using oil-free products twice a day. Make sure you cleanse, tone and exfoliate your skin regularly with quality acne skin care products

- If you have dry skin, use oil-free moisturizers.

- Keep your hands off your face, your hands might contain bacteria. Make sure your hands clean when you touch your face.

- Choose your skin products and make up carefully

What You Can Do at Home

- Have a bowl of boiling water and just cover your head with a towel. Heat will open up your facial pores, which will help it respond better to the facial it will receive.

- You can combine 6 teaspoons of porridge together with 3 teaspoons of honey. Put it on your dirt-free face. You can let it stay for 20 minutes on your face. Rinse off with tepid water not hot. This helps to prevent dirt from gathering in the pores.

- Wrap your fingernails with a clean tissue, and get the whitehead or blackhead between your wrapped nails, press on the surrounding skin. If it is prepared to be extracted, it will come out easily. If it isn’t, pass on that one and move on to another. Besides avoiding your nails to scratch your skin, the tissue over your nails also traps the dirt that comes out.

You can use a lancet for alternative, as it already creates a canal for the infected dirt to come out. But you can only use it once, just discard one after being used, unless it is able to be cleaned and boiled to remove germs.

Topical Medications

- Benzoyl Peroxide: anti-bacterial ingredient that heals any existing whitehead and prevent future breakouts.

- Salicylic Acid: some topical medications for whiteheads contain this ingredient, which helps shed off some of the dead skin cells.

- Tretonoin: it enhances cell renewal for a healthier-looking skin.

(*Summary about Whiteheads by Jacquie Generra and Casey Gentles)