How do you prevent ingrown hairs? Honestly, there’s no 100% surefire way to stop ingrown hairs from growing, but I’m going to go over a few key points that will definitely help decrease the chances of them showing up! You can also view the video below which covers the points, just in video form. 🙂 (make sure you subscribe to Revered Beards too)
How to Prevent Ingrown Hairs
- If you are shaving, shave with the grain, not against it. (as in, don’t shave the opposite way your hair grows, shave the same direction it goes) This helps avoid shaving too close to the skin so hairs won’t get caught in the folicle or underneath your skin, causing the ingrown hair.
- After shaving, take a cold, wet towel and exfoliate any where you have shaved. I know it may be freezing, but I’ve done this for years and have never had an ingrown hair where I regularly shave.
- When you do shave, make sure you are using a good razor, not some rusty piece of shrapnel that you found in the back of the cabinet. That’s a recipe for disaster in many ways.
- So what if you don’t shave and you get ingrown hairs in your beard? Well there are a few options for you as well! One option is a beard/skin exfoliating brush. I will link one here from Amazon that I have. I don’t use it too often, but it exfoliates the skin and definitely can help prevent the occurrence of ingrown hairs in your beard.
- Wash your beard regularly. I suggest getting a good beard wash and conditioner (check out this one on Amazon). When washing your beard, I would scrub somewhat vigorously. None of this gentle running of the hands through your beard. You need to be deliberate and try to really work the wash in and in turn also exfoliate your skin.
Basically exfoliation is key here. Making sure that if hairs do get caught under the skin, they get set loose whenever you exfoliate whether by a brush, a towel, or your hands.
Now like I mentioned, there is no foolproof way to prevent ingrown hairs. They still might happen, so what now? Well, don’t panic and you might have to be a little patient.
- Don’t try popping it like a pimple. Sometimes this does work, but many times you just end up brusing your face or inflaming the area around the ingrown hair.
- Use tweezers. If you can see the hair sticking out at all, get a good pair of tweezers and try to remove it.
- If there is any wound open area after removing (because if that hair has been in there for awhile, it has made quite the space…) make sure you keep it clean and treat it with an antibiotic ointment or coliquial silver (we like to use Silver Shield, Amazon Link).
- If it’s really bad, you may need to see a specialist. The last thing you want to do is scratch your skin open, get infected, and have a real issue on your hands.
Everyone is different and some people get ingrown hairs more than others, but if you follow the steps highlighted above, you should be able to decrease the chances of those nasty ingrown hairs happening.
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