Ingrown Hairs

These unsightly and painful ingrown hairs are come in both men and women particularly in the face (for men) and the bikini area (for women).

An ingrown hair is nothing more than a hair that has gotten trapped into the hair follicle or grown down back into the skin as a pose to growing upward.  How do you get ingrown hairs? Ingrown hairs come from improper shaving, shaving to close to the skin, cut, dull blades, and irritation from going over the same area too many times.

Preventing Ingrown Hairs:

1. Using proper shaving techniques will help lessen your chances of ingrown hairs.  I know most people have no clue what I'm talking about when I say proper shaving techniques, but there is one and it's really simple.  Just like with waxing, you want to shave against the direction of hair growth.  For example: If you take a look at the hair on your legs, you will notice that more than likely the hair is growing downward.  Instead of shaving downward like your hair growth.  You need to take your razor and shave upward using light smooth strokes. 
2. Having a good shaving cream that is moisturizing and has salicylic acid in it will help has well.  Salicylic acid is an exfoliating product that opens up pores and will help free up any trapped hairs.
3. Exfoliating one to two days after shaving will remove any dead skin cells, soften skin, and open those pores to allow the skin and hair to breath and grow in an upward position.  Notice, I said to exfoliate one to two days after shaving, and the reason being is because any type of hair removal is a form of exfoliation.  You don't want to over exfoliate the skin.  Besides, using a sugar or salt scrub right after a fresh shave may cause irritation, burning, redness, and or light swelling. 
4. Always use a brand new blade or razor.  When using a dull razor you may have to go over an area more than once and you may have to shave closer to the skin which are two things you want to stay away from.

Products to help get rid of Ingrown Hairs:

• Tea Tree Oil is a wonderful product for ingrown hairs because not only does it tones the skin leaving it feeling refreshed, but it is also an antiseptic with anti-fungal properties.
• Pure salicylic acid.  Again this exfoliating product will open up pores and help free up any trapped ingrown hairs. 
• Witch Hazel is just like tea tree oil in the sense that it is an antiseptic and will help rid your skin of any bacteria.  
• Sugar or Salt scrubs are great exfoliants for ingrown hairs.  They open the pores, remove dead skin cells and leave skin feeling soft as a babies bottom.  
• Gently tweezing ingrown hairs out and then treating with any tea tree oil, salicylic acid, witch hazel, or sugar scrub will give you great results as well. 

Note: Stay away from alcohol when dealing with ingrown hairs.  While alcohol will dry up the bump, it won't get rid of the hair or probably.  What alcohol will do to an ingrown hair is cause the hair to only get trapped deeper into the skin by drying out the bump.